urbanMSP

My assumption for a couple years has been that all office space was going to get hit, but that suburban office space was going to get creamed. So a major downtown anchor deciding to stick around despite a well-publicized flirtation with the suburbs, even if they reduce their overall square footage (...

This project has started construction. I noticed some remarks from Councilmember Rainville celebrating this milestone in his newsletter and in the Strib . I was gratified to see his comments, considering that just two years ago he opposed the project in testimony before the BHIZ committee while a pr...

I'm certainly skeptical that a task force of the same people who have been in positions of influence all along will bring the kind of fresh thinking that downtown needs, but... Next week, Frey is scheduled to announce details about a "vibrant downtown storefront work group" of business and...

I wrote a thread on Twitter about the results of the CPC's 2022 calendar. The key takeaways are: 1. The CPC gave final approvals to 3,836 units of housing this year. That's about average for the past decade. It represents an increase from last year, but still a fairly substantial decrease from the t...

Reviving the conversation about office to residential conversions: The Canadian Pacific Plaza tower has long and narrow floorplates. It was built in 1960 and despite recent renovations is probably not the city's most in-demand office space. Considering the likely merger with KCS, I assume that build...

Xerxes and 56th has been a C Line stop for years, I assume your friend works somewhere other than downtown Minneapolis, because otherwise both the C and the D Lines work for him. If he works south of downtown and misses a D, catching a C will at least bring him downtown where it's more pleasant to t...

Oh, doubling back on this to make one more point: • The METRO D Line’s opening on December 3 will bring more reliable service to the corridor now served by Route 5, our busiest bus route. Largely replacing local bus service with BRT service benefits customers and operators with a minimal impact on o...

Metro Transit has a good explainer on the Rider's Almanac blog about the service cuts and the operator shortage. I suspect most people on here are aware of the problems, but the post helps put some numbers to the issues (they are 300 operators short of running pre-pandemic levels of bus service, and...

So, given that a lot of people are living alone or with one other person in a single family detached house, by what policies do you think 500,000 population is doable? Given that so far ADUs and triplexes have been met with yawns from homeowners and developers alike and there's only so much vacant ...

It's true that household sizes are very different today than they were back then. That being said, I think Minneapolis should have a public policy goal to reach a new peak (or at least 500,000) population. It's a target shoot for that would indicate a pretty significant increase in vitality. One of ...

I've suggested in the past that the I-Line is what we should ultimately call any kind of BRT along the I-94 downtown-downtown alignment. I expect Nicollet will be an F Line extension, not a separate line. Same with Cedar or Bloomington, eventually I expect that will be a C Line extension. That would...

Just spotted this great series of maps on population changes from Jonathan Schroeder of the Minneapolis Population Center. I'm going to share what I think is the key image, because who knows whether that Twitter link is going to last, but I encourage people to check out the full thread if it's avail...

It's true that these types of retail businesses don't want to be downtown... but they do apparently want to be in the North Loop, which is "downtown" in my mental model of the Twin Cities, but a different submarket from the point of view of the consultants. I wish downtown landlords would ...

Time for a Uniqlo.

Explicitly exempting comprehensive plans from MERA would be a nice thing to see. It's important to emphasize that if the current court precedent striking down the Minneapolis 2040 plan is upheld, that's something that every community in the state would need to worry about. It shouldn't be just a cul...

While this is a cool project, it's kind of a bummer that this will preclude any large scale redevelopment of this area. Wouldn't worry about it. (1) It's good to have jobs near transit, (2) these jobs will be making more housing elsewhere possible, (3) there's plenty of nearby lots to redevelop bef...

PSA: With the weather getting cold, this is my reminder to download the Pantograph app so you can see the near-live (updated every 30 seconds) position of your bus or train and their anticipated arrival times. Don't wait unnecessarily. I am constantly surprised by how many people do not use this, an...

The upcoming November 1st City Planning Commission agenda contains two excellent projects from Hennepin County. Both are conversions of hotels into <30% AMI housing. The first project will convert 45 rooms of the former University Inn in Marcy Holmes and the second will convert 55 rooms of the form...

HCMC is proposing an expansion of the existing Purple Ramp to cover the other half of the site, creating a full-block parking structure bounded by 6th and 7th Streets and Park and Portland Avenues. The new ramp would add 1,053 parking spaces to the 1,331 already on the block. The new ramp would have...

The upcoming November 1st City Planning Commission agenda contains two excellent projects from Hennepin County. Both are conversions of hotels into <30% AMI housing. The first project will convert 45 rooms of the former University Inn in Marcy Holmes and the second will convert 55 rooms of the forme...