urbanMSP

The Jasmine Orchid and the First Care Pregnancy center in the U of MN Physicians Building (Stadium Village) have closed and will reopen as a Great Schezuan Chinese restaurant. Really really sad to see the Orchid go, as it was the only Thai restaurant in the area (and was very good).

This semester, I am planning on composing a detailed case study and research paper on the effects of permanent road closures in urban areas. My local case is obviously the potential closure of Portland & Park within the Yard. I'm hopeful to find some pretty information that might be useful going...

That corner lot is my personal #1 on the priority list of Dinkytown redevelopment. The lot is fairly used, but I would assume most of Drunkdonalds traffic comes from (gasp) foot traffic and drive-thrus. I think just taking out the expanded lot and leaving the curb cut on 15th would be supported by m...

Not sure if anyone saw this in the *BAM* front cover of the Daily today, but this could be a game changer. http://www.mndaily.com/news/campus/2013/09/19/doran-weighs-dinkytown-hotel The biggest problem I have with this (and I would assume others would too) is the hotel would have no ground-floor ret...

Not sure if this belongs in the U of MN category or general Minneapolis category, but I will let Nick decide that. Anyways... the old iconic Bunge Mill is up for a cool development, according to the daily - http://www.mndaily.com/city/business/2013/09/12/bunge-could-become-climbing-gym This would be...

Partially related - does anybody have any information how deep Bassett Creek lies underneath this area? I am not sure where it runs specifically, but I remember hearing somewhere that it is buried near the hypothetical intersection of 4th Street and 8th Ave N.

Matt, I know I am behind this whole discussion, but thank you again for coming on here and speaking your points. At this point, it would be nice to truly collaborate to help with the SAP or something now that the moratorium is shot. It sounds like many of the problems you experienced with Opus speci...

I am kind of glad it is going to be called The Marshall for a shout out to the old high school, rather than naming a jazzy luxury-affiliated name like the Spunk, the Flash, the Swoosh, or something related to being drunk in college.

Also, a nice shout out to the character from How I Met Your Mother.

Here is my beef on it through an urbanist standpoint - The Opus development ADDED streetlife to an essentially non-existent section of Dinkytown. This project REPLACES an already good land use, as well as a classic streetcar-style building (although the coffee shop facade could be better). Also, thi...

I am at about the same point. They definitely missed a great opportunity to open up 13th. Think about if they just created the 1-block extension and put retail facing it! Still though, I have to say that the townhouses+density+overall design+grocery store will be the best thing to happen to Dinkytow...

I was reading through this thread, and it looked like sometime around May the sentiment of the project turned towards the positive. Many of the comments before the updated BKV renderings seemed very downtrodden. What changed? Was it the Opus project hooplah that basically let this one fly under the ...

I agree with FISHMANPET on the misconception of development. Many of my friends were against the Opus development until they knew that Al's (and even Wally's and Cafe 421) wasn't being touched. A good number of the same crowd actually became supportive of the project after I explained to them what i...

Anyone else notice that they are planning a "Woonerf or shared space" down the old rail corridor?

I can't foresee this location doing poorly. I can't wait for tours of the actual factory to start either.

In a nostalgia rush, those two houses (especially the one that hosts the hair salon) are actually quite charming. I'm not sad to see them go at all, but they are fairly nice and would probably survive easily if they weren't on this very underutilized block.

A little birdie told me a while back that a full size Walgreen's was going to go into this location. At the same time, I don't remember at all who told me that or when it was, so take it with a large, soccer ball-sized grain of salt. I would so so so much rather see the Fresh City Market go into thi...

Another update: The motion is listed as topic #7 in today's Planning Commission meeting.

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/meetings/p ... S1P-112477

Interesting note: The auto shop business put in a request to change the zoning of the adjacent house at 2827 Williams Ave SE to C2. The motion was to be continued in discussion.

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 110083.pdf

Think the Planning Commission/Z&P/City Council would allow for a minimal or no parking requirement variance? I recall Doran having problems with this in the development of the Knoll.