urbanMSP

Highest and best use: food truck corral.

I'm sorry, but the notion that the sloped wall on the south side of the Midtown trench is somehow sacrosanct makes a parody of historic preservation.

Just because something is old does not give it intrinsic veto power over any subsequent improvement.

I think that the obvious end result is that the project encompass a rebuild of the entire floor of the trench, with an integrated design of rail, bicycle, and landscaping. Plenty of examples of this kind of idea out there (including a similar approach on Washington Ave through the University of Minn...

The bike/pedestrian trail is only 12’ wide? That does not seem wide enough for both bikes and pedestrians. Why can’t they squeeze some space out of the 15’ northbound lane and the 6’-8” boulevard to get the trail closer to 14’ or 15’?

Because St. Paul

Too much to hope for the two renovations to get underway and then the parking ramp falls through...? Serious comment: this is really ambitious. Because each building seems somewhat reliant on the others for the full suite of amenities, I imagine they will have to launch them somewhat concurrently. T...

I guess I don't understand push back on this. Is this replacing the old white office building across from the dealership? I don't see how this would adversely affect the neighborhood.

There's nothing to understand, it's reflexive.

I do not disagree with this, and that is why I would prefer to be as precise as possible with terms. Because the distinction between dedicated ROW and non-dedicated ROW is one of the most important that exists for any transit service, it's a natural place to draw a line. It is true that San Francis...

I see your point, Alex, but it’s not always just about logic and money. I was just watching the movie “Why We Cycle”, and a really funny thing stuck out. A city put in all these nice, logical, wide, comfortable bikeways, but they found people still rode their bikes through the city on more dangerou...

If you want to argue semantics about whether adding circumferential routes makes it a grid, that's a fun conversation I'll let you have on your own. A true grid in the way you're describing might make sense in a world where we were running 5 minute headways on every single route. But that's just ne...

Most other US streetcars suck because they implement little or no priority measures, operate in cities that have weak transit systems, and circulate low-population downtown areas. The Nicollet-Central streetcar as currently envisionsed is too short to be successful, but a longer one would take the ...

No, that's definitely not what he was saying. You can't have it both ways. If you're arguing for a hub and spoke system with circumferential routes that allow connections, you're arguing for a polar grid. That's still very much a grid. The statement "grids are inherently inefficient" is o...

The scale and mix of uses is just fine for this site, but it's overparked as per usual in St. Paul. If I had more confidence that this proposed parking would be shared and used to support less parking at other locations on the superblock, I'd feel better about it. I assume that almost every develop...

It's a good example of a situation where less is more. The right approach is a "shared space" approach, where the street is closed or slowed to a safe speed, and then people are left to figure it out on their own. Unfortunately that's not a vocabulary that we come by easily in the United S...

Grids are inherently inefficient. You want a hub and spoke system. What we're missing is a couple radial lines to allow moving from one spoke to another spoke without going all the way in to the hub.

So what you're saying is: a hub and spoke system is good, so long as it's a grid.

Just curious if anyone's seen any documents or plans around how bus service will change when this thing finally opens. I'm hoping we'll see high-frequency feeder buses serving the stops in St. Louis Park and Hopkins, but that area is not at all conducive to direct routes because of highways, railro...

The scale and mix of uses is just fine for this site, but it's overparked as per usual in St. Paul. If I had more confidence that this proposed parking would be shared and used to support less parking at other locations on the superblock, I'd feel better about it.

Horrifyingly, Minneapolis is probably in a much better position than other big cites.

Losing that sales tax revenue is a huge hit, but it's even worse when you take a plurality or more of your budget from sales taxes. Minneapolis' forecasted shortfall of 7-15% is rough, but it could be worse.

I'm thrilled to see an observation tower in the plans.

Every park should have a structure like an NPS fire lookout, where you can get above the tree line and look around.

A five story, thirty-six unit, zero resident parking , building has been proposed for 1626 E Lake Street—across the street from Panaderia San Miguel, across the street and down the block from Ingebretsen's, and a half mile from the East Lake Station. The site has been vacant since the Gustavus II Ad...

The Park Board has submitted an Planning Commission application to construct the overlook at the river's edge of N 26th Street. Here is the packet . To comply with the shoreland overlay [rolls eyes], the "beacon" part of the overlook design will be reduced in height from 50' to 35'. Who th...