urbanMSP

This got delayed. For how long the article doesn't say. Will this mean the city misses its opportunity to do this along with the resurfacing?

Yes. There is now very, very little chance of essentially free lanes. Which means the next round of opposition will get to complain about price.

There's a lot of negatives at the moment, but the big positive takeaway I've gotten from tonight is that I'm very, very glad Stark is my councilmember, will happily support him in the election cycle this year, and he is apparently a stronger bike advocate than I realized.

Oh please. Having a skateboarder or bicyclist buzzing you without warning is not the same as people throwing footballs. When I say no skateboards in public places I don't mean ban skateboards. I mean no damaging public property (that means no touching public art) and it means being respectful to ev...

So we ban skateboards, bikes, rollerblades, dogs, frisbees, baseballs and footballs, soccerballs and volleyballs, grills, plastic bags, cutlery sharper than a pool noodle, glass containers, water more than two inches deep, benches and ledges less than two feet high, and walking on the grass (think o...

I don't recall having two children imparting me with any special wisdom or insight. It just made me slightly more paranoid and highlighted how much "you'll understand when you grow up and have kids and understand everything correctly " is condescending heteronormative bullshit. Millennials...

I hate when people bring their kids to a park that doesn't have a play ground. When I go to gold medal park and there are kids screaming, it makes me so mad. That park wasn't designed for kids and I don't pay for it to have noise pollution and ice cream dropped on my sidewalk! Also* people with kid...

If Wario is the bar by which the Twin Cities measures such things, we have a problem.

So the fact that he had to work all the way up to CEO before that happened means nothing? Or how about the community banker who saved Twin Cities Rapid Transit from a convicted fraudster? Or the hotel empire builder that began with a $55 loan and a stamp trading business? Please, spare us the "...

I'm not a fan of drive-thrus, especially in an urban context like this. But I could accept a lane or two if the rest of the development at least met the minimum FAR and reduced the curb cuts to 1 (or, better yet, none). I've spoken with reps from Ryan, and I know that they view the lot size, elevati...

It's worth noting that since the tracks at Snelling are on a bridge and then continue on a ridge towards Ayd Mill, nothing as small as the proposed Starbucks would ever block out a view of them from any angle. So quite the contrary unk, I'd like to see something that blocks out my view of the tracks...

Or - and this might be crazy - something that meets the basic floor area ratio requirement in the zoning. Snelling is a transit corridor, Marshall is a bike corridor. I'm not expecting a modern art museum here. But I am expecting something better than a fast food hut surrounded by asphalt. As to how...

Ryan Companies will be coming to the Union Park District Council soon for support in gaining two variances (drive-thru and FAR) for a tiny one-story Starbuck's on the empty lot at the southeast corner of Marshall and Snelling. I would be more incensed and concerned except I'm fairly confident that i...

Every few weeks I suffer from selective amnesia and decide to visit e-democracy expecting worthwhile discussion.

I was actually tasked by Nick with keeping score. It's been a really tough job reading every thread, and if you can believe it, I'm at the top of the rankings. I'd suggest you re-read my posts, because I'm right all-the-freakin'-time. How am I NOT surprised this conversation is taking place over on...

didier, I find it unhelpful to talk about the investment being proposed in terms of how much money someone is planning to spend in a given neighborhood. Not only because in this case we're talking about an investment that the investors don't want to pay property tax on, but also because it doesn't a...

When most people complain about parking to me, it's usually that they are too lazy to walk a block or two. I totally agree. If you live in large city in Europe and own a car, you often have to circle the block a few times to find a parking spot at your apartment. You often start looking for parking...

As an example, we can look at the south before the abolition of slavery. The wealth of the plantation class was built on the backs of African-Americans, the former gained at the latter's expense. That isn't the whole story though. Southern society became stratified, with those not lucky enough to b...

There are probably some good arguments to be made in favor of the deal. It MIGHT mean foregoing some property tax in favor of other income streams down the road (MIGHT). It might help build identity and community in the neighborhood. It's an amenity for city life that we didn't have before. But the ...

What United has put forward, I think, is a very reasonable proposal. I understand and respect the opposition to the proposal on principal but looking at from total cost of the of the subsidy it would be the smallest of any facility that has been built. Adding in the fact that the West Loop is a cor...

"Needs" seems like a strong term. Preferences, perhaps. The Vikings don't NEED much. They just want it because they know they can pressure others into buying it for them. You're looking at this much too personally. The NFL has created a culture in which people and governments are willing ...