urbanMSP

I mean, short of full communism I'm just not sure there's anything you can actually do to keep the rich from getting what they want. This last point seems a little hyperbolic. Rich people wanted to run companies where they could dump pollutants into the water and air. As a society, we decided rich ...

I think the frustration by many is the overall trend towards viewing real estate as just investment portfolios and not as homes. Overall the affordability of housing in NYC is going down, for the majority of people. Second, my guess is that nearby properties will be assessed with higher values which...

And I realize that the recession was unfortunate for a lot of people, but it allowed myself and tons of other folks in their early 20s to buy homes. Granted, it would have been better for the bubble to never exist in the first place. And there were policies that built up that bubble at a macro leve...

If you're listening to DFL/teacher's union insiders, then yes, you hate Don Samuels. I tend to think that the school board has performed so poorly over recent history that Gagnon should not be returned, and supported Samuels and Iris Altamirano. On the other hand if you listen to those that are sup...

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Does anyone know if that works exactly like the constitutional amendments in 2012, where blank = "no" ? Or is it a simple yes vs. no count?

It is not like the amendment. It only needs 50%-1 of votes cast on that question.

I made a table of expected and actual ridership at each station. I included the absolute and % difference in ridership from expected. I was hoping to paste this in as a table but cannot figure it out. Someone want to take this CSV and fix it? Station Name Expected 2030 Sept '14 Expected-Sept'14 % pe...

I think the discussion about a Greenway > Hiawatha > Riverview service is that it could be one service without any additional trackage. We're already discussing building LRT-lite in the Greenway and LRT/LRT-lite in Riverview. I guess it makes sense from the perspective of not needing new track. Tho...

I've seen a lot of suggestions to interline the Midtown line from Lake to 46th st before heading east in Ford Parkway as a way to get to DT St. Paul. Wouldn't it make more sense to have it cross the river near Lake street and have it interline with the Green line?
What am I missing?

Sounds like step 1 is destroy capitalism (not that I agree with that idea)? Corporate capitalism has worked for almost no one except the small number of billionaires. It has made life considerably more difficult for millions of people and has supported a fossil fuel economy that is causing global c...

Heck, I think the company's business practices are abhorrent so I lyft instead (not sure how much better they are). Lyft is pretty much the exact same business model so it's definitely not better. Of course the magazine that's the "leading voice of the American left, offering socialist perspec...

Great piece written about the problems of ride-sharing companies. This was the thread that seemed the closest. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/09/against-sharing/ Rates for drivers have been cut by more than half in the last year. Drivers are being forced to worker longer and longer hours to repay t...

Any other ideas what might be tackled in 2015-16? I think after labor's success with the raising of the minimum wage campaign, paid sick time could be on the table. I think expanding rank choice voting statewide would be fantastic. The alliance politics rather than mudslinging politics was refreshi...

Great news. Hopefully other big companies follow their lead. Also great is that it appears they are also donating a good chunk of money to the academic and research side. I actually worry a great deal about developments like these. Though I care less if companies want to spend their money on naming...

Debt deal shows the Mall of America is the most valuable asset in Minnesota — and it's not even close “This significant transaction marks yet another milestone for Mall of America” said Bill Griffith, president of Bloomington-based Larkin Hoffman Daly & Lindgren. “We feel fortunate to have work...

Apparently there's a place where you can learn salsa in uptown. Maybe someones house but I've just heard of it.

Famous Dave's has Swing and Salsa on Monday and Tuesdays. http://www.famousdavesbluesclub.com/music_events.html

The thought I keep going back to is the political base of exurban farmers. Those on the edge who are getting pushed out by sprawling suburbs. They are losing decades or generations of history. Some of them are going to be centrist or conservative on some issues. Keeping the family farm and making it...

A discussion with Mark Ritchie who is on the committee: http://www.mn2020.org/issues-that-matte ... orlds-fair

I have been lurking here for a while and thought I would finally introduce myself. My name is Elliot Altbaum and I just graduated with a degree in Geography from Clark University in Worcester, MA. Originally from here, I read urbanMSP and Streets.mn to be reminded about how Minneapolis and the whole...

Back to the issue of compost. Citywide compost is a fantastic idea. Think back to the 3 R's of conservation: reduce, reuse, recycle. Burning organic material in the HERC is a low order recycle of waste. It is must better to reduce the waste that must be burned by diverting it into compost ( a sort o...

Seems like ADUs could become legal again in all of Minneapolis. I like ADUs ability for creating incremental density. If these become popular in a neighborhood it could trigger later development in the old neighborhood commercial nodes.
http://www.startribune.com/business/212418161.html