urbanMSP

Weren't the interstate highways originally built so we could drive tanks and missile launchers on them if the Soviet Union attacked?

The passenger traffic seems pretty flexible. People can switch to bikes, transit, etc. But the truck traffic is kind of built into the area right now, with the intermodal yard and the big industrial zone around 280. If the boulevard had a lot of trucks coming to a dead stop at intersections and then...

What would be the plan for the semis and heavy trucks? University?

What if we didn't normalize a 8 minute commute from Saint Paul to Uptown? It is stupidly easy to get around by car in the twin cities.

If you'd like to make the case for slower or less travel between the two core cities you have my full attention.

When I saw the initial proposals for the Green Line I was quite disappointed. It was obviously not going to provide a viable alternative to driving a car from downtown Minneapolis to downtown St. Paul. You'd need grade separated Chicago style rail to do that.

The biggest obstacle to transitioning away from gasoline powered transportation is the fact that oil is priced and traded in dollars. This gives the US a lot of global clout which our leaders are unwilling to surrender. Protecting the the supply of oil provides a rationale for maintaining our gigant...

I've often wondered about the economics of building parking space in an apartment building. Is the ROIC greater on a square foot of leasable apartment or a square foot of parking? When developers vigorously pat themselves on the back for building less parking are they really just congratulating them...

I want to know more about the “cave-in deep below the surface”.

I wonder if the unstable subsurface conditions extend north of Franklin to the Vision Loss Resources site.

These things always terrify me when they're at that stage. It's like Burning Man, just a big assembly of sticks, with plenty of openings for airflow.

Hopefully the insurance companies will shorten the leash. If not, state and local government needs to act.

"Concerned Citizens" armed with a digging bar and a cordless angle grinder could remedy that in about a half hour. There would be noise and sparks, but if you wore orange vests and hardhats I doubt anybody would suspect it was an ad-hoc action.

Barcelona seizing vacant apartments:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... nd=premium

Single cop patrols were tried for a while and it was discovered that they behave even crazier when they're alone, so they went back to the buddy system.

Not trying to take a poke at anything or anyone other than the generous parking allocation. I will admit that seeing people living in tents perhaps 3 blocks from this site on the Greenway (and the general profusion of tents) has had a bit of an effect on me. I'm fine with bulky buildings if they kee...

Maybe homeless people could pitch tents in the unused parking spaces?

No visible damage to K-mart when viewed from Lake Street.

At this stage building a pioneering high rise mass timber building is an extremely risky venture, but it looks to be greenest option by far for building that level of density. We need to get a few of these up and study them in the real world. Personally, I'd support some level of public subsidy to d...

If you travel west of Minneapolis you will need to go to Denver Colorado before any built environment resembling; car free, upwardly mobile, desirable can be found. Minneapolis has the task to be the catchment for all those individuals from areas where any significant change is too far to envision....

I just went back and reread this thread. So much discussion of cars and parking, but very little about the value of carbon sequestration in the structure. Maybe someday proposals will be required to provide an estimate of fossil fuel consumption and emissions required to build them. Perhaps this wou...

"Brand New Modern Luxury Apartment Homes"

Completely uninformed opinion: no way will this get built as rail.

Are you thinking we've passed "peak streetcar"? Or are you just thinking the projected ridership doesn't justify it?