urbanMSP

That's blocked out of my memory

http://www.twincities.com/2016/03/01/ar ... ransforms/

In the past two weeks, a Minneapolis firm has taken soil boring samples from three neighboring parking lots: a pay lot at Fourth and Wacouta, a sunken lot owned by the Lowertown Lofts artist co-op and the lot owned by Kelly’s Depot Bar on Kellogg Boulevard. Nothing formal has been announced, but the environmental tests precede possible new buildings or parking structures.

Going back to this potential project: If this two level ramp is redeveloped, then the westbound traffic lane on 4th Street in front of SPUD can be removed or repurposed for non-vehicular use.

Though it seems like this isn't a priority when redesigning streets around transit. The Green Line project rebuilt an eastbound lane for 4th Street from Wall Street to Broadway St (the last block before the OMF) even though there's not a single curb cut on that side of the block. This only directly benefits the residents of the lofts on 4th between Wacouta and Wall, since their garage is the only curb cut on the entire two blocks of this eastbound lane.

So, we give up the opportunity to have wider-than-6' sidewalks where people can comfortably pass each other. Or wider amenity zones so we can have bicycle racks or benches. Or street trees. Simply so a few residents a day can exit their parking and continue east to Broadway rather than to Wall. Which literally doesn't matter since Wall is a two-way street. In fact, Google Street View shows a moving van literally stopped in the drive lane, which shows how useless this lane is for actual movement.

We ought to have the default position be to eventually eliminate low-use traffic lanes that are LRT-adjacent, especially when curb cuts can be slowly eliminated/moved and when there's a strong grid of adjacent two-way streets (like Lowertown!). I've proposed this for 5th Street in Downtown Minneapolis, and for Minnehaha Ave from 52nd to 54th in Nokomis East. But St. Paul would benefit in this case.

St. Paul’s oldest fire station to be razed for hotel
By SARAH HORNER | [email protected]
March 18, 2016 | UPDATED: 53 mins ago
A building that once was St. Paul’s first fire station is to be torn down to make way for a hotel, adding to the city’s needed lodging options.

Local developer David Brooks has plans to demolish the building at the corner of Leech Street and Grand Avenue near Children’s Hospital and replace it with a 109-unit Marriott, according to Brooks. Some community members hope the project can be paused for further review given the facility’s history.