urbanMSP

There could be a specific reason to live in St. Michael even if you could buy an equivalent house farther in- maybe lower crime, better schools, or family in the area. But maybe they just bought the house decades ago before getting the job. If I got a job at Medtronic I'd just suck it up and commute for 45 minutes rather than have to sell my house and buy another.

One of the worst and most well-known crimes in MN history happened in the St. Michael area.

Part of this is the political and social divide between Rural, Suburban and Urban areas. We can see this in our policies, politics and even in our built environment with where people chose to live and where infrastructure is built. As long as we have that divide we'll have the built environment divide. This segregation of peoples also allows for us to live separately from each other and judge the, "others," more easily. The SWLRT actually crosses these boundaries a bit which is a bit neat.

One of the worst and most well-known crimes in MN history happened in the St. Michael area.

What crime are you referring to? I grew up in the area and I'm curious about what you mean.

One of the worst and most well-known crimes in MN history happened in the St. Michael area.

What crime are you referring to? I grew up in the area and I'm curious about what you mean.

I am curious too. I grew up 5 miles from downtown St. Micheal and haven't heard of any horrific crime either.

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My mind immediately goes to Jacob Wetterling case which I remember seeing all the time on the news growing up in the late 90s and 2000s. But that was in St Joseph (near St Cloud), not St Michael.

I was referring to Jacob Wetterling, broadly circling the northwest metro exurbs into one "area".

I just get tired of hearing about "crime" as if it's exclusively a city issue and that moving solves it.

Finally!

Royalston Station:


Glenwood Bridge: (Yet to be built)


Excelsior Crossing:


Downtown Hopkins Station:

The FTA has officially awarded the FFGA for SWLRT.

Finally.

At least we were primed for the wait by the central corridor, which was also way late with the FFGA -- but not this late. Nice that it finally came through.

Cool. Now they can finish building all those enormous bridges getting built over suburban stroads and wetlands. Every time we visit my SIL in Eden Prairie, I'm astonished at the infrastructure going in along 212.

Just think of what University and Snelling would look like if they'd been this willing to invest in grade separation when Dubya was president.

Cool. Now they can finish building all those enormous bridges getting built over suburban stroads and wetlands. Every time we visit my SIL in Eden Prairie, I'm astonished at the infrastructure going in along 212.

Better than another new highway or grade-separated intersection that's supposedly needed to "reduce congestion."

Just think of what University and Snelling would look like if they'd been this willing to invest in grade separation when Dubya was president.

They were, it just had to be in service of getting suburbanites to sport games and not transit users to work.

Too bad the MLS stadium wasn't there yet. Then Snelling might have rated a Lake St. style elevated station. Or maybe just a $10M ped bridge over a not terribly busy street.

Someone with a longer memory than me could verify, but I thought it was more likely they'd have grade separated one of the roads, keeping transit at grade. There was parallel interest in having Snelling Ave through-traffic dip below University Ave, I believe, using a "ring road" system of local streets for turns (e.g. Spruce Tree Drive). That would have removed all turning traffic at the intersection, and kept light rail at grade, avoiding the need for vertical circulation at the station. But that was back when University Ave carried much more traffic than it does today. I don't think you could justify grade separation of the roads anymore. The bigger issue at Snelling Station today is the limited platform capacity, which is not designed to handle stadium event crowds in any way, shape or form.

The bigger issue at Snelling Station today is the limited platform capacity, which is not designed to handle stadium event crowds in any way, shape or form.

It's not, at all, but by the end of last season I felt like they had finally figured it out pretty well. Loading the trains was going way smoother than I ever thought it would.

Some construction updates based on what I've seen recently:
-the foundations for the following stations can be seen: Golden Triangle, Opus, Shady Oak, and Hopkins
-lot of electrical and utility lines can be seen where the EP Town Center and 21st Street stations will be
-the new freight rail alignment is complete between Belt Line Boulevard and Wooddale Avenue, and track has been laid between Wooddale Avenue and Blake Road
-railroad crossing panels for the light rail have been installed at 11th Avenue, the entrance to Hopkins Honda, 5th Avenue, and the entrance to Redstone Grill in Eden Prairie
-the Hopkins-Minnetonka viaduct is taking shape
-the viaduct over Prairie Center Drive looks almost done
-the trail bridge over Belt Line Boulevard looks at least half way done
-the trail tunnels under Blake Road and Wooddale Avenue look pretty much complete
-the new freight rail connection from the TC&W to the MN&S is very slowly taking shape