urbanMSP

yes was a big deal to protest Red Barn.......they won but in the end a burger king moved in anyways.......then I attended the university and college students became alex p keatons.....

There's some sort of protest at McDonalds. Maybe the $15 per hour shindig?

Yep, it's that (source: I'm friends with a NOC organizer on Facebook)

I haven't been to Dinkytown much recently, but I needed to talk to someone at Varsity Bikes yesterday and had a bit of time to burn waiting for a bus. Man, what an improvement. I'm not a huge fan of the Marshall's design, but the bulk added by all the new buildings in that area has really changed the character of DInkytown for the better. It feels more alive.

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/cped/proje ... inky_study

The historic study has been in its comment period for a while. It's a relatively small and contiguous district, and I agree with most of what it's protecting.

There are a couple weird things, though, that I would encourage people to write in about. Some of the structures designated as contributing are terrible; I refer especially to the McDonalds on 4th, which is sunken, set back from the street, and has a drive-through. If there's any property in Dinkytown I'd love to see redeveloped, it's this one.

I'm really not as offended by the McDonalds itself as I am the parking lot. That said, it's hard to imagine anything happening there for a long time.

The Dinkytown Uprising movie had sold-out showings during MSPIFF, so the Film Society is starting a week-long run today on their screen at St. Anthony Main. The last day is Thursday, May 14th. Info here.

I caught a showing in Rochester when it was brought down for the film festival there. I enjoyed it quite a bit, even though it took a few shots at the recent wave of housing developments. That's pretty well off to the side from the main thrust of the film, though.

Red alert guys, Loring Pasta Bar is now a chain.


Sent from my phone

'Making tacky brickwork since 1986'

Oh man they can't split checks, that seems like a really stupid idea when you're near a campus where people will come over lunch with their coworkers.

Sent from my phone

Just like the original... pffff

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/u ... id=3509521

But for $10 and $14? Look: Oakland isn't Minneapolis, and it isn't 1986 anymore, and there's no lack of spaces in this city where artists can hang out. If you're going to open a rather expensive restaurant in one of the most prominent spots in the city's trendiest foodie neighborhood, your food had better be on point.

In this town, you can do far, far better.

I sense just a teensy bit of West Coast/Bay Area elitism here.

I never really cared for LPB. Seems way overpriced to me.

So today they're putting in parking spot numbers on the bridges in Dinkytown, or at least the two bridges at the corner of 14th and University.

I recall there were ordinances that blanket prohibited parking on bridges, anyone know what happened to make this possible?

Related to the Dinkytown bridges: Weren't they supposed to build a connection from 15th or 14th down to the Greenway last summer? What happened to that?

Both sides of 14th? And one-side University? If current parking zones are extended to the intersection (as close as permissible), that adds a fairly significant amount of new metered parking to the area. Maybe 18-22 spaces depending on how close to the intersection they go (assume 21' stall). Almost too much common sense to actually see it happen. That's a win for Dinkytown businesses & customers, for city parking revenue, and you could argue for pedestrians as well due to the buffering/calming effect of parked cars.

Just look around, that's a lot of empty space: https://www.google.com/maps/@44.979624, ... e0!6m1!1e1

Both sides of 14th, and on the "right" side of that street, literally all the way to the intersection, on University it just extends the existing parking on the north side, but not quite all the way to the intersection. I was at Annies for lunch with some people, someone biked there and said "why are there all these poles in the ground on 14th" (I hadn't noticed them when I went in) and when we left, they had spot numbers on them and people were parking there. University had numbered spots as well, but there were read "no parking" bags over all of them.

The added parking on the bridges actually will be making up for the lost parking along the north side 4th Street from 15th to 13th. They will (finally!!) be putting a bike lane here, connecting the chunk of missing bike infra along 4th.

Related to the Dinkytown bridges: Weren't they supposed to build a connection from 15th or 14th down to the Greenway last summer? What happened to that?

Not sure who is leading this effort, but I know there is a push to build a true "Midtown Greenway ramp" from the roads to the Dinkytown Greenway, instead of the staircase with bike flow as originally proposed. So maybe the delay is part of that?

There is a pretty severe need for better access to the Dinkytown greenway. The road/ramp up to River Road is steep steep steep.

Bike lanes have been painted on 4th in the commercial core!

https://twitter.com/Dinkytown/status/606535848004354048

I feel like this, in addition with the new bus stop sign rollout, makes 2015 the Minneapolis urbanist year of "finally!"