urbanMSP

Just saw this article and thought it was pretty cool. First in the US, and something North could really use!

http://camden.kstp.com/news/news/162843 ... g.facebook

Lil' thread for non-whole thread worthy news/posts.

And I'll start with:

http://www.startribune.com/local/minnea ... page=1&c=y

North Minneapolis' Cookie Cart has recipe for growth

Article by: MATT MCKINNEY, Star Tribune

A shot from a passing vehicle slammed through the Cookie Cart’s front window and sailed through the front lobby where kids in sunshine-yellow T-shirts meet customers.

It then pierced the wall in back, narrowly missing a group of about 15 teenagers baking.

But the north Minneapolis bakery that helps teens learn jobs skills isn’t backing down. Instead, it’s expanding.

Among its first order of business? Bulletproof glass.

“It’s our home, and we want to stay here,” Anna Bregier said of the Cookie Cart, adding that talk of moving to a new location was short-lived.

On Tuesday, a City Council committee approved using up to $30,000 in federal funds to pay for 12 bulletproof windows.

[...]

Capri Theater on Broadway is staging (heh) a major expansion: http://www.startribune.com/local/blogs/232677851.html

Histrionic Preservationists may not like the facade "improvements". LOL @ the pay phone.

If you look closely at the top image in the smaller split render, you can see the present building on the left hand side. The new glass thing is actually an expansion built to the west of the current structure, on this site:
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=4 ... 9,,0,-0.79

As a sometimes preservationist the damage was already done when they knocked down the two buildings to make way for this. I'll admit the expansion looks pretty great and the existing historic theater is simply being added on to.

The Capri was once known as the Paradise Theater and the entrance was in the center facing Broadway, not the corner as it is now. It looks like the planned expansion is unfortunately a new entrance from the parking lot.

Looks like Boom Island's finally getting a taproom:

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/meetings/ree/WCMS1P-115985

I'm double psyched, since they're my fave of the new breweries (and it's a tough decision) and because it's close to my office. Check out the hand-drawn patio (?) on the plan - it seems they will have flying saucer parking in back.

Yep, very excited when I saw this. One can only hope that this is the first step in reclaiming Washington Avenue north of Broadway.

Redevelopment proposal for the south side of Broadway from Aldrich to Emerson at next week's West Broadway Coalition Zoning, Planning and Development committee. That's pretty much a continuous stretch of 2-4 story sidewalk adjacent buildings from before 1930.

From conversations I've had the likely fist target for demo/redevelopment at this point is 825 West Broadway. The developer, Pinnacle Management, has ties to the McDonald's franchises in North and Robbinsdale. They will likely be launching a citizens advisory committee, which is promising.

I'd like to see mixed-use development focused on the many vacant parcels and street fronting surface parking lots. These older structures should be rehabbed. An increase in density and streetcar/aBRT along Broadway will make these storefronts viable.

I'll be back with more info next week.

http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=4bc ... c21c048abc

Also IOOF building next to Friedman's on West Broadway was purchased by Kemps. Likely target for demo from the latest I've heard.

Wow, that's all somewhat terrifying. Please let us know what you learn! It would be completely criminal to level blocks of old buildings like that. Those few blocks could really be a gem for the north side someday.

What I hope is they're proposing a mutli-building rehab like was done on East Hennepin.

Wow, that's all somewhat terrifying... It would be completely criminal to level blocks of old buildings like that...

Like was done across the street for Hawthorne Crossings, or Kmart or ...

That side of the street was admittedly less impressive than the south side from images I've seen. Didn't make it much better. Sherman couldn't even get the spelling right on that strip mall. Somehow they got it wrong and went with Hawthorn (sic) Crossing. They couldn't look at a map?

This sounds frightening indeed. Totally agree with alleycat that the focus should be on empty lots and parking lots. I hope you will get on the CAC, alleycat!

EDIT: Those existing buildings are one of the reasons I like to drive along Broadway now and then after a meeting in North.

I hope you will get on the CAC, alleycat!

I think it's likely that I will since I have a good relationship with the WBC. I photographed Broadway facade improvements for CPED and WBC last year. I am getting advisory committee fatigue between the Penn Avenue Community Works PIC, West Broadway Transit Study advisory committee, JACC board meetings and an eight month old.

Here's a West Broadway map for you, alleycat. If there's anything you would like changed/ if I messed something up, let me know. Otherwise, good luck at the land use meeting!

https://24.media.tumblr.com/2692005c7dc ... 1_1280.jpg

It's a little frustrating that one of those surface lots is a greater than block large area devoted to the Mpls Public School building. Couldn't they have worked to create a street-parking district with a few underground spots and open that parcel up to housing or something? I see ~475 spaces there, and I can't imagine that's good for the neighborhood (or storm runoff..). But yes, this stretch seems so loaded with parking and vacant parcels that any argument of easier to demo and rebuild doesn't pass the eye test. Let's talk in 15 years once (if?) a streetcar has come through and development has filled in...

Thanks Lordmoke. I think this will make my point pretty clear.

RailBaron that was before my time on the Jordan board, but they actually knocked down quite a few homes to put up the parking lot. They actually came back to us last year to turn the playground across Girard into more parking. The school board claimed too many cars were parked on Girard and Emerson because people didn't feel safe walking from the back of the parking lot. We told them to offer better security. We won that debate thankfully.