urbanMSP

There is already an Aldi's in North, on Penn. But then again there are 2 Aldis not far off the LRT on Lake and Franklin. So I'd figure that it would be a comparable distance as the other two off Hiawatha.

If there is a report on the feasibility of keeping the old commercial structures that are being proposed to be demolished that showed they would need ridiculous work, and a significant number of locals desire it, I'd grudgingly go along. Just wish more could be kept.

We can just keep the area as is and wait until this becomes the 50th and France of the northside.

Because saying it would be better to build on surface parking lots literally across the street instead of tearing down good urban structures is definitely the same thing as saying we should keep everything exactly the way it is forever

The ONLY qualm I have with the whole "why can't they just build this across the street" concept is that the developers (likely) don't own that property, they own this one, and this is what they can do with it. I still hate that they can't do an "adaptive re-use" here that preserves much more or all of the existing structures, but I can certainly understand why they're not doing it across the street.

They don't own any of the buildings as of now. They would need to acquire from a half dozen or more landowners. Since the proposal came to light many of these owners have applied for facade improvement grants from the West Broadway Coalition. On the other hand Sherman owns the property across the street and the developer of Satori owns the McDonald's franchise in that strip mall. I'm putting the chances of this proposal at very low.

^Thanks for that info.

I worry that because the north side is typically overlooked when it comes to investment and redevelopment that they'll jump at the chance to be apart of such a project.

yeah, acquiring the single property of the strip mall would definitely be easier than acquiring these dozens of separately owned properties.

Anyone who's concerned about this should definitely be emailing the city planner assigned to the case, and copying CM Blong Yang (and your own CM just for kicks).

I share the fear of other posters that the north side n'hoods & West Broadway could be so desperate for investment in their community that they will back this development without giving consideration to other options. It may seem like a no-brainer to us to say "put it on the parking lots across the street instead", but that idea may not even occur to the people who live in the community. We think about these land-use situations all the time and are all too familiar with the destruction of other commercial corridors in the city. To the lay-person, it simply may not occur that demolishing this row of old buildings would be bad.

In the F&C article, there are a few comments from CM Yang that are pretty worrisome. "This is something the northside needs" and soforth.

[email protected] (City Planner)
[email protected] (CM Blong Yang)

Argument against this development being on the South side of Broadway:



Let's bury parking underneath and put this thing in the parking lot of the strip mall on the north side of the street. Reconnect Dupont through the site. Make a pedestrian-only commercial alley between the existing strip mall and the new development and watch both sides of the street flourish.

^Excellent infographic there mr.shoes

I'm sure many of us would like to weigh in on this issue, but the vast majority of us are not northside residents. Certainly we have an interest in the city at large, and are welcome to email City Councilors and CPED staff with our concerns.

Scottie/Alleycat: Can you recruit more Northsiders to get involved in this issue? Jeff Skernes (The Hawthorne Hawkman)? Others? We need to get people engaged who actually live in the community.

Everyone: Please start circulating mr.shoes' infographic everywhere you see fit. It's quite compelling.

Thanks, man. I stole the idea from a Strong Towns post a while back showing the "shiny new" Taco John's in Brainerd compared with a row of "run down" small storefronts. It was eye-opening, to say the least.

FWIW, there are several properties on the south side of the street that pay $0/yr in property taxes, so the potential there is even better than the current numbers would indicate.

Jeff's already all over this. A number of my Northside preservationist friends including Jeff, Brian Finstad, Will Lumpkins, etc are definitely in favor of pushing this development across the street.

The consensus at the WBC meeting was that these storefronts are important to West Broadway's future. Only a handful of people in the crowd were supportive of taking down these buildings. There was support for replacing the strip malls.

Jordan is kitty corner from the western most block so we'd likely require consent. I don't think our current board that includes Jeff and me would support the current location.

Excellent comparison map there. I wonder if there is an extended vision of many years by the developers that they see the south side of West Broadway as low hanging fruit that is most easily redeveloped, but once that is done they intend to tackle an even more expansive redevelopment on the north side to compliment.

I'm sure many of us would like to weigh in on this issue, but the vast majority of us are not northside residents. Certainly we have an interest in the city at large, and are welcome to email City Councilors and CPED staff with our concerns.

It doesn't hurt to send a message to CM Yang but it helps if you have a relationship with him. There are lots of ways to do that. Visiting the Northside during a community events and talking to him, for example. Even better, get involved with a Northside group and show up at meetings. Eventually you'll get to know him and some of the leaders on the Northside. Some officials from North have this B.S. notion that only Northside residents can care about the Northside. CM Yang is not one of those, but he probably wants to see that you're invested somehow.

Generally, get involved and the local powers-that-be will notice you and consider what you have to say. That goes for every neighborhood in the city.

I wasn't sure where else to put this, but a fire this morning gutted a significant portion of the discussed area.

http://m.startribune.com/local/minneapo ... ?section=/

I thought it was just two buildings totaling about 80' of frontage. Now some crappy landlords may want to sell out to I insurance for smoke damage... Sartori NO!

Dammit.

http://www.startribune.com/demolition-e ... 311351591/

I know this sounds absolutely insane, but what are the chances that fire was really an accident? It was almost too convenient. Insurance money would certainly help fund the development.