urbanMSP

hi all,
My name is Arvind Sharma.I am new to this Forum.

Welcome Arvind, tell us about yourself some more. What city you live in?

Hi everyone!

Just stumbled upon this site while in the process of relocating to the MSP area from Denver. While we haven't signed a lease yet, we're very close to doing so in the North End district of St Paul, and really excited about the potential. I'm being relocated for work, took another position inside my company (most are probably familiar, in fact there's a good chance my company's processing chip is inside your PC right now). So, for now looking forward to participating on some of the discussions as I've always been interested in this sort of thing (and at one time moderated for RoadTripAmerica.com). Anyway, looking forward to moving to MSP over the next few weeks and REALLY looking forward to MLS Soccer being close at hand!

- Brad, aka 'cascadia'

PS: nickname comes from where I grew up, in the Pacific Northwest.

Hello!

My name is Quinn. I have been posting on the forms for about six months. I never took the chance to introduce myself. I live in Minneapolis Minnesota. I am blind, and teach Cane travel add blind Inc. ( teach students who are blind how to navigate the city with a long white came.).

I am passionate about urban planning and smart growth. I am passionate about seeing mass transportation expanded. In the fall I will continue studying at the University of Minnesota, working toward my undergraduate degree in urban planning.


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Nice to meet you, Brad and Quinn! Welcome to the forum! Glad to have both of your perspectives added here.

Hello people!! Even I am new to this forum. Glad to have found this forum.

Hello! I found out about this forum from a happy hour meetup the delegates for our ward did this week. Turns out my neighbor is on here a fair bit and I realized this place has the answers to so many of the 'what's going on questions' I find myself asking. It's nice to see a forum full of people who care so much about improving this great city.

My wife and I moved to Minneapolis about two years ago and are in Longfellow at the moment near Minnehaha/Lake really love the neighborhood. Looking forward to the improvements and development around the old Rainbow that's been sitting empty for a while.

Hello!

I have been a member of this for him for about a year. I do not believe that I ever took a chance to introduce myself.

My name is Quinn. I live and work in Minneapolis. I currently teach Cane Travel, teaching individuals who are blind how to travel with a long white cane, at BLIND INC. I am also working on getting my undergraduate degree in urban studies at the University of Minnesota.

I enjoy seeing, reading, and exploring new developments. I have certainly enjoyed my time on the forums. Look forward to reading many more great posts.


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Long time lurker, new member.

My name is Ben and I live by the creek south of Lake Harriet. Love the dedicated trails, digging the continuous improvements to bike infrastructure, and developer of a door-to-door petition to get a 4-way stop sign put in at 53rd and Girard Ave S. Minneapolis Planning commission shut it down though due to the fact no bikers have been maimed at that intersection yet.

I'm interested in urban planning, AUD's, density, writing letters to my council member, improving the police department, and interested in the systems set up to make a city successful.

Hi gang. I've been on here for a little while (mostly lurking with the occasional post) but haven't made it into this section much. My name is Matt and I've been living in Minneapolis since 1997 in a variety of neighborhoods (Lynlake, Lowry Hill East, Stevens, Central, Powderhorn, and now East Isles). I've loved cities since I was a kid and became more of a transit geek when I moved to Minneapolis. My transit geekery has evolved into a broader interest in urban planning, housing, and local government which led me to streets.mn. I started editing for the blog this year and have really appreciated the information and community around the blog as well as in these forums.

Well I didn't know this thread existed so I'll fill it out -

My name is Josh and I'm an architect. Consequently all of my friends are architects and that's how I hear about things coming up the pipeline - because they designed them.

I grew up in Milwaukee, hence the mke in my title - the first half referencing my name - and fell in love with the Twin Cities when I went to undergrad at the U. Currently in Columbus OH because of lingering post grad school, but return to Minneapolis constantly with plans to return for good in the next few years. I'm spreading urbanism to the corners of Ohio and force my firm to make the ground level of all buildings on all sides part of my imagined pedestrian paradise.

Have been reading the thread since 2013, made an account in 2015, started using it in 2017 haha

so Hi

Edit: Also worked at Metro Transit in Street Operations during the summer the Green Line opened. Have an Urban Studies degree as my secondary. (Recession economy back up plan)

I also didn't know this thread existed.

My real name is Eric.

Dan Patch is the rail line between Minneapolis and Northfield (active freight line, but also a proposed passenger rail line), which I live pretty close to in Bloomington. Toget is Norwegian for train. I'm not from Norway, but I have Norwegian ancestors and I've done a lot of traveling there including studying in Oslo for four months.

Graduated from the U of M-Twin Cities in May with Bachelors of Science in urban studies with emphasis on transportation planning, and at the moment trying to find a job in that field.

My name is Nathan Bakken.

I have a Bachelor's of Science in Urban Studies with an emphasis in transportation planning as well. I have worked for Metro Transit since May of 2016 in two different internship roles, and just accepted a permanent role the other day as a Transit Information Rep. Looking to eventually work in Service Development or the BRT office. I've been told by many coworkers that starting out in TIC or as an operator leads to other opportunities at MT.

I've been posting on here for a little over a year, and love the conversation that happens, as well as learning about different things I would have missed otherwise.

Apparently I never introduced myself.

I’m Lou and I’m from Edina. Well, I’m not *from* Edina—I’m from the east coast—but I’ve lived here for the past decade. Before that, a couple years in Mpls in an apartment & duplex; before that, a decade+ in St. Paul in an apartment & single family home; before that, Dallas; before that the east & west coasts.

I’m just an amateur urbanist; I’m not an architect or planner or engineer. I got interested in this stuff because I joined the transportation commission and then the planning commission.

I thought autonomous vehicles were going to save us.

You can stop laughing now.

HELLO! I'm Evan and I have been a frequent lurker on these threads for years. Born and raised in St. Louis Park, lived in Minneapolis (Lowry Hill + North Loop) for years after college, and have been living in New York for the last 4 years (Brooklyn, then the East Village, now back to Brooklyn) working in advertising. I still love Minneapolis, development and staying in touch with home even though I've been away for a while. Really looking forward to seeing all the newness when I'm home over Christmas in a few weeks.

HELLO! I'm Evan and I have been a frequent lurker on these threads for years. Born and raised in St. Louis Park, lived in Minneapolis (Lowry Hill + North Loop) for years after college, and have been living in New York for the last 4 years (Brooklyn, then the East Village, now back to Brooklyn) working in advertising. I still love Minneapolis, development and staying in touch with home even though I've been away for a while. Really looking forward to seeing all the newness when I'm home over Christmas in a few weeks.

I just moved to California a month ago and I'm eagerly awaiting coming home, so much has changed in 4 years... it'll be great.

I joined awhile ago and have done some posting here or there but I suppose I'll introduce myself now:

I am a high schooler at an undisclosed school in the Twin Cities suburbs. I have always been fascinated by infrastructure, be it trains, freeways, street lights (I had an extreme obsession with street furniture in 2nd-3rd grade!), and power grids, but I got super interested in public transit about a year ago while planning a city in Cities: Skylines and slowly began learning more about how such systems operate are constructed, and managed. I have closely followed the Southwest LRT project to see just how a rail line is constructed, though it has proven to not be a very good case study (or a good case study on how *not* to build a rail line). Then I learned about Strong Towns and the New Urbanism stuff and it changed the way I looked at the suburb I had spent my whole life in, how hostile it was to people and how environmentally wasteful it is. The reasons why I had previously loved my town became why I despised it, and I began to appreciate our urban core much more than I used to. I've tried my best to raise awareness of these issues at school and amongst family, but not everyone is very receptive to my views (I feel like every high school should require a course on induced demand). More recently, I discovered Streets.mn and this forum, and reading through archives of both websites, it is nice to see that I'm not the only one who feels the way I do about how our cities are designed, and I was happy to see that the Twin Cities are doing more to 'fix' their streets and zoning laws than much of the country. Also, side note: in the grand scheme of things, while not perfect, the rate at which transit projects are being proposed and constructed here is pretty incredible, and worth it in the long run despite the issues the projects face.

I spend most of my free time reading, doing homework, photography, Cities: Skylines, composing music, and reading various proposals and studies for transportation projects.

We'll see if this obsession lasts, but I hope to be a transportation engineer and live somewhere in St. Paul after college.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. I ramble a lot!

I absolutely love the suburbs and despise the city, but I share your obsession with street lights, and have a personal collection of street lights and traffic signals.

Your story is pretty similar to mine - replace "Cities: Skylines" with "SimCity 2000/3000/4", replace "discovering streets.mn" with "discovering Minnescraper", ditto on StrongTowns, and add in "reading Jane Jacobs", and you've got the general contours of my story. (Belated) welcome and look forward to hearing more from you!

I remember playing Sim City 2000 for awhile before I got C:S! I built some truly horrendous cities on there... not to mention my 12 lane highways in my first Cities: Skylines city.