North Loop Neighborhood

Downtown - North Loop - Mill District - Elliot Park - Loring Park
612transplant
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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby 612transplant » February 5th, 2013, 11:06 pm


As far as hotels, I think Dinkytown has one and I know 7 Corners does...though Seward I'm not so sure. Although that neighborhood would really need wayfinding if you ever wanted to easily find Hexagon and Memory Lanes.
Somewhat off topic, I'm sure, but I doubt that Hexagon or Memory Lanes will ever be a hot draw for out-of-town hotel guests :mrgreen:

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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby 612transplant » February 5th, 2013, 11:09 pm

Milwaukee's Third Ward and the adjoining neighborhoods along the Milwaukee River are a step above the North Loop IMO. I love the North Loop, but it's about a decade behind the Third Wards development. The Iron Horse Hotel is amazing.
I think the Third Ward has been better maintained. In fact, I'd wager Milwaukee as a whole hasn't undergone the state-sponsored civic vandalism that Minneapolis has :oops:

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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby MNdible » February 5th, 2013, 11:30 pm

In that regard, Milwaukee (along with just about every other city in the country) made the same mistakes as Minneapolis.

Courtesy of the Milwaukee Historical Society:

By the 1960s, the inner city of Milwaukee was in a state of decay. Urban blight covered large sections of the city. Urban renewal projects had begun during Mayor Zeidler’s administration, but, as urban problems worsened during the 1960s, a greater effort was made to revitalize the City of Milwaukee. A downside to urban renewal was that thousands of people, especially in the black community, lost their homes as whole blocks were cleared to make room for new housing projects, high rises and freeways. Many rundown yet beautiful buildings were demolished.

By the late 1960s many people thought that urban renewal had gone too far. A movement began to preserve historical buildings. The preservationists were able to save some landmarks such as the Pabst Mansion but others were lost in the move towards redevelopment.

As the decade continued, freeway construction was also perceived differently. Early in the decade, nearly everyone agreed that a freeway system was needed. By the late 1960s, however, many residents weren’t so sure. Freeways uprooted and divided neighborhoods and eliminated millions of dollars of tax base. Even the mayor sided with the anti-freeway movement. Most freeway projects eventually were completed, although with some delays.

Milwaukee still retains some of its “old world” charm. Though much of the city was renovated during the 1960s and 1970s, there are still many reminders of its past.

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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby Matt » February 6th, 2013, 10:04 pm

Former Milwaukee resident and current Minneapolis resident here. I think overall Milwaukee fared much better than Minneapolis in regards to urban renewal efforts. The Third Ward is an excellent example of how well the city overall was preserved. Milwaukee obviously did lose a lot as the previous post indicates, but nowhere near the destruction Minneapolis had.

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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby MNdible » February 6th, 2013, 10:47 pm

Remember that Milwaukee was a bigger city earlier than Minneapolis, so it had a lot more old historic building stock to start out with. I'm always struck when visiting the cities in eastern Wisconsin -- even though they're only a couple of decades older than Minneapolis, those twenty years make a huge difference in terms of the architecture that remains.

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woofner
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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby woofner » February 7th, 2013, 11:09 am

http://www.outragegis.com/animations/po ... growth.htm

I agree about the extent of Milwaukee's historic structures for the reasons MNdible describe and which are visualized in the above link, but also because the Minneapolis HRA was exceptionally ambitious (the Gateway is often described as having covered the largest land area for a clearance project at the time in the nation). I would point to the area around Marquette University as one that appears to have gone through a lot of renewal though.

The part of the North Loop that most people consider the North Loop (i.e. the 2-3 blocks north & south of Washington), however, appear based on historic aerials such as this to have simply never fully developed, rather than fallen victim to overly-exuberant clearance a la the Gateway.
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mnmike
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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby mnmike » February 7th, 2013, 11:24 am

A lot of the North Loop and the Mill District were railyards...until not that long ago.

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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby Wedgeguy » February 7th, 2013, 1:01 pm

A lot of the North Loop and the Mill District were railyards...until not that long ago.

That is quite true. Much of the Mill and North loop had large rail spurs running thru them and rail lines, due to the industrial nature of the area it was quite common for railcars to be parked waiting to be loaded.

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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby 5th Ave Guy » February 8th, 2013, 4:14 pm

This it?
Image
Really hoped that this project would've happened. I believe City Council didn't approve it because of zoning/height, etc. requirements. Believe it would've included a hotel.
I could be wrong, but I thought the project got approval and the funding just fell through before it got started. The developer blamed a lot of things; Sex World directly across the intersection being one of them.

The timing really worked out for the best. The building would have been coming online at exactly the worst part of the housing crisis, IIRC. Hopefully someone can do something with it in a more accomodative environment.

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Nathan
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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby Nathan » February 18th, 2013, 4:40 pm

Apparently they are trying to get some funding for the North Loop Park from developers...

http://www.journalmpls.com/news-feed/bi ... -new-parks

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Nick
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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby Nick » June 8th, 2013, 7:47 pm

Took this picture of some resurfacing on the edge of the North Loop today:

Image
IMG_3531 by UrbanMSP, on Flickr

I wonder if there are any expedited plans to rebuild some of the streets over here now that there are ~one zillion new residents? The exposed brick streets are charming and all but a lot of them are pretty badly deteriorated. That said, the Nice Ride bike I was on didn't have shocks, so there's that.

This surprisingly easy to read map on the City's website doesn't indicate anything other than a repaving of 6th Avenue in 2016.
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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby TWA » June 10th, 2013, 6:37 am

Do you think the city is waiting until a lot of construction is done before they re-surface any roadways? I'm not sure how the city prioritizes roadworks projects, and also don't know how construction effects roads to be honest. It always seems to me like it would cause a beating on a new surface.

min-chi-cbus
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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby min-chi-cbus » June 10th, 2013, 8:39 am

How many open lots still exist in the North Loop after this latest residential renaissance? Is there still plenty of room for growth/renovations before any talk of tear-downs (where applicable....perhaps N/A in an "Historic" n'hood) or taller structures spring up? I'm not sure how I feel about high-rises in North Loop to be honest. I'm mostly just curious how close the area is from being built out, and hence, how close it is getting to becoming a more elite place to live (supply constraints with continued high demand could push price points very high).

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Nathan
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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby Nathan » June 10th, 2013, 9:11 am


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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby mulad » June 10th, 2013, 9:14 am

redisciple did a survey of the North Loop back in 2010 as part of his downtown potential population series, though that was based more on the potential number of units rather than the simple number of open lots. Things have obviously changed quite a bit. I think OpenStreetMap has been staying pretty up-to-date for the North Loop. Brown areas are current/recent construction.

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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby MNdible » June 10th, 2013, 10:28 am

I wouldn't say that's so many, at least not in the "core" of the North Loop. Remember that a park has been tentatively penciled in for what might at first glance appear to be the most obvious of those lots.

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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby John » June 10th, 2013, 11:44 am

There's still a lot of vacant land, but I'm very optimistic they are going to be filled up with development rapidly. I think the focus is going to change away from rental projects to office , retail , condos, and maybe a smaller hotel or two. I'm hoping a nice bustling retail district will further evolve around 222 Hennepin and along Washington. And yes, there are a lot of streets in crappy condition in The North Loop, especially south of Washington. The city is way behind the times in the need to improve them.

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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby Didier » June 10th, 2013, 2:05 pm

I am not big on high-rises in the North Loop either. Sure, maybe we can go higher than six stories every once in a while, but I don't think the area needs 20+ stories — just my opinion.

The exception is the potential Hines (I think) development that would go right by Target Field.

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woofner
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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby woofner » June 10th, 2013, 2:15 pm

When I did that survey I was surprised at how much less vacant/underutilized space there was than I perceived. As I wrote in the post (I think) that is probably due to it mostly being clustered in those huge parking lots around Herschel Lofts. Still, even assuming a 1-2 acre park is developed, it seems like there is room for another 600-700 units to be developed north of the viaduct, or about twice what is currently under construction.

I'll be curious to see how leaseable the apts south of the viaduct are, because that are has vastly more vacant or underutilized land if people are willing to look past the intrusive highways, garbage burners, Bag Man, etc.

I would prefer to see height encouraged only around high transit areas, which doesn't really exist in the North Loop north of the viaduct. It would be great around the Interchange, Royalston, etc, though.
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Re: North Loop Neighborhood

Postby David Greene » June 10th, 2013, 2:23 pm

I would prefer to see height encouraged only around high transit areas, which doesn't really exist in the North Loop north of the viaduct.
Target Field/Interchange? That's basically in the North Loop. Warehouse District station?

This isn't directed at you, necessarily, but I find it curious that some people don't want height on the edge of downtown in a place with lots of rail (and bus) transit access yet there are calls to tear down lots of houses in the Wedge.

What gives?


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