Downtown Minneapolis General Discussion

[blo442]

Design concepts for 1st Ave N are on the BAC agenda next week. Bizarrely enough, the city is considering converting 1st Ave back to a multi-lane one-way, or widening the currently two-lane stretches to accommodate turn lanes at every intersection. A two-way bikeway is under consideration but would reduce space for greening/trees (where have I heard that one before?) The accompanying presentation says that full-time pedestrianization of any blocks has been ruled out.

Woof.

[BigIdeasGuy]

Warehouse District Live flopping and getting dunked on relentless (and rightfully) probably didn't help the full-time pedestrianization push. Even if there really isn't a good reason to keep it open to traffic in the first place, except for the TC block for Uber drop off and Lowe's porte-cochère access

[Silophant]

The anti-Frey/Rainville crowd working themselves into a frenzy and concluding that the "pedestrianize Nicollet" proposal is the first step in a nefarious scheme to completely remove transit and low-income folks from all of downtown probably didn't make anyone too psyched about proposing pedestrianization of another downtown street.

[Didier]

Was/is the Stone Arch Bridge renovation supposed to change anything cosmetically, or is it only structural?

I did the halfway thing from the St. Anthony Main side the other day, and maybe I just missed something, but the bridge that had been under construction the last year or so looked the same. I guess I was expecting the path to be repaved or something.

(Do we have a Stone Arch Bridge thread? I tried to search but for forum said it ignored the words “stone,” “arch” and “bridge” because they’re too common.)

[Silophant]

My understanding is that the MnDOT project/responsibility is only the structure of the bridge, and the deck is MPRB's responsibility. It'd be cool if they repaved it before reopening it, but I'm not holding my breath.

[MattW]

Reddit rumor mill claiming the Stone Arch Bridge is reopening on August 9th: https://www.reddit.com/r/Minneapolis/co ... reopening/

[Silophant]

Strib picked it up too. https://www.startribune.com/stone-arch- ... /601406921

[MattW]

Reddit rumor mill claiming the Stone Arch Bridge is reopening on August 9th: https://www.reddit.com/r/Minneapolis/co ... reopening/

People were crossing the Stone Arch Bridge this weekend. The fences were still up, but people just pushed them aside.

Yay!

[Anondson]

Did reopening so much sooner than the 2026 prediction mean that there were cost savings?

[MNdible]

It's not uncommon for construction projects like this to have bonus incentives for early completion, so it's possible that finishing early actually made it more expensive.

It's also possible that the construction plans included a lot of contingencies for worst case scenarios (you don't know exactly what to expect when you start working on a 140 year old bridge), and so if those contingencies weren't necessary, there could be savings there.

[angrysuburbanite]

https://www.startribune.com/target-down ... /601470398

Why does the strib have live updates on this

[angrysuburbanite]

12:40 p.m. - Aside from a couple of workers taking calls on their laptops, SPS Tower on the east side of downtown was fairly empty around lunchtime Tuesday. A barista at the Frgmnt coffeeshop in the building said the morning had been pretty busy.

ABSOLUTELY CRAZY BREAKING NEWS

In all seriousness, I’m glad people are back downtown but like why is this being covered as “breaking news” it feels very… corporately sponsored.

Guys! Did you know that the Target campus is an “emotional anchor” to downtown????!!!?

[COLSLAW5]

Didn't know this but apparently Aquatennial almost did not happen this year and there will not be a fireworks display either this year.

[HiawathaGuy]

Didn't know this but apparently Aquatennial almost did not happen this year and there will not be a fireworks display either this year.

Yeah, I was super bummed to learn about no fireworks! Hopefully the new group (Downtown Council gave up running Aquatennial and Holidazzle) will find a way to bring the fireworks back!

[twincitizen]

I would honestly prefer that we just do Red, White and Boom on July 4th every year, make that as big of an event as possible, and forget about having an unnecessary second fireworks show just a few weeks later.

IIRC the main draw of the Aquatennial Fireworks was that it was one of the largest fireworks displays in the country. It was sponsored by Target for a long time. If Target isn't paying for it anymore, then they won't be able to brag about being one of the largest fireworks displays, so what's even the point?

I guess they are doing "Aquatennial Night" at the Twins game on Friday 7/24 with a postgame fireworks display. Obviously not the same thing, but at least it's something if you must see a fireworks display during Aquatennial week.

[COLSLAW5]

my uneducated guess is that the fireworks will be back next year but to plan the "biggest fireworks display in the country" I assume it almost takes a year to plan especially since it is synced to music. Also looking at the web page target is still a sponsor.