In praise of the community message board
If you glimpse an old-school message board, it’s a sign you’re at an urban hotspot, part of a city alive with the footsteps of strangers.
Bill Lindeke
Bill Lindeke, Ph.D., is an urban geographer and writer who focuses on how our environments shape our lives. He has taught at the University of Minnesota and Metro State University, blogs at Twin City Sidewalks and streets.mn. Follow Bill on Twitter: @BillLindeke.
Accessory Dwelling Units could make a big difference for veteran homelessness in the Twin Cities — if we just allow them to
Advocates see small homes located on existing residential and nonprofit properties as a possible solution to quickly providing more kinds of housing in Minneapolis and St. Paul, but regulations on the structures — and their costs — have prevented widespread construction.
How residents, business owners and elected officials are reimagining the corner of Rice and Larpenteur
The area, at the intersection of St. Paul, Roseville and Maplewood, has long been dominated by strip malls, parking lots and very wide roads.
With two complete street rebuilds, Minneapolis is taking traffic calming to the next level
Horizontal deflection, tabled intersections, chicanes and more.
After 184 years, a home for Dakota people and culture returns to wakan tipi
Funded by a host of different public agencies and nonprofits, the new Wakan Tipi Center is scheduled to open by 2023.
The Twin Cities’ most important bicycle mapmaker is retiring
If you’ve been anywhere near a Twin Cities bike shop in the last forty years, you’ve likely seen Doug Shidell’s Twin Cities Bike Map.
Why Twin Cities housing prices might see some major increases in coming years
The Twin Cities metro has one of the lowest housing vacancy rates anywhere in the nation — worse than notoriously unaffordable San Jose.
Custom gem in Elliot Park showcases the future of Minnesota skate parks
Seamlessly integrated into the surrounding neighborhood, the Elliot Park skate park is busy with skaters pretty much all day long.
On the art of trying new restaurants
When you travel down any of the diverse commercial corridors of the Twin Cities, new and unexplored restaurants are all around you.
Without commuters, Metro Transit gets creative about getting riders on board
Dramatic changes in commuting brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have created challenges for transit agencies — but also present opportunities.
If approved by voters, St. Paul’s rent control ordinance would be among the strictest in the world
The proposed ordinance lacks many of the exemptions that are common in other places that have rent stabilization, and that may have bad effects on St. Paul’s future housing supply.
Now is the time for a revolutionary Midtown Greenway expansion
Hurdles remain and logistical headaches loom, but having optimism about crossing the river is a refreshing change for a project that always seemed to be a bridge too far.
From ‘St. Paul: An Urban Biography’: Labor strife — and accommodation
Labor disputes in St. Paul typically were small-scale and short-term, and organizers made liberal use of ostensible St. Paul communitarian values to coerce city employers to display social responsibility.
With truck parking now banned in Minneapolis, semi drivers will have to look down the road
Truck parking has been a minor nuisance in both Minneapolis and St. Paul for years.
Now more than ever, it’s great to see the Crystal Court open again
To those starved for urbanism, the voices echoing through the massive atrium sound like music.
On St. Paul’s Minnehaha Avenue, the best time to plant a tree is three years earlier
Almost 100 ash trees were cut down along the street this spring, part of the city’s triage triggered by the emerald ash borer. A neighborhood group is fundraising to speed up the trees’ replacement.
Metro Transit’s ‘Better Bus’ changes add up to a big improvement
So far, the Better Bus team has taken three core city routes and eliminated dozens of stops from each, boosting reliability and speed.
Parking lots to patios: the best pandemic trend
Personally, I think more and longer-season patios are a great idea for Minnesotans (who love to humblebrag about surviving winter). I hope the parking-to-patio tradeoff becomes a permanent fixture of our city.
Wildflower plaza helps integrate Minneapolis Convention Center with its surroundings
Today, walking out the Convention Center doors, you’ll find rows of butterfly milkweed, pale purple coneflower, anise hyssop, Eastern bee balm, California poppy, and wild lupine.
The Hamline-Midway library needs to change — but should it be demolished?
Over the last year, competing groups of library advocates have waged a low-key fight over the future of the small brick building.
