Bill Lindeke is a lecturer in Urban Studies at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Geography, Environment and Society. He is the author of multiple books on Twin Cities culture and history, most recently St. Paul: an Urban Biography. Follow Bill on Twitter: @BillLindeke.
The decision is alarming because it discards years of work by a team of Minneapolis city planners and staff, makes irrelevant hundreds of public meetings attended by thousands of Minneapolis citizens and puts in limbo billions of dollars of development across the city.
The pending reconstruction of Summit Avenue gives St. Paul a golden opportunity to improve the street for the next generation.
For 11 years now, Open Streets have been a popular addition to the city’s summer calendar. But the organization that runs it, Our Streets Minneapolis, has hit a wall. A lack of funding has meant cuts to the number of events and limits to outreach.
The call by opponents of the Purple Line to “stop the bus invasion” begs the obvious question: Invasion of who?
The money allowed Ramsey County, like many local governments, to sign temporary leases for single-room occupancy shelters — making a huge difference for folks who had been out on the street.
The market coming back to the light rail stop marks a return to, if not normalcy, something that puts public space at the center of everyday life.
There’s no infrastructure that’s so important, yet so ignored, as a city’s sewers.
After another week of gray skies and cold weather, I asked some of the people participating in 30 Days of Biking: Was this cruel April just my bitter jaded imagination, or was this truly a horrible Minnesota spring?
Anyone who’s visited a large, thriving city knows the symbiosis between nightlife and transit.
At the very least, developer Cody Fischer may have grounds for a lawsuit.
The retail environment has changed a lot since the pharmacy was pitched back in 2006.
The lessons an upcoming state audit is sure to miss.
The machines make it possible to heat and cool buildings using only electricity, not natural gas.
The decline may have a lot to do with the inherently conservative nature of most construction financing.
The change was proposed after the toppling by protesters of a statue of Columbus in 2020, when it became clear there wasn’t a formal process for asking for a monument’s removal.
On being free of freeways.
The five-year saga of Carbucks illustrates how difficult it is for cities to remove drive-thrus once they are built — even obviously dysfunctional ones.
The right-of-way encompassed by the spur could be a critical trail and transit link in the capital city. But negotiations with Canadian Pacific to buy the land haven’t really started, and meanwhile the railroad has the option of selling it off piece by piece.
G. Travis Norvell, aka @pedalingpastor on Twitter, found himself annoyed that commuting information focused exclusively on those getting around by car.
After years of passing plans claiming the city is serious about climate change and safe streets, the Hennepin Avenue redesign actually puts these ideas into practice.
