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.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is spending the $47 million in three distinct phases, with a pause between each phase to collect data and evaluate how the grants and goals are working.
Especially in a time when so much time, money, and resources are spent planning for improved downtown transit, routine “box blocking” is a sure transportation travesty.
Thanks to demographics and changing tastes, the demand for soccer means that youth soccer clubs in St. Paul and Minneapolis sometimes have to travel to distant suburbs to find a playable pitch for their ostensible home games.
New zoning changes offer relief to people who own a whole category of historic properties that have been marginalized by city’s 20th-century codes.
St. Paul’s plan is currently in draft form, and the city is accepting comments now. The big goal is to become carbon neutral within 30 years.
“They have emergency situations, or a family member passes away,” said one renter, and soon people in crisis risk eviction and future denials of housing. Proposals are being developed to address these and other tenant issues, drawing pushback from some landlords.
Change is hard because golf is such a potent symbol. But fewer golfers and wetter conditions are creating dilemmas for local cities.
It’s not just stuff. For some people, homes themselves are becoming simpler and smaller.
Can MayDay and Grand Old Day find a way to march toward a sustainable future?
The No. 21’s Selby-Lake-Marshall-University Avenue route wasn’t always so complicated. During the dawn of the streetcar era, the straight-shot Selby-Lake streetcar was one of the key east-west connections linking the Twin Cities.
St. Paul’s Municipal Asphalt Plant is a 55-year-old structure that towers impressively over the ball fields and skate park on Front Avenue.
In a corner of the Nathan Hale Park, a problem popped up this year when a neighboring fence mistakenly truncated a slim margin of land.
The hope is that, with the scorecard, both developers and residents can better understand at a glance what people community members want.
The jury is still out on whether Frogtown’s innovative gamble will work out. But at the very least, the new format has already increased engagement and access to knowledge.
The majority of St. Paul’s historical ice palaces were not actual physical buildings, but more like icy structures best viewed from a relative distance.
To my eyes, the document marked a watershed moment when Minneapolis leaders began to think publicly and holistically for the first time. The problem is that almost none of its recommendations ever got adopted.
The history of urban street lighting is secretly fascinating, and once you open up Pandora’s light bulb, the resulting complexity is staggering.
The modern internet era, combined with the proliferation of cable, has made the brick-and-mortar video store as obsolete as an elevator operator.
Debates in the Minnesota Legislature have reached full swing, and so far the early results suggest there could be a lot of activity around state transportation policy.
The issues? “Security, safety, litter, comments about things like employees having to walk through the skyway when there are people sleeping in there,” said Jon Fure.
