Why Selby Avenue boasts the Twin Cities’ best patios
It’s a mix of things, from historical accident to competitive urges, that makes the Selby Patio District unparalleled in the seven-county metro. It wasn’t always this way.
Cityscape
Cityscape focuses on urban life in our metro area. Topics range from urban design and architecture to transportation, highways, traffic, transit, walking and biking. Cityscape also examines important urban issues — such as real estate development, education, crime, poverty and family life — as well as the arts, sports and entertainment in our community.
New disc golf course at Hillcrest Knoll Park brings sport to St. Paul’s east side
The nine-hole disc golf course, which officially opened last August, is sure to make 2023 a banner year in Hillcrest Knoll Park’s fascinating history.
The real victims of the oncoming office space glut might be suburbs like Eagan
Because commercial property is taxed at a higher rate than residential, for a city like Eagan, the loss of two large corporate headquarters is a hit to its bottom line.
New book invites exploration of old Twin Cities spots
“Oldest Twin Cities,” is a fun guidebook to the Twin Cities’ quirky history. “I like to say ‘Oldest Twin Cities’ is old-world history meets modern-day relevance,” author Julie Jo Severson said. “I don’t think of myself as a local expert or a local historian, I’m just somebody who’s extremely curious.”
Last-minute disarray on Bryant Avenue reconstruction is a bad sign for Minneapolis Public Works
For a normally transparent Public Works department to make up plans on the fly represents a big departure for Minneapolis’ approach to transportation. Even if you like the changes, which water down safety on the new street, the process is a red flag.
State Office Building expansion plan comes at the expense of the State Capitol’s best park space
It would be nice if the changes to the State Office Building improved, rather than harmed, the already sub-par public space around the state’s historic Capitol building.
Four reasons Minnesota’s roads are so riddled with potholes, and what we could be doing about it
When bumping along a city street, it’s easy to get mad at the mayor or public works staff, and plenty of people on social media are doing just that. The truth behind how Minnesota’s roads are built, maintained, and reconstructed is more complicated.
Minneapolis 2040 zoning remains stuck in the 1960s
The barriers between a central business districts for 9 to 5 office workers and residential neighborhoods for domestic quietude are breaking down, and zoning should reflect that.
Restoring Twin Cities-Duluth train service should be a big success
Passenger rail service between the Twin Cities and Duluth, once the state’s big railroad rivals, operated for over a century until it died, ignominiously, in 1986. Since then, Minnesota intercity train travel has been largely dormant, despite the boom in tourism and travel between the metro and North Shore.
Let’s talk about our racist and ugly state flag
The seal itself, a complex messy affair, dates back to 1858, when it was created by Alexander Ramsey, Henry Sibley and Seth Eastman.
Better design can reduce the use of road salt, preventing pollution in Minnesota’s water
Connie Fortin, long-time chloride expert, is focusing upstream on low-salt infrastructure design to reduce saline pollution.
Twin Cities drivers have become distracted and dangerous: We need speed cameras
There needs to be another way, and luckily there is. Automated camera enforcement is used in cities around the world, and is proven to reduce speeding and death. It’s the kind of technological fix often embraced in other areas of public policy, but for some reason has been anathema to American driving culture.
Twin Cities org gives tools, support to developers of color
LISC has been working for over a year to cultivate cohorts of people of color interested in becoming developers. It’s intended to change who’s included in the local real estate conversation.
Like it or not, St. Paul needs a new sales tax to fix roads
Every winter, pavement conditions deteriorate. Each spring, drivers anxiously wait for temperatures to rise, so that the city’s asphalt plant can start filling the potholes. And each year it gets worse.
Plumbing, pigeons and paint: Maintaining Minneapolis’ iconic Riverside Plaza at 50
Riverside Plaza, the 1,300-unit modernist apartments that dominate the eastern Minneapolis skyline, quietly turned 50 years old last year.
Need a new year’s resolution? Try walking.
A recent study looking at cell-phone data from millions of people around the world found that the U.S. ranks poorly when it comes to everyday walking. The average American takes just about 4,700 steps each day, a count that has surely declined since the pandemic and its work-from-home revolution.
More housing is the only way to fix our downtowns
“People downtown, their mood is different,” explained Calgar Kisa, working the week before Christmas at his downtown Minneapolis boutique. “It’s depressive. They don’t have a shopping mood; they have a working mood. They’re just busy, and say ‘I need to go home for the kids.’ I feel nobody can survive downtown in the retail business.”
Despite Croatia loss, World Cup was a moment in the sun for the Cro — South St. Paul’s unofficial livingroom
After a century on 2nd Avenue hosting weddings, funerals, and the best basement bar in the metro, the Cro (as it’s universally known) is why half of South St. Paul counts themselves honorary Croatians.
If not here, then where? Opposition to NE zoning changes another hurdle for adding housing in Minneapolis
Council Member Michael Rainville and a group of Northeast Minneapolis residents are trying to get 20 homes on Van Buren Street downzoned, restricting the size of apartment buildings that can be built.
With latest service cuts, Metro Transit needs to change how it runs the bus system
The situation makes transit advocates desperate for an alternative to another round of triage, with seemingly no end in sight.
