Absolutely. Allow me to explain. A few years ago the firm I was working for moved to the Banks Building, a renovated warehouse in near northeast Minneapolis. At that time, the primary intersection in the neighborhood, at Hennepin and University Avenues, was flanked by a few businesses, including Surdyk’s liquor store and Kramarczuk’s meat market and deli. Even with these Minneapolis institutions, the area didn’t have critical mass. The businesses were destinations, but not the neighborhood. Fast forward a couple years, a couple hundred housing units and several new and renovated retail spaces, and the place is hopping. Even within…

The first thing I noticed about Houston is the lack of an accent. It’s not that a good southern drawl is entirely absent, but on my one day whirlwind tour of that city, I realized just how international it is. See my photos of Houston here. Nobody does roadside sprawl better than Houston. Many of the freeways in Houston don’t have formal interchanges, but rather a frontage road on both sides and frequent on and off ramps with the occasional overpass to reach the other side. So rather than businesses concentrated at interchanges, anything that can draw revenue is tossed…

My neighborhood is facing a small crisis, unfortunately pitting complete streets against complete neighborhoods. The city of Minneapolis has secured matching federal funds to complete the RiverLake Greenway, a proposed bike boulevard project. The RiverLake Greenway bike boulevard runs through my neighborhood. While I fully support the route of the greenway, and support efforts of the city to increase biking, unfortunately, the bike route has one major potential problem. Where it passes in front of a small row of local stores, the plan calls for the removal of a lane of parking along one side of the commercial street in…