Driving 28th Avenue from 38th Street to Minnehaha Parkway in south Minneapolis is a pleasure, a little too much so. Traffic is relatively light compared to so many busy streets in the city, the speed limit is 30 MPH, the road surface was repaved last year and is nice and smooth. The only likely place you have to stop is the signal at 42nd Street, but even there you have close to 50/50 odds of a green light. There is the occasional cyclist trying to cross at the Minnehaha Creek crosswalk. Otherwise 28th Avenue is clear sailing. Taken in isolation, smooth traffic…

On Saturday September 20th I’m helping put together a Better Block event at the corner of 42nd Street and 28th Avenue. September 20th is also PARKing Day and Max Musicant at the Musicant Group is planning a large PARKing Day event in southwest Minneapolis. Both events are one day, and use public space on sidewalks and streets in a different way to encourage people to come out, mingle, enjoy themselves, lobby for change, and most of all to see and enjoy their city in a new way. Come and join us! Better Block (sometimes called Tactical Urbanism) is a grassroots effort to demonstrate how…

Oaks Station Place opened late last year next to the 46th Street Station of the Blue Line in Minneapolis. Developed by Oaks Properties, the mixed-use project has 104 market rate apartment units that leased within months of opening. There remains an available retail space and the developer reports interest from a restaurant. Our neighborhood group, SENA, has been involved with this project since inception, and even helped get a $100,000 grant for a really cool public art installation on the plaza. If the project can land a restaurant tenant of some kind, I’ll be satisfied. After all, the whole point of TOD is to have…

Here’s a riddle. How do you calm traffic legally but without having to go through city hall? You have two options: have a road reconstruction project; or a major storm that knocks trees down and blocks streets. Standish-Ericsson got both this summer at the same time, causing undue stress and disruption. But alas, there is a silver lining and maybe some instructive ideas about better urbanism. While it is true that the summer-long closure of 28th Avenue near my home has caused me and my neighbors some inconvenience, and certainly the storm ravaged yards and homes, I suspect I will…