This week’s love-fest over at Streets.mn has produced good content. Curiously, none of its content involves any of us writers proclaiming love for the streets in our Twin Cities or suburbs. We talk about trails and parks, which Minnesota does very well. Brendon Slotterback loves trees that line our streets and Andrew Owen loves accessibility that comes from how our streets are used, but what about the streets themselves? Given the name of this website, this is profoundly disturbing, although I suppose one of the reasons we exist is to seek answers to why our streets are so lacking. Still,…

Perhaps the most endearing aspect of Jeff Speck’s new book “Walkable City” is he uses Minneapolis for his final argument. He recalls watching The Mary Tyler Moore Show as a kid in the 1970s when most TV portrayed cities as dirty and crime-ridden, but here was a young woman embarking on a new life in the big city. Do people come to Minneapolis to pursue their urban dreams? I’d like to think so. But back to the book. Damn you Jeff Speck! You have written the book I (and I’m sure other readers) wanted to write. Walkable City is a…