In honor of the Minnesota State Fair as a bookmark at the end of summer, I’m here to tell a tale of what I did on my summer vacation. I drove west, naturally. My family piled in to the car and drove to Colorado. The great American road trip, we put 2,300 miles on our faithful Mazda 5. Along the way we saw the Mitchell Corn Palace, the Badlands, Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills, the Rocky Mountains (purple mountain majesties) and the western prairie (amber waves of grain…actually, just corn, oh God, so much corn!) And, of course, some good urbanism.…

Thank you for your response. I’m sure citizens and voters will take these in to consideration and get back to you with additional questions regarding the reconstruction of Minnehaha Avenue. And I see we have our first questions now. You cite five pedestrian crashes from 2010 to 2012 and two pedestrian fatalities in 2009 (Question 26, Page 4 of the response). How many vehicle crashes have occurred in that time and how many fatalities? What is the primary culprit of these accidents (speed, inattentiveness, etc.)? With regard to trees, why do you continue to provide a false choice between cycletracks and…

The City of Minneapolis is promising to spend a lot of money on some critical pieces of downtown infrastructure. The new Vikings Stadium and Downtown East area, Peavey Plaza, Nicollet Mall all are being considered for major capital investments. With Nicollet Mall, take one look at the people using the street and you can see that maybe the answer doesn’t lie in fancy infrastructure and world-class designers, perhaps the key is the social realm. What’s more is it’s already happening. We need look no further than food trucks, the farmers market and the Piazza on the Mall for proof. Earlier this week…

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…

The Stadium Implementation Committee meets July 18 and several more times in to September to advise on key design decisions related to the new Vikings stadium in downtown Minneapolis. This post is primarily concerned about the relationship of the stadium to its surrounding urban environment. In late May Oslund & Associates presented the landscape plan for the stadium, and the following are my questions, concerns and recommendations about this plan. I hope the Stadium Implementation Committee considers the following. Pedestrian access. A common complaint about the Metrodome is for 30 years it has been a pedestrian barrier in downtown East. The design for…

After attending last week’s meeting hosted by Hennepin County regarding the reconstruction of Minnehaha Avenue in Minneapolis, I have a few questions. First question. Designs shown at the meeting generally indicate an increase in vehicular traffic of around 1% per year, or about 20% by 2030. Why? What is the County basing this on? Isn’t that a self-fulfilling prophecy? Build it and they will come. Making it easier to drive results in more traffic, something called induced demand. Do we really want more traffic on Minnehaha? The question was raised during the meeting and the answer from the County representative was that household…

This past Friday, after considerable haggling, some crossed wires and some interesting negotiations with the City of Minneapolis, the Northbound received their encroachment permit and installed their on-street bike corral. I hope this second on-street bike corral in Minneapolis helps set the tone for a better city approvals process so the next corral and the one after that are easier to put in use. As my post from March indicates, I’ve spent a little time on this. One year, to be exact. My efforts with Public Works to secure the encroachment permit on behalf of the Northbound led to a formal request to Minneapolis…

“Why would anybody ever eat anything besides breakfast food?” – Leslie Knope “People are idiots, Leslie.” – Ron Swanson When I heard Al’s might get redeveloped, I thought the end of the bearkfast world was approaching. My first reaction was “you can take away Al’s Breakfast but you’ll have to pry that bacon from my cold dead hands.” So what does any self-respecting lover of breakfast food do? I took my son Ellis to Al’s for breakfast. And I asked questions and I did a little research. I was relieved to find out from Al’s staff that they are not…

Two years ago at CNU 19 in Madison, a couple of guys named Mike Lydon and Andrew Howard presented something called “tactical urbanism.” It sounded good – without necessarily asking for permission, you install temporary trees, crosswalks, bike lanes, sidewalk seating and inspire neighbors to take back their street. Two years later here at CNU 21 in Salt Lake City, Mike Lydon and Andrew Howard were back to present again, this time joined by Aaron Naparstek. Much has changed, but tactical urbanism holds as much potential as ever for neighborhoods to embrace their public realm and demonstrate the potential for long-term…

It has been seven years since this urbanist last visited Daybreak. In 2006 I wrote an article for ULI (you may have heard of it). At that time Daybreak was a few hundred homes, a school and the idea of new urbanism was indeed new to Salt Lake City. Now, one housing bust and a light rail line later, I returned to see if Daybreak has grown up. It has, but in human terms, it is no longer a young child and now a responsible teenager with a job and a bright future. The Trax red line now serves Daybreak, a…