Northeast and Southeast Minneapolis - General Topics

[grant1simons2]

CPM wants to build workforce apartments rentals in Marcy-Holmes. Plans to raze the houses on the northwest corner of Ninth Avenue and Eighth Street Southeast in Minneapolis and replace them with new apartments.

*locked*: http://finance-commerce.com/2015/02/cpm ... z3Rx5df74H

[Tcmetro]

Not sure if we have a catch-all Southeast development thread, this would certainly fit better there.

I'm surprised that a developer has caught there eye on this part of the neighborhood. Mill Trace Condos (down the street) opened in 2006, but sold poorly and put the developer in financial trouble. I think a workforce housing project will do well here though.

[EOst]

That's a shame. The ones on the corner are real cute.

[grant1simons2]

Has to pass HPC I think, I'm against this project. I mean look around the area. You're telling me the only site you could pick were 3 houses which are all built in 1900?

[seanrichardryan]

The corner house is a 'victorian' that got a 1930s remuddling.

[MNdible]

Speaking of workforce housing, looks like there's a choice development located just around the bend.

Streetview doesn't show much, but there's something about that site plan that just screams, "We just don't care."

[David Greene]

[And yet, there are plenty of new problems that would emerge by redesigning here, including a pointless roundabout for traffic that largely doesn't turn

FWIW, I not infrequently want to turn from SW-bound Hennepin to eastbound 6th (to Brasa!) and it's a real pain due to the diversion of Hennepin to 7th/1st where I have to take a left onto Central and another left onto 6th and cross over busy Hennepin. I realize this isn't the specific intersection we're talking about but IME that diversion of Hennepin causes all kinds of confusion and headache. A roudabout further SW could eliminate the diversion and flow traffic on 5th over the 1st. I know that would preclude narrowing the ROW on 5th.

Though I will certainly defer to the experiences of people who actually live there.

[seanrichardryan]

Speaking of workforce housing, looks like there's a choice development located just around the bend.

Streetview doesn't show much, but there's something about that site plan that just screams, "We just don't care."

Notice the two quonset huts behind the site! There was once a huge swath of old barracks repurposed as post-war housing in this area just to the north. Workforce housing indeed.

[xandrex]

FWIW, I not infrequently want to turn from SW-bound Hennepin to eastbound 6th (to Brasa!) and it's a real pain due to the diversion of Hennepin to 7th/1st where I have to take a left onto Central and another left onto 6th and cross over busy Hennepin. I realize this isn't the specific intersection we're talking about but IME that diversion of Hennepin causes all kinds of confusion and headache. A roudabout further SW could eliminate the diversion and flow traffic on 5th over the 1st. I know that would preclude narrowing the ROW on 5th.

Though I will certainly defer to the experiences of people who actually live there.

Traveling S/SW on Hennepin and getting into 6th certainly is another issue and could potentially be fixed. 6th between Hennepin and 1st Avenue is atrocious.

That said, other than Brasa, 6th offers no access to anything most outsiders would need (it's pretty much exclusively housing). 6th is my main gateway into and out of the neighborhood from my apartment. I think a bigger fix would perhaps be realigning the street between Hennepin/Central with the segment between Central/1st. That wouldn't help with the Brasa problem, but definitely with neighborhood connectivity and access.

[trigonalmayhem]

Does anyone have any real issues getting through this intersection. Living a few blocks away from here, I drive or ride the bus through it nearly every day. Even at rush hour, when it is quite packed, traffic moves pretty quickly. The lights are actually pretty short so you rarely wait more than a minute total.

Another benefit of the current design is that if you know how to navigate the intersection as a pedestrian, it's actually pretty quick. Because there are three streets that need signals, pedestrians actually get a lot of long walk cycles. With a little tweaking for a few kinks in certain walk-cycle combos and making that pedestrian island ADA compliant (it's embarrassingly bad with its ped ramps), it could really be useful as-is. I'd be a little concerned with how busy the two streets are that a roundabout would become hostile to pedestrians and--perhaps even moreso--to bikers, as 5th Street is a designated bike boulevard.

I live literally *at* this intersection (in that ugly new building everyone here seemed to hate) and walking through this intersection daily is a nightmare. It amazes me that such a ridiculous intersection with such fast crosswalk timing is allowed to exist within a block of at least one (maybe two?) retirement homes.

Not to mention the fact that people regularly turn the wrong way down hennepin off central here for a block or two. And that people drive on all these streets like they're highways (try crossing central ave at rush hour--good luck!). The crosswalks are a mess that require you to zig-zag in weird directions instead of crossing straight across and they're usually blocked by cars that couldn't be bothered to stop where they were supposed to anyway. Also people making half turns onto/off of fifth to get to/from central and hennepin basically ignore anyone crossing on foot and all the traffic signals, so having two right on reds in such a weird little non-place basically means you could be killed anytime you try to cross to the pedestrian island (which the city doesn't bother shoveling snow from unless you call to 'remind' them that it belongs to them --you're welcome neighborhood).

Something needs to happen, because as Red 20 fills up and when that old warehouse further up central gets renovated and occupied there's going to be a lot more foot traffic through here and the current setup is a death trap for anyone not in a car. I've got some ideas, but there's no way to make it safe without pissing off some drivers and making them go a few extra blocks for a some connections.

Don't even get me started on First Ave NE.

[maxbaby]

A little info on the Grain Belt Brew House.
http://finance-commerce.com/2015/02/bui ... rew-house/

[MNdible]

The building housing Red Stag has been sold.

Although the article doesn't quite come out and say it, this looks like an insider job. The buyer is a Joshua Howe, who (based on what the google tells me) is close personal friends with Kim Bartmann, and he apparently has previously purchased buildings that Bartmann runs restaurants in.

[trigonalmayhem]

The traffic lights all along first ave NE were out this morning and guess what? Traffic didn't come grinding to a halt. I wish someone could take this as a lesson in traffic calming and change most or all of the lights to stop signs. Then again only about half of drivers seemed to realize a broken traffic light should be treated as a stop sign and many blazed right on through without slowing down. I'm kind of amazed I didn't see any accidents because of that.

[xandrex]

^Traffic also hasn't been as bad because folks finally realized they shouldn't take the Hennepin Avenue Bridge into downtown unless they want a big delays due to the construction there. The first two days were 30+ minute waits for some folks going into downtown during PM rush. Everyone else finding new routes has been useful for those of us on a bus that needs to cross the river there.

Given that, I don't think it's necessarily a good comparison.

[Elliot Altbaum]

Does anyone know what is happening at 26th and Central? Streetview from Sept 2014 shows a line of old buildings but the satellite images show the buildings razed.

[EOst]

They were going to be used for an expansion of Neighborhood HealthSource, but they instead are moving to 23rd and Central, and Walgreens purchased that whole row for a new pharmacy building. See here: http://www.journalmpls.com/news-feed/ne ... ve-shakeup

I haven't been up that way in quite a while; for all I know, the new Walgreens is already there.

[Elliot Altbaum]

Thanks. That part of Central is seeing a lot of positive momentum. Some small projects and ADUs in the neighborhood would be great.

[Wedgeguy]

Did the detour for the rail bridge over Central get finished last year, or does it wind up this year?

[Viktor Vaughn]

Central reopened in December, IIRC.

[MNdible]

There is still some finishing work going on with this project, but the major elements are completed.