urbanMSP

The governor's proposed budget was released this week: https://mn.gov/governor/budget/ Is this mostly a "bonding bill"? I've really only been looking at the transportation section. I'm not sure how much is usually directly appropriated vs. being paid through bonds. I've mostly been focused...

Well, this is a little odd to post, but an episode of Lifetime's My Great Big Live Wedding was broadcast from Union Depot last night. I grew up going to school with the groom, Rob Ronnenberg, and briefly met the bride, Jen, a few years ago (though I figured they were already married). She has cystic...

It's under "LX" ("Lindau Mixed Use") zoning with an "AR-17" (Airport Runway) overlay, and the height rules for that defer to the "2004 MSP Zoning Ordinance." Looks like LX zoning sets minimums rather than maximums, saying that at least 60% of a building must b...

I'd be disappointed (though not surprised) if that plan was accepted without being amended. The site is 14.35 acres, or about 625,000 square feet, and the eventual plan would be to add 614,000 square feet of interior space. I mean, yay for achieving an FAR of about 1, but that's a pretty big plot of...

Reminds me that I have a fairly ancient blog post and map that did a first-pass analysis of existing freeway interchanges to say whether it would be relatively easy or hard to add bus stops. A regular diamond interchange is pretty straightforward, but designs that fold ramps around or are missing on...

Taking the Northstar this morning, I see that there's finally an apartment building going up next to the Coon Rapids station.

From this 2014 MnDOT Intercity Bus Study , I see that your route is partially subsidized through the FTA's Rural Area Formula Program, S. 5311(f). Figure 2-3 on page 2-10 maps out some data for the stops that are under the subsidy program, but not the ones that are on the non-subsidized portion of t...

It would probably be best to transition to DMUs over the long term, though I wouldn't necessarily recommend jumping into that quite yet. Okay, revisiting the numbers a bit, you could probably manage something close to the existing schedule by splitting the current Northstar fleet up into five active...

Metra has a few lines that end in cities of 5,000-10,000 people, so I think having a line that stops in Becker on the way to a bigger city/mini-metro is perfectly fine. It's harder to make a case for Clear Lake, though that town gets a lot more car traffic than you'd expect since it is near the only...

Here's a link to Wolgamott's HF1179 bill: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF1179&version=latest&session=ls91&session_year=2019&session_number=0 The as-introduced version appropriates $850,000 from the general fund for "assessment, analysis, and review" (whe...

Here's something more practical in the near term: Rep. Dan Wolgamott has introduced HF 1179 to fund extending Northstar to St. Cloud. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, though he announced on Twitter that there will be a public Transportation Committee hearing in St. Cloud at noon next Friday...

Not much detail, but a government affairs representative from Amtrak visited Duluth over the weekend talking about NLX. https://www.fox21online.com/2019/02/10/talks-continue-for-duluth-minneapolis-rail-line/ I guess we typically don't hear much from Amtrak about this line, though I'd heard many year...

It did occur to me as I was falling asleep on Saturday night that there could be some malicious intent behind that proposal. It's possible that it was some anti-immigrant/anti-semitic/anti-who-knows-what dogwhistle that just blew right past me -- I'm often not very attuned to such things. Hopefully ...

I agree that extending it to Camp Ripley alone doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I don't think it hurts to look at extending Northstar to points beyond St. Cloud, though it would make more sense for that to be operated as a "regional" service rather than commuter (thanks to Joey for menti...

Yeah, new/restored passenger services should take as many lessons as possible from Brightline as they can. Their trains are compliant with the old FRA crash(un)worthiness standards, so they could theoretically be plopped down anywhere in the US without the freights complaining too much. We'll have t...

Since I bumped the Rochester HSR thread, I should touch this one too. I believe NLX is very close to being "shovel-ready" and could use support this year from people who are contacting their legislators. It would be nice to get the project moving since it's been examined for so long.

With the shift to a DFL majority in the state house and Walz in office as governor, I'm hoping something can be restarted for service to Rochester. I included it in a laundry list of projects and funding priorities in a couple emails to my state rep and senator, though I still need to write somethin...

Has anyone heard if something is happening at 1177 West 7th Street? It's been a vacant lot for several years (Street View showed a house in 2007, but it was gone by the next pass in 2011). I saw a skid loader just about done tearing up the grass yesterday. This is between Tavial Grill and the strip ...

Looks like the area I mentioned on the southeast corner of American Blvd and 28th Ave (8001 28th Ave S) is a Ceres / Orlean project to build a Cambria hotel with 170 rooms. It may have been mentioned in the F&C article above, but I don't have a subscription to check. The Hennepin County Property...

The restaurant, Union Depot Bar & Grill, has been open since late June. It's operated by Kaskaid Hospitality, best known for Crave and Union in downtown Minneapolis (the City Pages article also says Cowboy Jack's, but I think they must have confused that with Burger Burger, which is next door to...