Author Archive
Monday, April 28th, 2008
Alternative to Developer Driven Housing
One of the things I have noticed going to Corridor Housing Initiative meetings on 76th Street is how developer driven the solutions were to our senior housing issues. Yes there was “community input” but I can’t shake the feeling that the community was only given lip service rather than real power. After all I had [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Senior Housing by admin
Monday, April 28th, 2008
Is “Too Much Senior Housing?” a Hard Question?
On January 14,2008 the Housing and Redevelopment Authority and the City Council had a special meeting to discuss senior housing needs in Richfield and Mary Bujold from Real Estate Research and Consultant firm Maxfield Research Inc. was there (the meeting minutes do not report in what capacity she was there - as a neighborhood volunteer, or hired consultant) to report on [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Corridor Housing Initiative, Senior Housing by admin
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
I-494 Light-Pollution Problems
Night after night, the one problem on 76th Street, that is very clear is the amount of light pollution and light trespassing (which occurs when unwanted light enters one’s property) from the businesses and heavily light roadways along the 494 corridor.I can remember a time in the early 1970s when there wasn’t a greyish glow [...]
No Comments » - Posted in I-494 by admin
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
Foresight
I have heard it come from the city council before, why didn’t we have the gift of foresight? EX: “If we did we would have built the new city maintenance garage two years earlier we would have saved boat loads of taxpayers money.”
Unfortunately foresight is not a superpower or a secret ninja skill possessed by [...]
No Comments » - Posted in 76th Street Streetscape, Blather by admin
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
Meet Mr. Devil
I just attended the Richfield city council meeting where they approved of the of recommended streetscape design concepts for reconstruction of portions of 75th Street and 76th Street. The final results as approved by the city council is sidewalks on both sides of 76th street with the south being an 8′ trail managed by Three [...]
No Comments » - Posted in 76th Street Streetscape by admin
Sunday, February 17th, 2008
The Slumburbs
The March 2008 issue of the Atlantic Monthly published an article titled “The Next Slum?” by Christopher Leinberger, had reinforced what I have learned on the changing tide of suburbanization. That renewed urban allure to Gen-xers and the Millennials, the second largest demographic in history after the baby boomers, combined with the disillusionment of urban sprawl, long [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Blather by admin
Saturday, February 2nd, 2008
OPEN HOUSE!
It’s amazing what a difference an exclamation point can make! I went to the January 30th open house at city hall on the changes to the 75th/76th Street street scape plan, with the sidewalk now going from Nicollet Avenue to 11th Avenue on the south side of 76th Street and with bike lanes and [...]
No Comments » - Posted in 76th Street Streetscape by admin
Friday, February 1st, 2008
Branding your City
So there has been a series of interesting articles and blog entries about the metro area cities attempts to market themselves. The Pioneer Press came out with a piece on cities in the metropolitan area attempts to brand themselves usually with all the flare and charisma that one could expect when you have the office [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Blather by admin
Friday, February 1st, 2008
Lyndale Bridge Presentation
The design of Lyndale Avenue bridge over I-494 was unveiled yesterday at Bloomington City Hall. Unfortunately the low turn out (about 12 people) to see the design probably reflects the poor time slot that the viewing was put into (4:00pm-7:00pm). However, the Bloomington city staff that were there were very accommodating to myself and another [...]
No Comments » - Posted in I-494 by admin
Saturday, January 19th, 2008
Curb Appeal
The proposed design of the Bridge is to be a single-point diamond interchange and will look similar to the Penn Avenue Bridge over I-494. While the Penn Avenue Bridge won awards and gets an “A” for its traffic engineering, it fails to enhance the aesthetic of the road, respect neighborhoods, and provide opportunities as a [...]