Make the Twin Cities even better !!! (Minneapolis, Franklin: fit in, apartment, lofts)

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

Skyways are very necessary here and bring their own kind of "charm", if you will. By removing them and forcing people to the sidewalks you are trying to force people to do something they'd rather not do. Why take away a good idea? I say you should embrace skyways and work with them to make a unique kind of urban vibrancy. If Minneapolis had 10 million more people and downtown was absolutely bustling with people, you'd definitely wish there were multiple ways to get from one building to the next! Our sidewalks could never support the amount of foot traffic you see in NYC, for example.

What I never understood is why there aren't any restaurants on a skyway overlooking the busy street life? What an interesting perspective that would be! Or if there is one, I don't know where it is. It would have to be a modified skyway, obviously, so it could support normal foot traffic but also a restaurant with tables overlooking a busy street, like Nicollet or 2nd Ave. I'd want to go!

[MplsTodd]

Originally Posted by Min-Chi-Cbus

//www.city-data.com/forum/city-...mployment.html

I saw it here....in City-Data forum "city vs. city", titled: "cities information on central business districts and employment" (or something along those lines). Check it out for yourself. I was winging the figures when I wrote this so they may be a bit off.

Thanks for the link. In some ways the rankings seem reasonable, but for some criteria it just seems questionable. For example, they list the area of BOTH downtown Minneapolis AND downtown St. Paul as 0.79 square miles. That seems awfully small to me. In contrast they have downtown Miami as being 2.91 square miles and dwtn Columbus as being 2.47 sq miles. So, something seems fishy.

But its an interesting analysis--hopefully they'll refine their data.

I recall that the State of Minnesota used to break down employment by geographic areas of the Twin Cities, including several districts of Minneapolis and St paul. That's where I recall seeing total employment in DT Mpls to be around 150,000 - 160,000. Employment likely has declined due to the poor economy.

[Joe3rdwash]

Originally Posted by Min-Chi-Cbus

//www.city-data.com/forum/city-...mployment.html

I saw it here....in City-Data forum "city vs. city", titled: "cities information on central business districts and employment" (or something along those lines). Check it out for yourself. I was winging the figures when I wrote this so they may be a bit off.

suprising !!!
in that case we should expand downtown and offer businesses special offers like reduced tax and/or reduced land cost, free parking etc

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

Originally Posted by Joe3rdwash

suprising !!!
in that case we should expand downtown and offer businesses special offers like reduced tax and/or reduced land cost, free parking etc

I totally agree! I also think they should re-landscape all of the downtown core land East of the current built up core with wider sidewalks, tree-lined streets, other vegetation, two-way streets and mandated building setbacks to promote more beautiful streetscapes with lots of natural light that will attract businesses from the suburbs. Kind of like how the Loop in Chicago differs from River North -- more light, better streets/sidewalks, etc.

[tijlover]

Originally Posted by knke0204

MPLS needs more highrises. The strib recently did an article about how there are no new skyscrapers planned for the next 10 years or so.

MPLS needs more of a 'big city feel'. It just doesn't have that same feeling as driving into Chicago or LA. I know Chi and LA are way bigger, but MPLS seems so tiny, with it's tiny skyline (still nice) and small area (56 sq miles) and small pop (389,000).

Get some high rises, and densify MPLS, make it the same area but double the pop, that should be interesting.

I agree! A good start would be Loring park, mid-to-high rises with shops, restaurants on the first/2nd floor, overlooking the park. I lived in this area in the 70's/early 80's. It has such a great potential to be a truly urban, dense pocket a la Manhattan/Chicago.

But before the architects waste their time and energy with building plans, remove the Nimby's first. Exile them to Bloomington or Edina before they start screaming: 40 stories? No, no, no! 4 stories! Oh, OK! 6 stories!

[sammy332]

My suggestion: more life. This may mean more down town expansion (especially st paul which is way behind mpls). And we need lots more places for coffee where people can hang out. Usually there are 2 or 3 caribous and everyone is there. Caribou is nice but a little boring. We need more places to go, half the time there is no where to go.

[sammy332]

here's another:
Put more restaurants on grand ave. I think it's getting better (especially by lexington at starbucks). But you need more more more more. That is the operative word. Keep building, and more people will come.

Look at the trader joe's in st paul (at lexington). Everyone goes. We need more of that, everywhere.

I think Whole foods coming to town is very positive. We need more stuff like that.

[sammy332]

also better light rail. which hopefully will allow more places to live in and around downtown, on both sides of the river.

[gearedtowardssalad]

Here are some things that I feel would make me like the city of Minneapolis more appealing (I don't care about the rest of the metro)..

1. Copy Minneapolis and paste it on top of Duluth, and then throw Duluth where Minneapolis was.
2. More people.
3. Better public transportation.
4. A more socialist approach to city politics.

[uptown_urbanist]

Originally Posted by sammy332

My suggestion: more life. This may mean more down town expansion (especially st paul which is way behind mpls). And we need lots more places for coffee where people can hang out. Usually there are 2 or 3 caribous and everyone is there. Caribou is nice but a little boring. We need more places to go, half the time there is no where to go.

What part of the Twin Cities are you thinking of here? I found this comment funny, since in the parts of Minneapolis I spend most of my time (Uptown and Southwest Minneapolis) you can barely turn around without running into a coffee shop (not a Caribou to be seen; tons of Dunn Brothers, though, plus assorted independent places). Some corners have TWO coffee places! I don't know how they all survive. Coffee places and bike shops: the city is overflowing with both (#6 in the country in terms of numbers of coffee shops, although that's just numbers, not per capita). No complaints there, just an observation.

I'd like more bread bakeries in the neighborhoods. And more retail mixed in with residential areas. There are a lot of small business nodes now, but I'd like to see more, as well as more small neighborhood markets.