Downtown Revitalization: Minneapolis

[Metro Jacksonville]

Downtown Revitalization: Minneapolis



Metro Jacksonville takes a look at the heart of the Midwest's second largest economic center: Minneapolis.

Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2014-feb-downtown-revitalization-minneapolis

[Keith-N-Jax]

Nice but to cold for my taste. Would certainly like to visit there in summer/spring.

[coredumped]

That's a cool Target.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Nice CVS also.

[fieldafm]

Minneapolis and Milwauke are two of my favorite cold-weather cities not named 'Chicago'.  Uptown is a great model for what North San Marco could become.

Like Keith-N-Jax says though, in the winter it is BITTERLY cold. You can see in some of Lake's pics that there are elevated walkways all over downtown so that workers can avoid walking on the sidewalk all together when the temps drop in the Zero degree range.

[Riverrat]

I remember being bummed that I had to go to a conference in Minneapolis because it sounded so drab...but it impressed me so much that it's one of my favorite cities. They just seem to "get it" ...and the light rail system is fantastic. Granted, I was there in August and it was 70' and sunny the entire time, so there's that.

[Stephen]

I used to do a bicycle ride every summer from Minneapolis to Chicago every summer and I loved the time I used to spend in downtown Minneapolis. They have made it so there are a lot of housing in the area and the streets are full of bars and cafes.

[CityLife]

Great piece Lake! Minneapolis is probably the most surprising city I've ever been to. Totally blew away my low expectations. The art museums are fantastic, including The Walker which is one of the better American modern art museums, and The Weisman which was designed by Frank Gehry. They've got a great ethnic food corridor called Eat Street, which isn't too far from downtown. Plus the downtown nightlife and theater scene is bustling. Having a huge university like University of Minnesota so close to downtown makes a big difference too. Imagine if UF or FSU were located in Riverside or St. Nicholas.

All the above said, the biggest thing that jumped out at me is how well they maintain and invest in their public spaces. The city is immaculate and the parks are gorgeous. Transit system is still a work in progress, but I'm sure will get better with the new lines they are opening. You can definitely tell that their local government knows how to make strategic capital improvements for the betterment of the city....

[vicupstate]

When I was in Minneapolis, I was very curious as to the DT residential population. I told myself it HAD to well north of 20,000 and 30,000 would not have surprised me.

I came across this today in another forum.  It is even higher than I thought. It is nearly 10% of the total population in the city limits, and is increasing by about 1,000 residents a year.

According to the Downtown Council, there are now 37,526 downtown MPLS residents compared to 36,500 in 2012 and roughly 33,500 in 2010.

[thelakelander]

Minneapolis is only 55 square miles but has 393k residents. By comparison, it's less dense than Miami (420k in 35 square miles) but significantly denser than Atlanta (444k in 132 square miles). I'm sure the CBD also benefits from good transit/bike connectivity between it and the surrounding neighborhoods.

[vicupstate]

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/06/18/4987648/charlotte-leaders-try-out-minneapolis.html#.U6KjCPldUwA

MINNEAPOLIS Charlotte’s political and business leaders arrived in the Twin Cities on a civic fact-finding mission Wednesday and immediately declared one goal worth emulating: a network of public parks and bikeways so extensive that in one instance, officials deemed it possible to bike across the city faster than driving.

The Charlotte Chamber’s annual intercity trip, aimed at finding new solutions for Charlotte’s problems, brought about 130 leaders to Minneapolis-St. Paul, including key leaders in city and county government as well as major corporations.

Michael Tarwater, head of Carolinas HealthCare System and this year’s chamber chairman, said the Minneapolis region was picked this year because it boasts some of the country’s highest rankings on a well-known fitness index.

Minneapolis’ bike push

Part of that, Minneapolis officials suggested, has to do with their aggressive expansion of bikeways and parkland. Lisa Bender, a member of the Minneapolis City Council, said the city expanded its bike lanes from 45 miles to 81 from 2011 to 2013.

With 6,400 acres of public parks, she added, no resident is more than six blocks from a park.

She and other local officials credited some of the expansion to a $28 million federal grant for a pilot project aimed at boosting biking and walking. She said the effort has been a success, and showed slides of a 5-mile “bike highway” that runs from one end of the city to the other, parallel to an often-clogged major road.

“You can absolutely cross town faster now on a bicycle than by transit or by driving yourself,” said Bender, adding that she bikes to work at City Hall. “It’s become really cool. … Everybody wants to get on the bicycle-riding bandwagon.”

Members of the Charlotte delegation tested it out themselves, with City Council members, Mecklenburg commissioners and business executives hopping aboard bikes and Segways for a tour.

Charlotte’s struggles

Making roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists has long been a sore spot in Charlotte, which has scored poorly on several national studies ranking the walkability of urban areas. There have been high-profile pedestrian deaths in recent years, including the 2012 accident on West Tyvola Road in which two young boys were hit and killed by a delivery truck. Residents lamented the lack of a sidewalk, but more than a year passed – and the truck driver was convicted – before Charlotte City Council finally awarded the construction contract for the project in January.

More recently, residents in the booming South End have complained that the pedestrian-friendly development flooding the area hasn’t been accompanied by enough pedestrian-oriented safety measures on busy South Boulevard.

Michael Smith, head of Charlotte Center City Partners, applauded the Minneapolis bikeway system and said Charlotte needs to make a similar commitment to accommodate the more urban, pedestrian-oriented growth happening in the city’s core.

But City Council member Claire Fallon said she wasn’t sure about the Minneapolis approach to bikeways, which Bender said next will include a push to put more bike lanes on existing roads.

“If we did that here, they’d hang us,” Fallon said, referring to Charlotte voters.

Earlier in the day, Michael Langley, head of the Minneapolis Saint Paul Regional Economic Development Partnership, told the group Minneapolis makes heavy investments in its parks and other civic assets, but residents pay more taxes for the “high-cost, high-quality” approach to city-building.

Frazier: 704-358-5145; Twitter: @Ericfraz


Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/06/18/4987648/charlotte-leaders-try-out-minneapolis.html#.U6KjCPldUwA#storylink=cpy

[vicupstate]

Charlotte looks to Minneapolis' successful bid to win a Super Bowl, to help it's own chances.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/06/19/4990117/charlotte-as-super-bowl-host-citys.html

[tufsu1]

I think it is time that cities look deeper into what it takes to win a Super Bowl...look at the handouts and guarantees that Minneapolis is having to provide the NFL....why would Charlotte (or any other city) really want that?

[Rob68]

If I ever had to move somewhere itd be minneapolis. Great people. Diverse. International. Great food. Lots of art. And girls can drink ya under the table.  A great lgbt group. The cold...uggh.

[fsquid]

I think it is time that cities look deeper into what it takes to win a Super Bowl...look at the handouts and guarantees that Minneapolis is having to provide the NFL....why would Charlotte (or any other city) really want that?

ego