Menno

View of new 3-lane Lowry Ave with buffered bike lanes

View from the bike lane

Lane safety conversion & bike lane gap filled on Lowry Ave N!

Shout out to @mennos.bsky.social who pushed for this to get done this year, County staff who got on board, & City crews who installed. This 3-block paint job cost only $12k, but delivers big safety improvements.

River Road West between Franklin Avenue and Lake Street
Source: Hennepin County Library.

Northbound heads west to Cedar and does not get back on Hiawatha: www.metrotransit.org/closure

Blue Line replacement bus day 1 thoughts: place stops directly on Hiawatha for 38th and 46th instead of pulling into bus transit center. Lake Street stops should be on Hiawatha on/off-ramps instead of B Line stops. Allow buses on shoulder to pass Hiawatha backups.

Roadblock painted as a metro transit light rail vehicle at an intersection

Ready for the 2-week Blue Line closure starting tonight

Sunset with clouds over Lake Nokomis

Top tier sunset at Lake Nokomis this evening

Converting to bidirectional operations is one option, but there are trade-offs with the need for left-turn lanes. Reducing crossing distances and reallocating space for other modal priorities and greening can be achieved with one-ways. Page 20: www.minneapolismn.gov/media/-www-c...

A Blue Line train with the text “major project milestone, FTA signs off on Blue Line Extension environmental review.”

The Federal Transit Administration has signed off on the environmental review for the METRO Blue Line Extension, marking a significant step forward for the project. Learn more: BlueLineExt.org 

@metcouncilmn.bsky.social
@hennepin.bsky.social

If I generously cut 3:20 from the door-to-door train journey, the train would be 4.5 hours slower than a flight for me. Borealis offers great connections for the communities in-between the two destinations. But today it was rough to sit on a train that often stood still or crawled forward.

Events like that will happen more often with climate change, to which the many daily flights between MSP and Chicago are a contributing factor. The smoky sunset this evening being another reminder.

Then the train delay. A major cause of the delays were slow zones near Milwaukee due to heavy rainfall and flooding this past weekend impacting the tracks and freight train operations. (Definitely need better passenger rail priority over freight trains)

Living in South Minneapolis, I benefit tremendously from a quick and frequent LRT connection and proximity to the airport. While further from DT St Paul, future Randolph or West 7th BRT would speed up that trip by frequency alone, not having to wait 30 minutes for the next bus.

Could the flight journey be quicker? Maybe? Flight into a different O'Hare terminal could cut people mover. Or flight into Midway would be closer to DT. Hotel proximity to L or Union Depot could also be better for both journeys.

Could the train journey be quicker? Yes. Besides the delay (more on that in a sec), later arrival at Chicago Union Depot, and better bus connection in St Paul could shave off ~1 hour.

Monday
9:30am bus to Chicago Union Depot
11:10am Borealis train to St Paul
9:20pm arrival in St Paul (2:20 of delays)
Just missed bus.
9:50pm bus to South Minneapolis
10:25pm Bus drop off
Total: ~13 hours door-to-door

Thursday (after a full work day)
6pm light rail to MSP airport
8pm flight
9:30pm O'Hare terminal 5, people mover, then L to Downtown.
Bus to River North
11pm at hotel
Total: ~5 hours door-to-door

Airplane window view of clouds and sunset

Train window view of Mississippi River and Bluffs

Thread: Travel time comparison Minneapolis to/from Chicago by plane and train for a fun weekend at Market Days 🌈

Jane Addams Hull House museum facade

Hull House Maps and Papers

Visited the Jane Addams Hull House museum in Chicago yesterday. History of the settlement movement and mapping social demographics in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Corn sweat humidity season is here

Een hele mooie aflevering over maatschappelijke waarden, openbare ruimte, groei, wonen, toerisme, en een altijd veranderende stad

Happy Twin Cities Pride & new Lorde album weekend 🌈

METRO B Line opening day festivities have been canceled. Bus and train service will continue as scheduled. The decision to forego these public events was made after receiving reports of an evolving public safety situation. We urge you to rely on the Dept. of Public Safety for the latest updates. ~BG

YouTube video by cityofminneapolis Minneapolis Invitation to the 2026 Designing Cities Conference

Excited to be able to share that Minneapolis will host the 2026 @nacto.bsky.social Designing Cities conference in May of next year!

Come up north and see what we've been working on: youtu.be/mAO994_bni4?...

Freek van zangduo Suzan & Freek is ongeneeslijk ziek Freek Rikkerink heeft uitgezaaide longkanker. Het duo maakt dit bekend op Instagram.

Freek van zangduo Suzan & Freek is ongeneeslijk ziek

Yesterday Cinco de Mayo parade and festival on St Paul West Side, today Mayday Parade in Powderhorn. Aaaaanndd I have my first sunburn of the year 😬

Took the Northstar to Anoka and biked back home, will miss the river crossing if the train goes away

Downtown Minneapolis and Nicollet Island (1960s)
Source: Hennepin County Library

Looking north.

MSP running operations on perpendicular runway 4-22 all evening, it's been loud in the neighborhood

Only five US tour stops 😬

whether they’re retiring or not this should be the last term for each of them