transit oriented development : Featured Stories

Public art has evolved into an essential element of urban placemaking and social engagement. From murals on vacant buidlings to art in laundormats to temporary art installations that invite public participation, we take a look at public art and how it's changing cities.

With Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) a possible future option for areas of Minneapolis and Saint Paul where light rail isn't feasible, I decided to take ride on Apple Valley's newly opened BRT route (the Red Line) to check it out. And why not? I'd already checked into a suburban hotel after the power went out at home.

Charging stations for electric cars are popping up here and there in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. In fact, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is working to install up to 76 electric car-charging stations throughout the metro area, adding to an already expanding network.  Here's our guide (a work in progress) to our towns' car-charging infrastructure.

The nonprofit Springboard for the Arts used to concentrate solely on career development for artists. Now, under the leadership of Laura Zabel, it's become a powerful force in redefining the whole relationship between artists and the communities they live in--and in marshaling artistic creativity to improve those communities.

Art lives in the Twin Cities--and not just in the tonier parts of town. Thanks to initiatives like Twin Cities LISC's Building Sustainable Communities program, art and artists are taking major roles in helping some of our most challenged inner-city communities thrive.

As the building phase of the Central Corridor line finishes up, it's becoming clear that--thankfully--the direst predictions of business disruption didn't materialize. Now enterprises up and down the corridor are getting used to the new normal.

Both St. Paul and Minneapolis have committed themselves to making their downtowns more residential, with major projects to develop the infrastructure a genuine residential neighborhood requires. But, says Minnesota 2020 fellow Agata Miszczyk, an emphasis on rental units and luxury buildings is holding back the vitality that the downtowns need.

When globetrotting dancers and choreographers Uri Sands and Toni Pierce-Sands, formerly of the Alvin Ailey company, decided to establish a new kind of multicultural dance school in Saint Paul, they knew where they wanted it to be: along the Central Corridor in the heart of the city.

According to Amber Collett, a transit and bike activist (and a former Twin Cities resident), we've got reason to envy Portland's bike-friendly transit system. But Minneapolis actually wins in the comparison. Why? Read on.

The bars and restaurants in this uber-trendy corner of downtown Minneapolis draw national attention. Meanwhile, developers, community groups, and residents are turning the surrounding neighborhood into a pleasantly dense, lively, and livable urban village.

The Central Corridor light rail line (aka the Green Line) won't be finished till 2014, but it's already earning its keep, writes Conrad LeFiebre of MN 2020, as development advances, once-disrupted business stabilizes, and observers add up the unique advantages of a line that connects two downtowns.

Jay Walljasper checks in with British urbanist Charles Landry, who recaps his experience touring the Twin Cities, meeting a wide array of local urban changemakers, and applying his principles of city vitality to our reality. And Landry draws some conclusions about how our towns can thrive in the coming decades.

In this blog post from Minnesota 2020, Conrad deFiebre argues that, while light rail is both successful and expanding in the Twin Cities, it's not the only answer to the 21st-century transit question in our metro. Meet the "rapid bus," a transit mode that mimics rail--on rubber tires.

Far from simply decorating the light-rail route, Saint Paul's Central Corridor Public Art Plan is redefining art in the public sphere.

Saint Paul's music-loving mayor wants a city with a scene--a dynamic downtown with the special energy that only art and music provide. Last Thursday he shared some successes, some hopes, and some rock-concert memories with The Line.