transit oriented development : Buzz

Minneapolis-St. Paul was recently named one of the top 10 innovative cities in the U.S. by CNN Money.

"From technology and infrastructure, to job creation and sustainability," the article stated, the cities included are "leading the pack when it comes to creatively solving urban issues."

About MSP, the article stated, "June saw the opening of a new light rail line between Minneapolis and St. Paul. Experts from around the country praised it as an example of transportation infrastructure done right -- it integrated the needs of the affected communities and used the new line to drive economic development."

The Twin Cities were also selected as "early adopters of programs to help immigrants start businesses, artists buy real estate, and enlist local execs in solving community problems. The Cities also get high marks for their public health efforts, including smoking cessation programs, cancer screening and efforts to create walkable communities."
 

The League of American Bicyclists recently published an analysis of bicycling in U.S. cities for 2012.

The report, “Where We Ride,” examines “changing commuting patterns and transportation choices.”

Minneapolis is listed among cities with the most bicyclists on the street. 

When it comes to the number of bicycle commuters Minneapolis has, the city ranks second to Portland, the report shows.

The report also analyzes the impact of factors like population, bike/walk/transit-share programs, female bicyclists, age, college towns. and more. 

One finding is that “More and more Americans are realizing that bicycling is a practical, reliable, and economical means to get to and from work -- and it’s also healthy and fun,” the report states. 
  

Source: The League of American Bicyclists 

"Think it's futile to build up a massive cycling network because of frosty winter temperatures?" asks a recent news story in Winnipeg Free Press. "[Minneapolis] has proven a bit of snow and sub-zero winds don't mean a city can't be a top cycling spot."
 
The article notes that Minneapolis is among a handful of North American cities considered leaders in building a network of paths that encourage recreational and commuter travel. About 3.5 percent of Minneapolis residents bike to work, and the city is on track to increase that number to seven percent within the next couple of years, according to the newspaper.
 
Quoting Shaun Murphy, Minneapolis bicycle and pedestrian coordinator, the story added that half of the city cyclists don't ride their bikes during the winter, but there's been growing interest in winter biking. One draw is that Minneapolis works to have all bicycle trails plowed within 24 hours of a snowfall. 

PedalMn.com has a short video that shows off the state’s extensive bike trails.  

It goes through a number of bike paths both in urban areas and in greater Minnesota. In Minneapolis, bicyclists are followed as they careen past the scenic Chain of Lakes, the St. Anthony Main historic area, and Nicollet Mall.  

Bike-friendly infrastructure, such as bike racks on buses, helps flesh out some of the reasons why the state has gotten so many props lately in this area.

The video will “will remind you why you love to get out and pedal in Minnesota,” the website states.  

Minneapolis and St. Paul made Sherman's Travel’s recent list of the country’s top 10 places for bicycling.

“The Twin Cities emergence as a bike-friendly superstar coincided with a general plan to make the area more livable,” the story states.

The story points to the Nice Ride bike-sharing program, and to bike-themed events that happen frequently here.

Just last year, the city of Minneapolis added 37 miles of bikeways, installed hundreds of bike-specific street signs, and created a citywide bike map for the first time, the story states.

Bill Dossett, who heads Nice Ride, is quoted saying,  “All of these things are happening at the same time that we’ve made this great investment in the last five years,” adding, “You bring all of that together and I think our future is very bright.”
 

In a recent piece from Fox News, Minneapolis is recognized as a top “revival city.”

Fox explored a handful of cities that might seem under the radar or “once balanced on the economic precipice only to sustain as a stronghold for independent artists, forward-thinking entrepreneurs and corporate backers"--and looked at "how they're being transformed into unique vacation destinations,” the story states.

Minneapolis leads the nation in bicycling; it has award-winning restaurants and music venues and striking hotels, and plenty of art, the story states.

It mentions a laundry list of area destinations, including a 44-mile network of bike paths, the hard-to-get-into Marvel Bar, Eat Street Social, the Art Deco-style W Minneapolis, ArtCrank bike-inspired art and more.

Walk Score, which rates U.S. cities for bikeability via its Bike Score rubric, recently gave Minneapolis top billing for its bicycle infrastructure.

Next in the lineup are Portland, San Francisco, Boston, and Madison, according to Bike Score.

“Bike Score is based on bike infrastructure (lanes and trails), hills, destinations and road connectivity, and the number of bike commuters,” the website states.

Scores are tallied “based on thousands of votes on hundreds of ideas from the Walk Score community,” it states.  

In a Bicycle Times story titled “The surprising rise of Minneapolis as a top bike town,” local writer Jay Walljasper describes the city’s affinity for bicycling.

Minneapolis' goal is to make biking an even bigger part of the transportation system, he states.

Mayor R.T. Rybak is quoted in the story, saying to a group of out-of-towners, “Biking has become a huge part of what we are,” adding, “It’s an economical way to get around town, and many times it’s the fastest. I frequently take a bike from city hall across downtown to meetings.”

Jeff Stephens, the executive director of the Columbus advocacy organization Consider Biking, also visited the city. “It was exciting to see what they’ve accomplished in Minneapolis, which is a city that seems a lot like Columbus.”

Vending machine industry publication Vending Times profiled two Minneapolis entrepreneurs who are boosting the robust local biking scene. The pair, Chad DeBaker and Alex Anderson, have launched Bike Fixtation, which combines a large vending machine with a standalone bike repair rack.
 
The machine vends bicycle repair products such as tubes, lights, tools, and patch kits, as well as refreshments like energy bars and water bottles.
 
The article notes that the bicycle service stand allows patrons to perform repairs at the site, and includes an assortment of tools like Allen hex keys and wrenches.
 
DeBaker says in the feature that the company sees the potential for expansion to college campuses, bike trails, and any public location that attracts bicycle ridership.

A video on the Urban Velo website highlights the benefits of the Midtown Greenway in Minneapolis, as a part of its biking system.

The clip starts out with comments from the city’s mayor, R.T. Rybak, who says, “Biking is a huge part of what we are.”

Several other speakers in the video chime in about how the city’s biking trails that weave around such natural amenities as the Chain of Lakes and the once-industrial Midtown Greenway have helped to draw bicyclists and homeowners. It’s also brought more business to the area, the video shows.

According to walking advocacy site Walk Score, Minneapolis is in the top ten of most walkable cities in the country.

Coming in ninth place, the city was bested by highly dense urban areas like New York City, Boston, San Francisco, and Chicago.

Minneapolis came out ahead of other large cities, though, like Los Angeles, Portland, San Diego, and Atlanta.

The Walk Score site is often used by real estate agents and house hunters to determine the walkability of a specific neighborhood. Site users can simply type in an address and get a score that indicates how easy it might be to do daily errands by foot.

The site touts the benefits of more walkable neighborhoods, noting that increased walking can benefit the environment, community involvement, and personal health.

Grist, a source for green news, recently posted a video and text about the Twin Cities' Nice Ride bikeshare program.

Streetfilms took a special trip to the Twin Cities to find out more about Nice Ride.

Quoting Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, who says, "You've got to go big or go home," Grist emphasizes the fact that the program went from 65 stations with 700 bikes last year to the current 116 stations and 1,200 bikes.

Companies see the bikeshare stations as good for business, Rybak says. 

Washington, D.C., Madison, Wisc., Denver, and Boston have similar bikeshare services, it states.

Saint Paul beat out hundreds of competitors to become a "top 10 city" for its quality of life and business-friendly environment.

The rankings were put together by FDi Intelligence, a division of the Financial Times Ltd., which tracks global business and investment trends.

The Cities of the Future process compares over 400 cities in North and South America, examining economic potential, human resources, cost effectiveness, quality of life, infrastructure, and business-friendliness.

In a comment on the Financial Times results, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman cited significant infrastructure investments like the Central Corridor Light Rail Line as well as a revitalized bar and restaurant scene in Lowertown. He noted, "[W]e are focused on making Saint Paul a destination for living, working and playing."

The Republic, a newspaper in Columbus, Indiana, recently published an Associated Press story about a celebratory bike ride from Minneapolis and St. Paul mayors R.T. Rybak and Chris Coleman.

The two mayors jointly participated in their cities' Nice Ride public bike-sharing program.

Along with a number of other local bicyclists, the mayors started pedaling at the Seward Coop in Minneapolis and ended at a St. Paul Dunn Bros coffee shop.

Their ride was a nod to the program's expansion, which involves adding another 43 bike stations to its 73 in Minneapolis last year. This time around, the bike stations are popping up in both cities. 

Proponents of such bike-sharing programs say that they can "help cut down on obesity, traffic jams and auto emissions," the story states.

In a recent New York Times FiveThirtyEight blog post, writer Nate Silver ranks downtown Minneapolis' Target Field as the fourth-best major league ballpark, overall.

Pittsburgh's PNC Park, Boston's Fenway Park and San Francisco's AT&T Park top the list of 30 ballparks, while Toronto's Rogers Centre comes in at the bottom, according to his calculations.  

Silver gleaned these findings through a simple Yelp.com search, he writes.

Each of the 30 major league stadiums had received between one and five stars, according to Yelp's rating system, which is a more holistic way to look at it than from a single reviewer's perspective or the technical-type fan review sites, he explains.

The popular review site is helpful because it uses dozens, if not hundreds of fan reviews to score the stadiums, he states. This way, readers get a greater sense of the user experience at each ballpark.