There is a lot of myth out there about how if we just build more market rate housing, we will somehow create more affordable  housing.  That we actually reduce housing costs by building more housing of any sort. Looking at history, it is easy to see this is not true. Minneapolis added over 20,000 housing … Continue reading Debunking Neo-Liberal Housing Politics

Ron Feldman and Mark Wright from the Federal Reserve wrote a piece for the StarTribune called “Private market must be a central part of affordable-housing solution.” In this piece, they argue that the private marketplace will provide affordable housing by simply building more housing.  They also argue that existing housing values will decline in value … Continue reading Federal Reserve Wrong

In previous posts, I talked about the role of the Metropolitan Council in planning for regional infrastructure like wastewater treatment plans, surface and drinking water, highways, roads and transit, regional parks and other regional assets.  I also talked about how planning for these regional assets is passed from the Metropolitan Council to cities through system … Continue reading Not in Conformance with the Met Council Planning

I presume a lot of folks come to this website looking for basic information about the City.  Craig Buchanan posted some really interesting maps of the City.  These include maps on property values, vacant land, building heights, year that buildings were built, etc.  A fun thing to look at. https://public.tableau.com/profile/craig.buchanan#!/vizhome/MinneapolisProperties_0/MinneapolisProperties?publish=yes    

There have been a lot of claims made by the City about how environmentally responsible the draft 2040 Comprehensive Plan is.  But one of the fundamental things about the Plan is that it proposes demolishing existing housing and replacing it with more housing.  The argument is that the new housing will be more energy-efficient than … Continue reading Preserving Housing is the Most Environmentally Responsible Thing

In the previous two parts, I talked about regional population, sewer and transportation planning. In this piece, I want to talk about how these regional plans are translated into municipal plans. The Metropolitan Council does other planning that is integrated with sewer and transportation plans. Sewer planning is integrated with surface water and drinking water … Continue reading Why do Comprehensive Planning? Part 3.

Part One talked about how planning for sewage drives comprehensive planning.  But comprehensive planning is also about transportation. The Twin Cities have had traffic problems pretty much since the rise of automobiles. But until the Federal Highway Act in 1956, most congestion was street congestion. But when the federal government said it would pay for … Continue reading Why do Comprehensive Planning? Part 2.

It starts with sewage. A lot of it. In the beginning, people got water from wells on their property and disposed of their own sewage, which may have been a pit in the back yard. Or not. In addition, transportation was by horse, which meant sewage literally ran in the streets. And into the drinking … Continue reading Why do Comprehensive Planning? Part 1.

The chapters of the plan do not include travel by automobile despite the fact that the vast majority of people in Minneapolis drive. The presumption is that this plan will continue the narrowing of streets, addition of bike lanes at the expense of driving, changing of timing of signals to make driving take longer, removal of parking, and other actions to deliberately make driving harder.  This is being done to actively discourage driving, as this is one of the tenets of the draft 2040 Comprehensive Plan.

Feds data shows housing costs are driven by income and not by housing availability.