“We believe the plan’s strategies lack the focus and specificity necessary to achieve those critical goals. We propose the City Council enhance the plan with the following amendments: http://www.startribune.com/counterpoint-minneapolis-2040-plan-is-a-good-start-but-it-needs-focus/501048341/

Dear Council Members and Mayor Frey, There have been recent reports in the press about investors buying up swaths of housing on the North Side of Mpls for speculative investment. This is nothing new. After the last real estate bubble, Minneapolis and surrounding areas became more visible on speculators’ radar as a great place to … Continue reading Speculative exuberance in the Mpls real estate market: a letter to city officials

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