Ramsey County wants to spend $170M on park and housing in downtown St. Paul As residents face painful property tax hikes, officials said downtown St. Paul is crucial to Ramsey County’s overall fiscal health and public investments will help.

Ramsey County leaders want to spend more than $170 million on downtown St. Paul development projects in hopes of catalyzing more private investment in the city’s struggling urban core.

This is truly exciting and I can't wait to read this. #SaintPaul

Awesome news. Ethan is a font of knowledge.

The first chapter of my book, on the political system of St. Paul at the beginning of the 20th century, was just published as an except in the latest issue of Minnesota History. Please let me know what you think! 5/5

Hand-colored map of the Minnesota State Centre designed by C. H. Johnston Jr in 1944.

Rendering of the planned Interstate 35E-94 interchange, created 1945.

In the end, Herrold's victory on the Capitol Approach effort unwittingly paved the way for contemporaries to clear neighborhoods on a catastrophic scale, displacing 1 in 15 people and leading directly to the tragedy of Rondo. Stopping what he had unleashed would become Herrold's final obsession. 4/5

Photograph of Julius F. Emme.

Photograph of Lenora Austin Hamlin.

Photograph of Milton Rosen.

Photograph of George M. Shepard.

In the process, THE CAPITOL APPROACH is also the story of a wide range of people whose dreams shaped the modern city, including Socialist intellectuals, good-government reformers, and technocratic engineers. Each in their own way played a key role in setting up the Gilbert plan for success. 3/5

Photograph of George H. Herrold, around 1915.

Much of the book focuses on this guy, George H. Herrold, who was St. Paul's chief city planner from 1912 until his forced retirement in 1953. More than anyone he kept the dream alive, yet its ultimate accomplishment in 1945 eventually destroyed everything else he held dear. 2/5

Rendering of Cass Gilbert's Capitol Approach dream, looking north from the intersection of West Seventh Street and Kellogg Boulevard.

Hi friends: I'm excited to share that my upcoming book, THE CAPITOL APPROACH, will be published in 2027 by MNHS Press.

The book follows St. Paul's 50-year quest to build the system of parks and parkways that Cass Gilbert proposed to accompany his Minnesota State Capitol building in 1902. 1/5

The whole landscape was built decades after the Capitol to create those alignments, though neither Cedar nor John Ireland are at 45 degree angles to the main axis. Cass Gilbert's plan to "rival the great state buildings of modern European cities.”

(For much more, see my upcoming book... next year)

An aerial view of a “Superblock” in Barcelona— an street transformed into a public space by introducing traffic calming, trees and plants, street furniture, and bike parking.

1️⃣ Under Mayor Ada Colau, Barcelona completely rewrote the rules of urban space: reclaiming a million square metres for pedestrians, tripling its cycle network to 273 kilometres, adding 80 hectares of green space, halving car traffic, and cutting street-level air pollution by 20% in just eight years.

Loathing reinforced by her reading of The Power Broker. A really good piece will be written someday exploring Jacobs' and Caro's papers to show the ways they influenced each other over the decades.

Minnesota lawmaker Katie Jones rode in a cargo e-bike to the hospital for her baby's birth. Her husband, Peter Schmitt, pedaled the two miles there.

On the return journey, their son Hans – all 8 pounds and 1 ounce of him – was bundled up and handled it just fine, Jones said.

When up north last year, in Warroad (? I think) there was one of these on display on the side of the road, lifted, with giant ATV treads.

"kiddos" just replicates the trajectory of its earlier equivalent, "kids"

That system changed several times in the 1970s, ending in an August primary/November general system that was finally abolished by ranked choice.

So safe to say it was the shortest successful campaign effort since the 19th century.

Before the introduction of primary elections after 1900, the campaign schedule was 1-2 months: conventions/nominations in March/April, election in early May. Primaries stretched it to a five-month process: nominations in January, primary in March, general in late May.

Low disk space

Barbara Gelb's book on their relationship (So Short a Time, 1973) is a rewarding read too.

spreadsheet showing numbers of bicycles traveling in east or westbound direction, noting if they were electric and whether they had passengers.

Marshall hill bike count results from Montrose Place counting point between 6-9:30 a.m. today: 60 eastbound; 58 westbound, 118 total. Of these, approximately 24 electric (20%). We saw 2 passengers (1 toddler, 1 v. fluffy dog). 40 more bikes turned b4 our spot.

Not bad for a remote work Friday!

They're all in this 1940 WPA writer's project book: babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc...

That was still the story when I was at Bard 2009-13.

And by the time Rice Street wraps up in a few years, every major road in the North End (except Maryland) will have bike lanes or a bike path... Dale, Front, Western, Como, Rice, Jackson, Arlington, Wheelock, even Larpenteur. It's becoming the most bikeable neighborhood in the city.

Really excited for the two-way cycletrack planned for Robert (Kellogg to Chavez) in the MnDOT project 2028-29.

Looking south on Rice Street from Iowa, showing the new shared use path constructed on the west side and pedestrian crossing improvements.

Looking down Rice Street toward Arlington.

BRT stations under construction at Arlington.

Getting close on the north end of Rice Street.

Deep fried olives. Shockingly good.

I look forward to the Strib asking us to define the exact boundary between "Summit Hill" and "Cathedral Hill"

Shared use path paving starting soon on Rice Street phase 1. The second photo shows the width of the new asphalt path; third photo from Google Street View circa 2019 for comparison.

Bike lane with a white painted icon of a person riding a bike. Flexible bollards are to the left of the lane between painted white lines. Another bike lane with bollards is on the other side of the road. Ramsey County Library's Roseville building is in the background.

Roseville added bollards to protect the bike lanes on part of Hamline Avenue. They're between County Road B and County Road B2, which includes the library and the entrances to / exits from Highway 36.

Lovely morning out on Keller Lake! Did you know Ramsey County Parks and Recreation has self-service paddle share? Learn more: www.ramseycounty.us/residents/pa...

Rice Street looking north from Wheelock Parkway

Rice Street looking south from Wheelock Parkway. New signals and pedestrian medians visible.

Looking west across Rice Street at Wheelock.

Looking south on Rice Street from Wheelock where the trail will go.

Steady progress on Rice Street phase 1. The first photo really shows how much narrower the new roadway will be.