St. Paul officially broke ground yesterday on a downtown development that’s been in the works for nearly a decade. It means a new grocery store and high-end housing within sight of the state Capitol. And city leaders hope it will help fuel a downtown revival.
Development at the complex, called the Penfield, has already begun. Demolition is under way to make room for Lunds, a 28,000-square-foot full-service grocery store.The new store site, will be topped with more than 250 high-end apartments.
The Metropolitan Council has a new app called CycleTracks that’s designed to help make the Twin Cities more bike friendly.
Here’s how it works: Bicyclists turn the app on before starting a ride. The GPS on the phone tracks the biker through the twists and turns of their route. At the end of the ride, the biker gets data on how fast they rode, and the Met Council gets detailed information on the biker’s route.
Met Council senior transit planner David Vessel said the app will help planners identify obstacles to better bike commutes.
“These are actual trips that people are taking,” Vessel said. “It significantly improves the way that we can plan for cyclists.”
Minneapolis City Council has voted to grant a demolition permit for Peavey Plaza.
Historic preservationists have been fighting a plan to redesign the 37-year-old downtown park in front of Orchestra Hall. They argue Peavey Plaza is an important example of modernist architecture that should be restored, not removed.
The committee’s vote means it’s likely that next week the full City Council will overturn a previous ruling by the city’s Heritage Preservation Commission.
— Charles Landry, a well-known British consultant, on how Minneapolis should approach building a new stadium. Landry has spent a week touring the Twin Cities and will offer his final recommendations to regional leaders on Friday. He spoke with The Daily Circuit on Friday about the ways cities unleash creativity to make themselves economic and cultural magnets.
The very interesting and creative Candy Chang is speaking at the Walker Art Center tonight about creative urban interventions. Yay! But — it’s sold out.
So, if you still want to hear from Chang, who is responsible for projects like “I Wish This Was” and “Before I Die,” she was a guest on The Daily Circuit this Monday along with Jack Miller of Forecast Public Art.
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