Liz Riggs, Writer

It’s no secret that the University District is in for some major changes. A recent study by the city of Minneapolis indicates that Southeast Minneapolis, as a whole, is expected to grow in population by 25 percent in the next two decades and that the number of households is expected to grow by 30 percent over that same period. MORE »

Seward Neighborhood Group (SNG) took a significant step toward re-establishing a neighborhood housing improvement loan program when its board of directors voted in October to approve a settlement between the organization and the Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP) over housing funds SNG inappropriately expended several years ago. MORE »

On Aug. 22, The City Council unanimously approved a moratorium on development in the University District area — the Cedar-Riverside, Marcy-Holmes, Prospect Park, Southeast Como and University neighborhoods. The moratorium would restrict the demolition, new construction or establishment of single- and two-family residential dwellings and multi-family residential dwellings with three or four units in nearly a dozen residential zoning districts in the area. MORE »

Pedestrian and bicycle access on the Washington Avenue bridge has been restricted in recent weeks because of safety issues discovered by engineering firm URS in the course of studying how to make the bridge work for light-rail transit (LRT). According to URS, which is conducting an updated study for the Met Council about the Washington Avenue bridge LRT retrofit, buckling capacities of the exterior columns supporting the upper deck are “critically” inadequate. MORE »

When the university launched its River Life Program several years ago, the notion of the I-35W bridge crossing as a storied place might have seemed odd. Today, that crossing is an important reminder of a tragedy that, in one way or another, affected hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans. It’s also an event that is likely to be featured on the Telling River Stories website, an outreach project of the River Life Program. The aim is to document the impact of the Mississippi River on the people and the spaces around it and the ways in which people have shaped the river. MORE »