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MAP: Is Affordable Housing Distributed Fairly Across the Twin Cities?

HousingLink data highlights how uneven affordable housing availability can be.

Paying for rental housing is no easy proposition in Minnesota. Last month, the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s annual Out of Reach report ranked the state worst in the Midwest and 24th nationally. A breakdown of the report by the Minnesota Housing Partnership estimated that 54 percent of renters can’t afford a modest two-bedroom apartment. But apartments can have a hard time winning neighbors over even when they don’t specifically serve low-income renters—as recent debates have shown. In St. Louis Park, some residents criticized the proposed Eliot Park Apartments development that would build two new apartment buildings with a total of 138 units on Cedar Lake Road. Said Patch reader MMG: All of a sudden, all I am seeing in this city…

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Upcoming Construction Project Could Force Neighbors Out of Homes

Summer sewer work could result in as many as five days without working toilets for some.

A proposed sewer project cutting across Southwest Minneapolis from Linden Hills to East Harriet could force scores of people out of their homes for as many as five days at various points over the next two years. Parts of the sewer line serving much of the area are just about ready to fall apart, according to a statement from sewer maintainers at the Met Council.  To keep local toilets flushing, construction crews are slated to start work this fall and next winter on the worst bit: a stretch of sewer running underneath the 4100 block of France Ave, the 3900 and 4000 blocks of Ewing Ave, and the stretch of 41st Street that connects the two avenues. They'll be ripping up the roadway, digging down, and rebuilding the line from scratch.  The …

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West Metro Mayors Push for LRT Grant

Met Council is currently applying for $47.5 million in state funding for Southwest Light Rail.

Editor's Note: The following is a letter written and signed by the mayors of Edina, Eden Prairie, Hopkins, Minnetonka, Minneapolis and St. Louis Park. The letter was sent to Mark Phillips, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. Dear Commissioner Phillips: As the Mayors of six cities in the western metropolitan area, we write today regarding the $47.5 million Business Development Through Capital Project Grants Program to be administered by the Department of Employment and Economic Development. We understand that the Metropolitan Council is applying for a grant for Southwest Light Rail Transit (SW LRT) from this program. We strongly support that request. SW LRT will benefit each of our cities. The …

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Report: New Housing Moving Into Urban Core

Could this mean Minneapolis schools' crowding issues will be longer-term?

Twin Cities residents may be changing decades-old habits of where they live, according to a report in Finance and Commerce, published yesterday. The changes could continue trends public school officials say are leading to overcrowding in some Southwest Minneapolis schools, as Southwest Minneapolis Patch reported last month. Instead of buying homes—many of them big—on the outskirts of the metro area, the paper quotes Met Council data showing many Twin Citizens are opting for smaller houses, apartmenta, and condos built close to transit hubs like light rail and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) stations. Experts interviewed for the story say the jury is still out on how permanent the change may be. However, the Met Council's projections say …

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Local Metro Transit Riders React to Proposed Cut

Riders from South Minneapolis talk about the potential impact on their lives.

For the last seven years, Leslie Gordon has left her Southwest Minneapolis home to board a Metro Transit bus bound for her job in Mound. So when she learned this week that the line she rides is among those facing elimination by the Metropolitan Council, Gordon felt her life dip into uncertainty. As it is, Gordon has trouble getting to Mound on weekends, when Metro Transit buses only run as far as Wayzata. An outright elimination of the route would, she said, cause dramatic change for her. “It’s not cool that they’re thinking about cutting this,” she said. “I don’t know how I would get to work. I’d probably have to get another job, and it’s hard enough as it is trying to find a job.” Sierra Limfort is also from South Minneapolis. She was on…

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