LRT Open House- Feb 15th

I just got back from the Central Corridor Resource Center (old Lexington Library - go in and check it out if you haven't already). The City hosted an open house where the work of the consultant group, Urban Strategies, was presented. There was some very interesting stuff and a lot of it pertained directly to our neighborhoods. I think Urban Strategies really realizes that our area has a lot of potential for development. For example, there are drawings of what Dale and University could with a redeveloped Unidale and police station that are very interesting and exciting.

Many of the concerns that I have heard from the businesses were a part of the recommendations put forth by Urban Strategies. Parking, construction, business mitigation, facade improvements and green space were all included. The one thing that did concern me was that they limited the proposed Cultural Heritage District to Dale and Marion. I think at the very least this district should be extended to Victoria (if not all the way to Lexington). We have a lot of great cultural businesses, including a handful of beautiful new restaurants (Thai Bazil, Ngon and Que Nha just to name a few), that should be a part of this proposed district. I did make a comment to Urban Strategies so hopefully that will be included in their final recommendation to the city.

If you want to check out the information for yourself, which I would highly recommend, you can find the panels for both open houses on the Urban Strategies website. There you will see a link in red titled "Click here for the Saint Paul Minnesota Central Corridor Development Strategy Project FTP site." If you are prompted for a user name and password, Enter stpaullrt as the user name and public as the password. Happy reading!

Also, an interesting article was in the Star Tribune today about LRT and the possible changes it could bring to our area businesses and residents. Check it out too! http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1003315.html