Author Archives: Betsey Buckheit

A very short history of bike planning in Northfield

I have been spending a lot of time as the unofficial historian of bike, pedestrian and street planning over on Facebook, so I decided to put together a quick history of how we got here. This is the bullet point … Continue reading

Posted in Land use, Transportation | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Ole Avenue questions persist

Ole Avenue is St. Olaf’s planned residence hall/townhome project: This is an exciting project, mostly. New residence halls and townhomes will bring students back on campus, St. Olaf Avenue will be reinforced as the tree-lined entrance to the campus from … Continue reading

Posted in Climate, Policy problems, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Urbanists tweet about the roundabout

Last week, the Strib ran an article about Northfield’s planned roundabout with tunnels for people biking and walking: Twitter responds As a result, one local urbanist (streets.mn founder, active with Strong Towns, Planning Commissioner, and good guy) tweets: In turn, … Continue reading

Posted in Transportation | Tagged , | 1 Comment

UPDATE! Northfield does get the message right

Look! Northfield has updated its sidewalk stencils for directing bicycle traffic off the sidewalks: A few years ago, I complained about the City of Northfield’s misleadingly negative image on downtown sidewalks: Really, let’s have more bikes downtown (and skateboards – … Continue reading

Posted in Transportation | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Golden Opportunity paved over at Greenvale Park

The new Greenvale Park Elementary School will improve the inside-the-building issues from no doors to more security to better tech and has been planned with detailed input from teachers and parents. Far less attention was paid to outside the school, … Continue reading

Posted in Land use, Transportation | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The tip of the Ice Arena budget iceberg

The voters said “no” to building a new Arena, but the old Arena is still City property, is still operated by the City, is still barely functional, and whether to fix it is still unresolved. But budget season for the City will soon be underway and some choices will need to be made. Continue reading

Posted in Budget, CIP, Policy problems | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

ADUs: Reframing the discussion

After what seemed like unanimity and a strong sense of purpose at the Planning Commission, the Council discussion about Accessory Dwelling Units has been dispiriting to watch thus far and the public comments even more so. Since the Council will … Continue reading

Posted in Housing, Policy problems | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment