Downzoning Deadline: Submit Your Feedback to the City

This Friday, September 30 is the deadline to submit public comment on the downzoning proposed for Lowry Hill East--which I have written about a quite a bit. Here's a chart showing how the proposal would push us further along towards a zoning code that doesn't reflect our current built reality:

What's the matter with Alondra?

Last December, Minneapolis City Council Member Alondra Cano went to the Mall of America to join a Black Lives Matter protest.

Completely peaceful people including my fam but @mallofamerica already blocking entrances. #JamarClark #BlackXmas2 pic.twitter.com/2PQdxOpuWZ

— Alondra Cano (@People4Alondra) December 23, 2015

But the mall protest never really happened; crowds moved instead to the light rail and the airport, "creating a rolling wave of disruption on one of the busiest travel and shopping days of the year." Cano tweeted a few pictures and words of support for BLM, causing her mentions to fill up with people--probably tweeting from home--more distressed by minor holiday travel delays than the death of Jamar Clark, an unarmed black man who was shot and killed by Minneapolis police a month earlier.

Best of Minneapolis City Council Vines

Cast your vote for City Council Performer of the Year.

Ballot at the end of this post.

Downzoning Can't Save Us From the Future

I've previously written about the rezoning that's under consideration for Minneapolis' Lowry Hill East neighborhood. After a few more weeks of thought, these are my big-picture concerns.

Downzoning is forever

The city's proposal has been described as interim protection that gets us through until the next update to the city's Comprehensive Plan (the process for which is currently underway). But "interim" gives the impression that downzoning is temporary. This is technically true; all laws are potentially temporary. But in reality, we're still stuck with a 1975 decision that left most of the Wedge (under)zoned for nothing greater than a duplex. Downzoning is easy. Upzoning is hard.

It might be right to say this particular rezoning plan is a relatively insignificant drop in the bucket--but it's still the wrong bucket. Across the city, and over the years, these decisions add up. While we don't know what the Comp Plan update holds, it would be short-sighted to think we won't be living with today's downzoning in 2055.

For parcels north of 28th Street (data compiled by Alex Cecchini).