Category: Uncategorized

What Do Cities Need to Foster Innovation?


Replace those walls with whiteboards and we’re cooking. Photo by Mal Booth, CC-Attribution. 

Always glad that Quartz uses headlines that answer questions rather than ask them.

What Grand Forks could be: http://qz.com/166874. And I don’t mean building an “innovation district” on 42nd, or wherever the hot new real estate is. I mean using the building infrastructure we have, modernizing the electrical and network systems, and getting it to startups for cheap. Downtown springs to mind because it’s already mixed-use, but I imagine you could do the same thing in the Grand Cities Mall.

Public Transit for the DeMers Industrial Park

This comes from a conversation with Justin K., whose wife just got a job with Odra Sweepers (http://www.odrasweeper.com/).  There is no bus service to the park, which is odd considering how many people must work there.

Calculate how many people work there.
Reference http://www.grandforksgov.com/Bus/FinalProposedRouteChanges.pdf, it has a comment about why bus service was ended in 2007 and why it hasn’t been restarted

Consider the idea of a pedestrian overpass to the Alerus center, maybe as a “gateway to Grand Forks” that would allow access over the interstate, so people could catch the bus or grab a bite at Alerus/CanadInn.

Mosh Pit 2013-11-13

  • Grand Forks hits up the federal government for street projects: The City Street Beat
    • 42nd Street
    • Multi-use path on Columbia Road
    • Multi-use path on DeMers
    • Speed-minder radar signs
    • Various road work, but interestingly enough the roundabout, Kennedy Bridge, and Washington Street rail overpass are on the list
  • $500,000 price tag on bikeshare in Fargo: InForum
  • Meanwhile, alternatives exist that might be cheaper for Grand Forks: Facebook (if you know any of these folks)
  • Grand Forks Streets was quoted on Streetsblog last year: Streetsblog.net

Public Input Meeting: Long-Range Transportation Plan

The City Street Beat blog is getting better all the time, and I recommend reading and commenting.  Brandi Jewett seems like she’s open to questions and will work to find the answers.

She posts:
“A public input meeting will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Nov.13 [Wednesday] in the Training Room of the East Grand Forks City Hall to discuss updating the cities’ Long Range Transportation Plan.

The meeting will utilize an open house format with a formal presentation at 6 p.m..”

Be Thankful

I started posting here in order to engage people so we could make life better here in Grand Forks.  If some of my recent posts have been negative, I want to stress that most of the time, this isn’t how I feel.  Travel is one of those things that seems to be common ground for people to complain about, and I get sucked into it as much as anyone else.  Although things aren’t perfect here, I am thankful that we don’t see many fatal crashes, that we don’t need ghost bikes, and that there isn’t any “war on cars” rhetoric.

Let’s focus on the good and make it better.

Beating the Light at 5th St and 2nd Ave N

If you’re on a bicycle approaching 5th and 2nd (Central High School) from the west, the light will trip if you spend that last block in the exact middle of the left-turn lane (the one nearest the yellow line).  I don’t know if there is a camera sensor or one in the ground, but this seems to be working for me.  I generally stop in the crosswalk so people in cars can pull up to the stop line and trip things if I haven’t managed to.

Oh, and it’s not just Grand Forks that has this problem.

“Rules of the Road” and People on Bicycles

Motorists of Grand Forks, with all the love in the world:

If I (on a bicycle) am stopped at a stop sign with my foot down, and you are on the cross street with no stop sign, you do not need to stop and wave at me.  I can see you just fine, and I’ll go after you’re out of the intersection.  While you’re waving at me, another car is sneaking around to your right.

If I (on a bicycle) am arriving at a four-way stop and there are other cars already waiting, the other cars get to go first, because they were there first.  You do not need to wave at me, because I know how to wait in line.  You especially do not need to get all huffy when I don’t jump the queue and then stomp on the gas.

Just because I am riding near Central at 7:50 AM does not mean I’m a high school student, and especially doesn’t mean that I am completely ignorant of all traffic laws and common courtesy.  You may think you’re being nice by waving at me, but you’re really just breaking the rules of the road and holding up even more people who are trying to get somewhere.