MN Marriage Amendment Got Majority Support in Only One Patch City

Voters in the mostly suburban cities Patch covers were more opposed to the proposed gay-marriage ban than Minnesota voters generally.

Here's how residents in a selection of Minnesota cities voted on the ballot measure that would have added a definition of marriage as only between one man and one woman to the state Constitution. Statewide, the ballot measure failed to exceed the 50 percent level of support it needed in the Nov. 6, 2012 general election. It got 47.53 percent, according to unofficial results from all but two of Minnesota's 4,102 precincts' results. Taken together, people in cities served by Patch—mostly in the Twin Cities suburbs—rejected the marriage amendment in greater proportion (61.21 percent) than Minnesotans taken as a whole (52.47 percent). Support for the amendment in places covered by Patch ranged from 14.51 percent in Southwest Minneapolis to 54.…

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Connor Goulet

5:26 pm on Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Now this is the kind of outcome I expected to see from MN! It's good to see those bigoted bible thumpers didn't get their way this time.   more ›

Poll: Should Suburbs Change or Should Critics Back Off?

Fridley has embraced transit-oriented development near the Northstar train station.

An opinion column that had the unusual distinction of appearing in both the Star-Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press over the weekend was written "In Defense of Suburbs," as the Star Tribune's headline put it. In his op-ed, locally-based city-planning consultant Tom Martinson beat back a range of criticisms frequently levelled against suburbs: As suburbia expanded coast to coast over the past decades, criticisms only increased. Suburban subdivisions are not "walkable," so people have to drive everywhere. Suburban traffic is terrible. ... As an antidote, suburban neighborhoods should be made as citylike as possible, with very small lots resulting in much higher densities, emphasizing increased walking, bicycling and reliance on public …

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Walkable Suburbs: Best for Property Values, Well-being

Studies tie pedestrian-friendliness, environmental factors to mental health, healthy real estate markets.

Suburbs that develop walkable environments without the stress factors common to cities may provide two distinct benefits: mental health and healthier real-estate markets. The Minneapolis Riverfront Development Initiative noted on Twitter that Germany researchers have found that the stresses of urban environments negatively affect city residents' brains and their mental health.  Meanwhile, Southwest Minneapolis Patch blogger Tom Meckey cites another study showing that pedestrian-friendly areas—with amenities in walking distance, and sidewalks—increase surrounding propery values. Fridley has several efforts to make the city more pedestrian-friendly: a walkable transit-oriented zoning district and a Safe Routes to School program in the works…

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House Hunt: Six Fridley Open Houses on Saturday

Mother's Day is sacred; open houses are clustered the day before.

You can see a half-dozen open houses in Fridley this weekend and not impinge on Mother's Day activities. Also see Sold!—a listing of homes that changed hands recently. 6411 Jackson St. NE. $154,900. Open house is Saturday, May 7, noon-1:30 p.m. Listed by Betsy Rewald, Coldwell Banker Burnet. 7383 Memory Ln. NE. $185,000. Open house is Saturday, May 7, noon-2 p.m. Listed by Dee Widmark, Coldwell Banker Burnet. 7431 Van Buren St. NE. $149,900. Open house is Saturday, May 7, noon-2 p.m. Listed by David Forsythe, Edina Realty. 6275 E. River Rd. $134,900. Open house is Saturday, May 7, noon-2 p.m. Listed by David Ryan, Coldwell Banker Burnet. 5608 Danube Rd. $310,000. Open house is Saturday, May 7, 2-4 p.m. Listed by Terry Anderson, Coldwell …

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Sold! Recent Home Sales in and near Fridley

This week's list includes only one home sold in Fridley but there has been a small flurry of sales just into Coon Rapids.

Here are homes that recently sold in Fridley and nearby in neighboring cities. See also House Hunt, our weekly roundup of open houses this weekend in and around Fridley. Fridley: 221 Sylvan Ln. NE. Sold for $136,000 on April 14. Three bedrooms. One full bathroom and one half bath. Coon Rapids: 8713 Norway St. NW. Sold for $93,400 on April 8. Two bedrooms. One bath. Coon Rapids: 8467 Larch St. NW. Sold for $122,000 on March 31. Three bedrooms. One full bathroom and one three-quarter bath. Coon Rapids: 855 86th Ave. NW. Sold for $80,000 on April 4. Two bedrooms. One full bathroom and one three-quarter bath. Coon Rapids: 515 84th Ave. NW. Sold for $118,000 on March 30. Three bedrooms. Two bathrooms. Source: Edina Realty

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Capitol Clips

Transit Service in Suburbs Topic of State Senate Debate

Goodwin says cuts to transportation funding will reduce needed bus service; Wolf would put buses at bottom of list for cuts.

In the Minnesota Senate Finance Committee Monday, state Sen. Barb Goodwin (DFL-50) aired a gripe you hear often in Fridley: that there isn't enough east-west transit service for people traveling from suburb to suburb. The topic arose as part of the debate over a transportation funding bill, S.F. 898. Goodwin argued that budget cuts of as much as 27 percent would mean bus-service cuts when people need more bus service. Fridley's other state senator, Pam Wolf (R-51), is a co-author of the bill as a member of the majority Republican party on the Transportation Committee. Wolf's view, according to aide Joy Spencer, is that bus service should be the last area to face cuts because it serves low-income people; train service used by higher-income …

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Photographers Keep Pace with Suburbs' Complexity, Professor Says

The University of Minnesota's John Archer charts changing views of suburbs in movies and photographs.

Photographers have done a better job than filmmakers at capturing the complex nature of suburban life, according to University of Minnesota professor John Archer. A local photographer working near Fridley is one of Archer's prime examples of how the makers of still images reflect unexpected suburban realities that motion pictures often pass over. Movies like The Stepford Wives (1975) and American Beauty (1999) broadly satirized suburban America as "a place of hollowness," Archer said in a recent lecture at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. It's a theme that has persisted in films from the 1970s to the present, he said. Still Images The same theme appears in the photography documenting suburban life over the last 40 years. But many …

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