Evan Roberts

@evanrobertsnz.bsky.social

3.4K followers 2.4K following 14K posts

Social, demographic, & economic history @UMNews HMED & Population Studies. Coffee, photos, Dylan, urban & transit fan, road & trail runner. Constructive, loving critic of where I live (Minneapolis) and where I'm from (Wellington) @evanrobertsnz most places .. more

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Economics 23%

Public Health 15%

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 6h

Broadly true in many north American cities

Alex Bozikovic @alexbozikovic.bsky.social · 7h

Almost everywhere in the City of Toronto has fewer people that it did 50 years ago

Reposted by Brian Doucet, Evan Roberts, Shan Kothari

Alex Bozikovic @alexbozikovic.bsky.social · 7h

Almost everywhere in the City of Toronto has fewer people that it did 50 years ago

Map showing Toronto change in population density 1971 to 2021, courtesy of Jens von Bergmann

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 8h

Toronto at least managed to pass something. Minneapolis had the same debate, and decided to punt things out to 2027 maybe ... the whole "corner store" terminology bogged the debate down to literal corners, as if we were still operating in a 1927 information environment

Shawn Micallef @shawnmicallef.bsky.social · 8h

Read @johnlorinc.bsky.social on why the store thing is bound to fail because it’s watered down to a Potemkin change in how Toronto operates.

Reposted by Evan Roberts

Shawn Micallef @shawnmicallef.bsky.social · 8h

Read @johnlorinc.bsky.social on why the store thing is bound to fail because it’s watered down to a Potemkin change in how Toronto operates.

The compromised compromise, moved by Mayor Olivia Chow, passed 23-2. While Gord Perks, the architect of the deal, insisted otherwise, the new bylaw resembles the six-plex deal from the summer, with most parts of the older city opting in and most parts of the inner suburbs opting out. (This is essentially the triumph of urban form over zoning reform.)

Even for what we might call the pro-corner-store parts of the city, there are all sorts of conditions in the new bylaw,
including some that seem extra super fussy (e.g., "a retail store may include an ancillary eating establishment or takeout eating establishment, provided that the preparation and sale of food and beverages is limited to cold and hot beverages and low-risk or pre-packaged, ready-to-eat food items"). Such businesses are only supposed to be established on so-called
"community streets," which is now a new designation in the zoning bylaw. Council also sent off requests to the province to
disallow cannabis shops from becoming, well, neighbourhood convenience stores.

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 13h

The genius of American government is the ability to externalize costs onto other governments in the same area without direct recourse

Reposted by Evan Roberts

Jason Thorne @jasonthorne.bsky.social · 15h

New Spadina Sussex student residence. A partnership between University of Toronto and Daniels, designed by Diamond Schmitt architects. Integrates a heritage corner building and includes a new rental-replacement building.

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

It's #Caturday somewhere in the world (most of the world actually)

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

Holiday lights are the solution to the Frey/Carter Twin Cities street light crisis 💡💡

Reposted by Evan Roberts

Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 1d

Benjamin Couillard’s job market paper finds rising housing costs explain 51% of the decline in US total fertility rate between the 2000s and 2010s, and we’d have 11% more births since 1990 without rising costs. Any economics care to opine on the methodology? drive.google.com/file/d/1BK6j...

BKC_JMP.pdf

drive.google.com

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

The days are short, it's after Halloween, go for it (Americans are blissfully unaware of how short their run up to Christmas is. In Australasia it begins in mid October. Then you have Christmas, a week off, and in some stores a little bit of Easter candy is out in early Jan)

Reposted by Richard S.J. Tol, Alistair Munro, Caroline Krafft , and 6 more Richard S.J. Tol, Alistair Munro, Caroline Krafft, Joshua Goodman, Tore Ellingsen, Rachel S. Franklin, Aija Leiponen, Evan Roberts, Peter Bergman

Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham @paulgp.com · 1d

Update your syllabus and stay on the frontier - it will increase your students’ wages. Epic work by my colleagues @barbarabiasi.com and @profsongma.bsky.social #linkoftheday

www.barbarabiasi.com/uploads/1/0/...

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

Check out the @moreneighbors.org event calendar and consider coming to our monthly member social if you're here at the right time of the month!

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

3) Close to downtown, the Mill City Museum is a distinctive approach to local history museum, focusing on the flour milling history, but also a bit of a broader history. Great view of the Mississippi gorge and falls from the top of the flour tower.

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

2) Walker Art Museum and sculpture garden is pretty great and distinctive. Modern art. MIA, the classical looking art museum, is a bit more generic mid-sized American metro art museum. Guthrie Theater is justly renowned if you like theater. Theater scene good in general. Music - check out First Ave

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

I put this on my to-do list as a way of easing back into the workday after the meeting was over 😀 1) Depending on where you're staying, worth having a wander around the downtown river area, or around one of the Chain of Lakes. If here in temperate weather, get a bike and ride?

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

My perverse nostalgia for summer 2020 has a basis in fact (great air quality!)

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

that makes sense. Assuming the train would proceed uninterrupted from Plymouth to 18th, you'd only be able to access Lyn Park from the northbound lanes of Lyndale. It's 2000' from Plymouth to 18th. By comparison, in Saint Paul east of Snelling there are 1200' gaps between where streets cross lrt

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

Would have been better if it had been Untied Stated Attorney (I lived through the years where even United Airlines loyalists/hostages would refer to it as Untied)

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

And the counter-examples, like does this work in the Boston area (Back Bay is wealthy and very straight streets) is interesting to think about!

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

A lot of theory starts with casual observation! I think it's interesting because it sort of works for the geography and timing of when different housing was built in Minneapolis. To the extent curves are by natural features which people pay good money to live by, it's going to hold up fairly well

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

Would love to hear this theory (i can kinda guess at some of it). in New Zealand people say that the higher up the hill you get, the more National [conservative] party voters there are. probably similar mechanism to your curvy streets theory.

Reposted by Evan Roberts

Serafina @serafinas.bsky.social · 1d

Why is there so little wayfinding on Minneapolis bike paths( I biked from work on E Hennepin to Queermunity Wed night. I got to ride some of our city's fancy new bike paths, but holy hell are there lots of gaps where everything just suddenly ends and suddenly you have to stop & guess where to go.

Reposted by Evan Roberts

Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 1d

Almost certainly Seattle. Population went from 600k->800k, the city went from no rail system to a top-10 busiest network, region became an absolute economic powerhouse, there’s a total transformation of the waterfront, and so much more

A picture of the Seattle skyline from 2006 to 2023

A picture of a link light rail vehicle going down a residential street in Seattle

A picture of the total transformation of the Seattle waterfront

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

in a grant review meeting most of the day, but i'll reply this afternoon (expats in the US unite, right?!)

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

I like the pithiness, but I'd put it slightly differently. Europe and Australasia treat it as a serious public health problem, even though it's police doing the enforcement. By sanctioning it severely but often outside criminal law they give consequences that make drivers adjust their behavior.

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

The East River Flats view of downtown Minneapolis is quite gorgeous in the early morning

Minneapolis from the bouncy bridge under 94

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

That was old fashioned grid breaking. And it's really just a curvy grid which is meaningfully different from cul de sac land

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

It's also, I would venture to say, one of the most isolated little neighborhoods in the city, bounded by Plymouth, Broadway, 94, and Lyndale. Once you're in it, it's a pretty suburban bike/stroll. Go check it out!

Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 1d

It's a half world apart in N. Minneapolis. Census data shows its predominantly non white, but higher income. If you want to date property go to the Hennepin County property map online, and browse the parcels. It shows construction date.

Reposted by Evan Roberts

Erik Ostrom @erikostrom.bsky.social · 2d

I regularly bike on a riverside path named after James I. Rice, onetime county park commissioner and state representative. The Transit app calls this path the "James the First Rice Parkway Trail" and I hope they never fix it.

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