now that the holidays are passed, things are going to quiet down a bit I think - so I should be able to return to some regular blogging. Erin wrote a nice recap of the trip we took over Thanksgiving, so go have a read of it, but then come back here and read the rest of this.

today i was downtown and decided to take a walk through the skyway system over lunch. I enjoyed walking through some of the skyways on the east end of downtown, having not had much reason to walk them since I stopped working at Thrivent several years ago. As was expected, it was desolate downtown today, and a great deal of the shops in the skyway were closed. Personally, I love the skyways in Minneapolis, but the skyway system seems to engender a lot of mixed feelings due to the unintended consequences it has brought, most notably the 'death' of street life in Minneapolis. One architect even opined that all the skyways should simply be torn down because they are only needed for a few weeks a year. I definitely don't agree with that notion, but I do think there are ways to improve the vitality of street life and retain the skyways. Here's the list of things I'd do, followed by some lengthy reasoning/analysis/spit-balling/bullshit (pick whichever you think fits).

1. Summer/Winter Availability
2. Standardized Hours
3. Street/Skyway Connections & Signage
4. Expansion. (Oh, yes.)

This map is an excellent visual reference for the downtown skyway system and will help you understand what I'm talking about. The skyways are the orange lines superimposed over the building/street grid.

1. Create Summer & Winter Availability zones. Visitors to Minneapolis may think the skyways are only necessary for a few weeks a year, but tell that to residents of downtown or the 150K+ people who work here. No one can deny the necessity of the skyways in the winter, but I think the length of time is a bit longer than a few weeks. In fact, I'd hazard they're necessary for a few months, at least. Personally, I find myself using the Skyways starting in November and ending in March. In the summer, I tend to use the streets to get to my destination, and then go up to the skyway if my destination is on the 2nd floor, but I seem to be in the minority there given how packed the skyways are in the summer. My feeling is that the majority of skyways do not need to be open in the spring/summer/fall at all. Note that when I say skyway, I am talking about the enclosed bridges connecting two buildings, not the 2nd level shops that are known as skyways shops or on the skyway level. I'd create a plan to close the majority of skyways for the months of Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb with the ability to be flexible in late October and early March if weather predictions foresee a nasty cold spell coming. I wouldn't close all of them though. The two caveats to this that I would make are a> skyways connecting buildings on the same block (for instance to parking garages) and b> skyways that connect buildings that create a larger user experience. While visually distinct, I am pretty sure that everyone gets the Gaviidae, City Center, IDS, & Macy's buildings create a virtual shopping mall (maybe not so much City Center anymore) - and those buildings links should be preserved year-round so that the shopping experience is not disturbed. Additionally, the ABC Ramps, Target Center, and Block E create a link for those going to sporting events/concerts at Target Center (and soon Target Field) and also enjoying the nightlife in the Warehouse District. Those links should be maintained as a unit as well.

2. Standardized hours. This is one of the most baffling part about the skyway experience. Even I hit this last weekend when trying to navigate the skyway and finding out that City Center's skyway closed at 8pm. Every building sets their own skyway hours, which while understandable, means that the route you take to get somewhere, may only be partially available when you go back. I think, at most, there should be three levels of skyway hours. For most skyways, the standard should be either 7pm or 8pm. Some skyways close as early as 6pm! For skyways connecting the shopping mall area along Nicollet, I would make the skyways open one hour past closing of the shops. Many shops currently close at different times as well, I'd look for a standard closing time as well, probably 9p and maybe 10p during the holidays. The ABC Ramps are currently 24 hours and I think that is probably right. It probably makes little sense to close them for only a couple hours a night. The zones for this would look something like, 24/7 west of 1st Avenue, the 6 blocks (Block E, City Center, Gaviidae, Neiman Marcus, Macy's, IDS and *maybe* Baker Center) the later closing of 10p or 11p... and the rest of the Skyway system would be 7pm/8pm.

3. Connections and Signage. This might be the worst part of the skyway & street experience for folks coming downtown. In many ways there are two layers to downtown Minneapolis and as a user you either learn the streets or you learn the skyways and you rarely stray from what you have learned. Obviously, if you close most of the skyways for the nice weather months, you have to provide a way for people to still get to where they are going. Every skyway should have TWO links back to the street level, one on each side of the street. These stairwells or escalators would be accessible year-round so that users on the street could still access the 2nd level shops in the buildings without having to find the 'main' entrance into the building. Some buildings already have entrances that would fit this bill - Target being the most notable example. When entering the building, you have your choice of going into Target, or going up the escalator to the 2nd level. On the other side of that skyway, a connection would need to be built so that someone on the street could go up to the skyway level of the US Bank building to access the shops there, without having to walk down half a block to the building entrance, and then returning the half block to go to the shop they want to patronize. The other half of that is providing signage so that people KNOW what is at the top (or bottom) of the connection. Having ubiquitous and easy to read signage at ground and skyway levels to let users know what shops/retail/offices are at the other end of the connection will greatly enhance the usability and efficiency for people coming downtown. Also, buildings with ridiculously old skyway maps (I'm looking at you TCF Tower) need to get with the program. Today I saw at least FOUR different versions of the Skyway map - not all having a date as to when it was last updated. Kudos to the buildings with kiosks with electronic maps of the skyway system. One map (and directory system) should be created (skyways overlaid on the skyway level maps, streets overlaid on the street level maps) for users so they can get the help they need navigating our multi-layered city.

4. Expansion. Bring on more skyways. At least, in a limited fashion. There are some obvious places where skyways need to be added so that the system is much less circuitous (another frequent complaint about the skyway - walking 6 blocks in comfort to travel a mere 2 or 3 blocks). The section north of the light rail and east of Hennepin has several parking lots and the Central public Library. One would hope that those parking lots would eventually sprout foundations and a building would bloom, and along with creative skyway connections. In my neighborhood, in the winter of course, I wish I could get to the skyway at the south corner of 3rd & Washington Aves. I could see a building there with ground-level shops and an escalator leading up to a skyway entrance near the rear of the building in the middle of the block. Another skyway 'gateway' buidling like this could also be added to go across 35W and into Elliot Park and connect with the skyway in the Convention Center. All of the neighborhoods downtown should have if not multiple skyways at least a skyway gateway. Loring Park has it in the Hyatt - although it should connect to Target's HQ (not sure how they do that over Brit's though). Perhaps one across 94 to connect the Stevens Square area. Downtown East, if the Vikings ever get a new stadium, will see a ridiculous amount of redevelopment if Zygi's plans come to fruition. It is easy to envision HCMC, the new Vikings Stadium, and the Star Tribune (or whatever ends up there) all being connected via skyways and from there to the much larger skyway system via connections to the Hennepin County Safety Center, Gov't Center Ramp, and Thrivent Financial. The Riverfront district is largely left out of the skyway game but it'd be easy to envision Rivergate and the Carlyle (if they wanted to be) added to the system and perhaps the Guthrie and it's neighbors to anything that happens in Downtown West. The biggest game-changer I see is pushing the skyway across 1st St S into the Post Office (not the easiest thing to do) - but the PO is a beautiful building with some interesting concourses that would then lend a connection to what would probably be the most controversial (and probably the least feasible/likely) additional that I would make. A new bridge across the river from the Post Office to Riverplace - creating a gateway connection to the St Anthony neighborhood. I'm sure a lot of the people who walk across Hennepin, 3rd Ave and the Stone Arch bridge would enjoy a way to get across the river in the winter without freezing their tails off or having to deal with traffic. I'm also sure a lot of people would like to see less bridges over the river, too!

One can only imagine what changes might be coming to downtown over the next few years - thoughts from others that I've read include the city taking over the skyways, 24/7 skyway access, or even the dreaded 'demolition' of a good number of them. Whatever happens, it does seem (and is certainly my hope) that downtown is poised for a renaissance and hopefully the powers that be will keep steering things in that direction. I think downtown can survive with both layers of the city intact and complimenting each other, as long as the systems are built with both communities in mind.