Oh, and I don't have to fcuking impress you.
OK, I was going on what I've read elsewhere and saw on a five-minute Google Maps trip. You can feel free to drop my head from the clasp of your jaws now. 
I'll look up some density distribution stats when I get home and we can prove this either way. Sound good?
Sounds good.
But I have to admit that much of the Twin Cities are suburban and sprawl makes up the vast majority of the new growth.
If you look at the growth patterns, however, you will see that the urban areas that suffered population losses from the '50s-80's have turned around and are growing again.
Richfield, a 1st ring suburb bordering south Minneapolis, is growing at a fast clip and births in the city limits have more than doubled in the past 8 years as new immigrants become more successful and move out into the suburbs. Denser growth is accompanying this.
Bloomington is projected to grow to 90,000 residents and 165,000 jobs by 2030 as young people move into the city in droves in new mid-rise condo developments.
The city of Minneapolis itself is expected to reach about 430,000 residents from a low of 368,000 in 1990, and St. Paul is expected to grow to 315,000 from 270,000 in 1990. Much of that growth will be downtown and along new transit corridors.
There is currently one light rail line with one ready to start construction and the next (southwest corridor) in the works. Commuter rail is also ready to start from the NW suburbs and the next will likely serve the Southeast metro.
The metro also has one of the most extensive bus networks in the nation.. not the best form of public transit, but you can pretty much get anywhere from anywhere by bus in the Twin Cities.
REgional high speed rail is also planned from the Twin Cities to Duluth and to Rochester, and the tracks between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Chicago are being upgraded to allow trains to travel at 110mph with 6 daily trains in both directions between the cities planned compared to the 1 currently offered which only reaches 80mph.
The pressure to increase dense development is only increasing as oil increases in price.
But you also have to look at the other aspects that make Minnesota one of the leaders in the nation for renewable energy.
We are 4th in Wind energy production behind Iowa, Texas, and California. New windmills are being put up every day along the Buffalo Ridge area of southwestern Minnesota and a company from Europe is building a windmill manufacturing plant in Pipestone County, MN which will provide a couple hundred jobs to a county with only 5,000 residents.
DFLers from the state house and senate passed a bill that Gov. Pawlenty signed last year which set into law the nation's most intensive Renewable energy requirements which states 25% of all energy produced in teh state must be from renewable sources by 2025. Excel Energy, the largest energy producer in MN and provides about half the state's electricity must derive 30% of its energy from renewable resources by 2020. Excel approved and encouraged this proposal.
Also, by 2013 gasoline must be 20% ethanol based, the most of any state in the nation. We also have more E-85 gas stations than any other state.
So go ahead... bait BRTD with your silly "Minneapolis is a giant SUBURB OMG".. but be reminded that we're quite committed to a clean, secure energy future that puts many other states to shame.
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