Simply click here to get the credits page, learn the participants [MnDOT, under Molnau opted out], and to start the software. It has been a while since I last used it, so I am relearning it, as you would be learning to navigate it in the first instance.
I have an older, slower workstation, but if you have state of the art hardware and braodband, it should be a quick experience. For me, there is a slowness factor that is hard to live with.
Bookmark it if you want to reconsider the data. If you are planning to relocate a business, or make a demographics based decision, it is a piece of demographic tooling that is useful. I expect staff and the Bonestroo consultants will be using it quite a bit, in preparing the 2008 Comprehensive Plan.
NorthStar boosters, and critics alike, should have a look.
*****UPDATE*****
Here are some sample maps I created, for illustrative purposes. For use, the maps are generated with a legend identifying what the coloring or dot markings mean. I only captured the map images, for illustration. You can scale, resize, etc. You can add road overlay. Perhaps there even is a trunk sewer feature - you can see all the flow that Met Council has, justifying its Ramsey hookup fees. Perhaps not. At least Met Council was a participant in the study/effort. There are two aspects. The demographics database, which can be updated as fresher data arrives; and the mapping and visualization display software. It is a nontrivial tool. Some of the better computer science minds at the U.Minn. T.C. campus worked on this; and I bet it is really fast on the servers, workstations, and network they have.
Hack around with it. You can print out any map you generate. With the legends, not simply the images as I present:
Below: Ramsey's CommuteShed - where people in Ramsey commute to work.
Below: Ramsey's LaborShed - where people who work in Ramsey commute from.
Below: Housing Density - I have no idea how current this data is. I enlarged a part of the map, and did a highway overlay, to demonstrate those functions, as well as labeling beyond the key city, and counties, as in the other two maps.
It is clear, from the commuteshed and laborshed, that NorthStar would be a factor, but that there is substantial commuting to and from Ramsey that would not be helped simply by a rapid link downtown, without more. And some people do sales or other work where they need an auto [besides a company car left overnight at work] during the day; or they work irregular hours and might be stuck if they missed the rush hour service due to a meeting or finishing a project with a deadline that makes catching a rush-hour peak service home an "iffy" thing.