Skyway Math.

The skyway isn't a hallway — it's a network. Networks have fundamentally different economics than linear infrastructure. This specimen quantifies the difference.

Notice

An interactive model of the Saint Paul skyway as a network — researched, written, and built by Jacob Ramos. Published by Open-Civ as Specimen №01 of an ongoing civic research catalogue.

Source data, citations, and methodology disclosed in full at the foot of this page.

Downtown Residents10,500

Current: ~10,500. City target: 20,000.

Connected Buildings60

Currently 60 of ~75 possible.

Annual Investment5M

Combined public + private annual investment.

Residential

Commercial / Civic

Disconnected

At 60 connected buildings and 10,500 residents, network thinking captures +41.7% more value than treating each building independently. Every new connection makes the entire system more valuable.

Sarnoff (Linear)

3.33x

Buildings × demand (no network effects)

Odlyzko (Conservative)

4.72x

n·log(n) topology × demand

Metcalfe (Upper Bound)

11.11x

n² topology × demand

The Network Dividend

+41.7%additional value from 60 buildings and 10,500 residents

At 75 connected buildings and 20,000 residents, the conservative model yields 11.86x baseline value. The linear model only sees 7.94x. That gap is value currently left on the table.

Sarnoff (linear)3.33x

Odlyzko (n·log n)4.72x

Metcalfe (n²)11.11x

Sources & Methodology

Sources: ACS 2019–2023 5-year estimates; SP DataSource; MMG Real Estate Advisors 2025 Twin Cities Forecast; ULI “Active Transportation and Real Estate” (2016); Cervero & Murakami, “Rail + Property Development” (2009) — skyway capitalization premiums; Litman, “Economic Value of Walkability” (VTPI, 2023); Ewing & Cervero, “Travel and the Built Environment” meta-analysis (JAPA, 2010); Odlyzko, “Content is Not King” (2001) — n·log(n) network scaling.

Model: Network topology scales as n·log(n) on connected buildings (Odlyzko), multiplied by linear population demand. 50% vacancy recovery rate (Hong Kong elevated walkway studies: 40–60%). Return categories are annual rates scaled by the combined network factor.

Author

Jacob Ramos

Research, model, writing, and visualization.

Published By

Open-Civ — Specimen №01

open-civ.com — Saint Paul, Minnesota