Matt was misinformed on one of his facts, that being "only business people supporting the Todd Drive project showed up". Matt didn't get that information from city staff at the PBMV Meeting and it didn't come from the attendance sheet of the January 13, 2005 Perry Street Public Information Meeting.
I don't believe any folks with an interest in Todd Drive were at the Perry Street Information Meeting. Business people who have lands immediately adjacent to the proposed structure did. Planning and Development staff who questioned how the bridge would fit into the master plan for the area were in attendance. The Madison Police Department had concerns. The neighborhood leaders were in opposition. (The neighborhood association followed up with a written motion in opposition to the project.) Only one bike rider and a representative of the Engineering Division were in support. Lets learn from the Perry Street fiasco: 1. The Perry Street ped bridge was proposed without considering the need for an interconnecting street between the two neighborhoods, the views of the local governments (City and Town of Madison) or the planning work that was and still ongoing. 2. There was not any attempt to achieve neighborhood support for the project prior to holding a public information meeting on the recommended design. This is particularly important when the WDOT has to address environmental justice in neighborhoods of color or modest incomes. 3. There wasn't any attempt to link the bridge to a neighborhood plan. 4. There wasn't any knowledge of the neighborhood issues, stresses, and problems on the part of designers of the bridge. Getting neighborhood interest in neighborhoods that have more significant daily problems is a difficult task but you can't skip the process. When the WDOT managers realized what had happened, and with the knowledge that the project was already over budget, they pulled the plug. I am confident that decision was not related to Todd Drive but it did come at a time when the WDOT found themselves short of funding and required to defer many projects. Also, it came at a time where there was almost a total change in the folks that we were dealing with at WDOT and the new people were not supporting projects that were over budget and without local support at the neighborhood level. I am hopeful that we can address these concerns in the planning for the Park Street/Ann Street/Badger Road neighborhood and get a crossing of the Beltline in the plan and in the TIP. We also need to consider a road as well an ped/bike overpass. Back to the drawing board.... Larry D. Nelson City Engineer [EMAIL PROTECTED] Telephone 608-267-4227 >>> "Matt Logan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 10/26/05 9:24 AM >>> Last night the PBMVC voted against approving a DOT project in the Todd Drive area. The project in question included enhancement funding that the majority of members felt was being misused. Such enhancement funding normally goes to existing transportation facilities that are in need of ped/bicycle enhancements, not in constructing new roads with ped/bike amenities. It turns out that most of the enhancement funds were obtained by terminating a much needed ped/bike overpass project over the beltline at Perry St. There are reports that people are currently cutting the chain link fence across the beltline in order to cross by foot. One of the reasons cited as to why the Perry st. overpass was terminated is that "nobody wants this overpass". At a recent neighborhood meeting where the topic of the Perry overpass project was discusses, only business people supporting the Todd Drive project showed up. Unfortunately, there is little chance at this point that the Perry St. project will be reinstated, even if the Todd Drive project is rejected at the Board of Public Works and the Common Council, as WISDOT will probably find another project elsewhere to fund. The bottom line here is: We bikies missed a golden opportunity to lock-in a much needed improvement, and the "highwaymen" have jumped in and snatched the funding from us. I hope this underscores to everybody the importance of engaging the system. If we snooze, we lose. Now I would like open the discussion up to others on this list: What are we going to do to make sure this doesn't happen again? _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
