Tim Bonham observes:
>This broke down somehow around 40th St, which should have been a
>"commercial" street based on this pattern. Instead both 38th and 42nd
>became "semi-commercial", with an uncomfortable mix of commercial
>intersections and residential housing.
One minor demurral (from a 42nd street resident): 38th is a heck of a lot
more commercial on both sides of the highway than 42nd. For example, at
Nicollet, 38th has businesses on all four corners, 42nd on one (Curran's,
with the best dessert deal in town: the $7.49 homemade pie. That's for the
whole thing. Yum!). At Grand, 38th has businesses on all four corners, 42nd
street one. In fact, 42nd is officially considered a residential street west
of Nicollet, while 38th is a "community corridor," the intermediate step
before Lake-type places.
The story is the same many blocks east of the highway, at least as far as
Park/Portland...though I'm not intimately familiar with how 38th and 42nd
compare at, say, Hiawatha.
>Maybe we should take this as an opportunity to "fix" this -- put the ramps
>onto 40th St, rezone it to allow commercial development, rezone 38th & 42nd
>to discourage commercial use (only grandfathering in the existing ones),
>reroute buses to 40th St, etc.
Ironically, 40th used to be a bus route and is built to withstand buses
(unlike 42nd west of the highway). However, it is purely residential between
Nicollet and Lyndale and has much less commercial development than at 38th.
I think altering the use pattern would be extreme.
Of course, it also was 40 years ago by putting the ramps at 35th/36th (by
the way, anyone know why?). However, in four decades 36th has become more
commercial and 38th has become less (especially west of the highway). I'm
not sure how to split this baby - half the ramps at 36th and half at 38th
has been studied -- but 40th is too good to be true.
David Brauer
President, King Field neighborhood association
King Field - ward 10
_______________________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy
Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more:
http://e-democracy.org/mpls
