All of this 38th Street Ramp stuff stems from the need to have access to Lake Street from the north side of 35W. When I was executive director of the Lake Street Counci, business folks wanted access on the north side. They were told by MNDot that the Lowry tunnel wouldn't handle the traffic that would be backed up from allowing this access. The County and the Met Council and neighbors decided to reexamine this about a year and a half ago. At the time of those meetings I raised concerns about the issue of turning the 31st Street ramp into a flyover ramp in order to provide better access into Allina and Honeywell (now Wells Fargo). My concern then and now, is that we only really wanted access on the north side and the cost and the size of the flyover ramp. At the time I was politely asked by some county officials to keep my opinions to myself. I felt then and still do that folks don't understand how huge and out of place this ramp will be in a city neighborhood. I think it is interesting that no one has presented the community with a scale model of what this will look like. I'm convinced that is because folks would have a meltdown if they saw the impact on the neighborhood. Drawings on paper don't communicate the scale of this project. Secondly, I'm convinced we could landscape and beautify the neighborhood and create signage that would get folks to Allina, Abbott-Northwestern and Wells-Fargo, for a lot less money. It seems a shame that we can't make this a win-win, letting folks feel comfortable getting to their destination and also see how great our neighborhoods really are. I just don't support this "beam me into the mothership" philosophy of the flyover ramp. Then of course comes the second part of the equation, which is that this flyover ramp causes a safety issue, which results in a new ramp at 38th Street. Frankly I can't support that when I believe the floyoever isn't necessary and will actually be harmful. It's just bad city building. It is ironic that City leadership is supporting what will be a cement monument in the center of our city when people like Mayor John Norquist of Milwaukee is busy taking down freeway overpasses and ramps that have divided and carved up his city for years. That is why I can't support the 38th Street ramp. All folks ever wanted was access from the north. It isn't necessary to reconfigure the 31st Street ramp access. Unfortunately I feel this deal has already been cut and that is why I'm encouraging Kingfield neighbors to think about mitigation while there is money to do that on the table. Of course we could always rethink this whole project. Lisa McDonald Tenth Ward Council Member > -----Original Message----- > From: Terrell Brown [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 11:08 AM > To: R.T.Rybak; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [Mpls] Ramps: Why are we doing this, again? > > > Could some objective person involved walk us > > through the basic question: > > Why do we need to move ramps? What's wrong with the > > current allignment? Is > > this all about creating "flyover ramps" to the old > > Honeywell property? > > As I recall the closeness of 31st and 35/36th creates an accident prone > situation because entering traffic from 31st is speeding up while traffic > exiting at 35/36th is slowing down in the same lane. > Traffic planners say the greater distance creates a safer freeway. > Ignoring the neighborhood impact, I think it would make the freeway safer. > > For the neighborhoods, there doesn't seem to be a good choice for an even > moderately heavy traffic east/west corridor. Nobody wants traffic in > their neighborhood, look at the traffic calming devices that have been > installed around town (I think I even saw where one neighborhood had put > speed bumbs in an alley). > Presumably most of the people exiting 35W between Lake and Diamond Lake > Road have a destination somewhere in South Minneapolis, their home, their > job, a friend or a place of business. We should strive to let them reach > their destination as safely as possible. I don't see the automobile going > away in my lifetime, living without out some traffic isn't going to > happen. > I'm not sure what the reasoning for changes is on the northbound side. > > > Terrell Brown > Loring Park > [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
