I attended the full City Council meeting today because I am interested in the Hiawatha LRT Lake St. bridge design. As a board member on the Midtown Greenway Coalition I played a small part in the "no Wall" movement. I think the City Council did the right thing. The cost of now returning to the original design is about $3 million. CM Ostrow proposed an ammendment where the City would only be responsible for $800,000 of the reconversion to the original design (the amount of the savings which prompted the unnanounced design change). This would have probably resulted in the construction of the Wall. As one Council Member put it, we are being "held hostage" by the process. One goal of the Minneapolis Plan is to promote neighborhood connectivity. Hiawatha expansion has separated East Phillips Neighborhood from its major shopping hub at Lake St. and Hiawatha. The Wall would've been further serious separation. As an able-bodied and (reasonably) young person I find it difficult to cross the eight lanes of traffic on Hiawatha (try it sometime). It may be impossible for an older, or mobility impaired, or less able person. 10th Ward City Coucil candidate Mark Knapp was right on with his recent post defining our "car culture". Hiawatha expansion does not serve the people of my community, yet we pay the highest price for it. Our City needs to at least allow for the possibility of a pedestrian and non-motorized transportation culture. I have been a neighborhood representative at the I-35W redesign table for three years this spring. This process continues amid community hostility, distrust and rumors of alternate plans being created beyond the public's view. When a decision like the one for the Wall on Hiawatha is made without citizen participation and it ends up costing us $1 1/2 million, I think suspicion is healthy. Let's shift our focus from the 1-car-1-driver model. Planners in other cities, like Washington DC, changed their thinking away from just moving cars to moving people with positive results. Let's at least allow for the possibility of real city, not just a service and earning center to the suburbs. Yours, Robert Lilligren Candidate for City Council Ward 8, Phillips West www.VoteRobert.com _______________________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
