--- Steven Houdek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Does anybody know why people who are downtown on the > weekend are forced to > go down 94west or 394west after 1am?
Thank you so much for bringing this up Steven! I have been meaning to do so myself for some time as well. My husband and I spend at least 1-2 evenings per week in the warehouse district, (he is friends with the owner of one of the clubs in that area) and these detours have caused us and others considerable irritation, to say the least. Once I asked a police officer (outside of the Lounge, on a Saturday night at about 1:30AM as we were viewing the barricades) why this practice was established. He responded to me that it was "for safety." I pressed him further, asking how these detours enhanced safety. He told me that they didn't want the "after hours crowd" to flood the streets of downtown. Is there anybody else who thinks that response is unacceptable? My interpretation of that was: "we don't want young and/or drunk and/or party-bound folk downtown where we have to deal with them, so we'll send them over north/west." If after hours drivers cause problems downtown, then I think we need to address those problems, rather than simply forcing the folks into residential neighborhoods. (like Bryn Mawr at the Penn Ave. exit where the majority of folks exit and turn around.) Further, last Saturday night, we witnessed a terrible scene that increased my upset over these detours: when we reached the Penn Ave. exit, in our usual queue behind at least 10 other cars making a left turn to re-enter 394 eastbound, there were two squad cars blocking the left lane. As we inched toward the intersection, we saw that in between the squad cars was a motorcycle... destroyed. While I didn't witness the incident, I can pretty well guess what happened. It's likely that the motorist was in line to turn left, and some individual in their car didn't see him/her, and turned left right into the bike. (The motorcycle appeared to have been squashed right up against the left wall.) Now, certainly accidents can occur downtown as well, but I would argue that the lower speeds, better lighting, and increased police presence downtown would have made such an incident less likely. So can someone tell me who these detours are protecting or otherwise benefiting? Connie Nompelis Ward 6 - Ventura Village __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
