It's interesting to read other people's perspectives on Nicollet and 1st Av. in the Whittier neighborhood. I live in Whittier now and have since 1991. 1st Av. did not have any barricades at that time. The neighborhood was infested with crack heads and the housing stock was rapidly deteriorating. I soon learned why I got my beautiful house so cheap.
Once NRP started, we began to improve the housing stock by rehabbing what made financial sense to fix and yes PRAC people by razing what was in too bad of shape to fix. We built new in-fill housing where we had torn down old dilapidated housing. Nicollet Av. got a new face lift and the "International Marketplace theme" was booming on it's own. There was help for the new business owners from the NRP commercial fix-up fund the neighborhood offered. Barricading first avenue was a request by the residents in Whittier. It was not something the city did to us. There were two main thrusts behind the request. In the early 90's Nicollet was a desolate place. We needed a way to attract attention to Nicollet to generate some excitement for the new Nicollet. It was also believed by the people who lived along 1st Av. that the rest of the city liked to use 1st Av. as a freeway through town. Rush hour in the morning was just like 35W and the speeds weren't much lower. Blocking first for awhile was a good way to divert traffic onto Nicollet to give it some attention and a good way to divert traffic off of first to give the residents a break. When the barricades went up, they originally blocked 1st completely and forced everyone to divert to Nicollet. Honeywell and Allina complained because it was a pain for their employees to have to jog around like that just to head east on 28th st. So, a barricade on 29th was pulled and a little turn lane was added so you can turn right onto 28th st. from 1st Av. That added problems because it made it easy to ignore the barricades entirely and jog around them to continue on 1st Av. Many people do this every day. I watch cops doing stings there to ticket people for it. The folks on Stevens complained because they were getting increased traffic on Stevens from people who wanted to go North but didn't want to take the Nicollet diversion. They petitioned the city to turn Stevens into a one way going south between 26th and 28th so people couldn't use Stevens. That is why they are driving through your alley Mel. I was wondering when you were going to get mad about that. Maybe you can turn your alley into a one way heading south. The barricades as you see them now were never meant to be a permanent fixture. Only a temporary one until the neighborhood and the city figured out what to do for the long run. The snow plows don't like the barricades much either. They get moved over in the winter and then even more people ignore the barricades. Well, since all this happened Nicollet is in full bloom and now has significant parking problems. I agree that traffic no longer needs to be diverted there. However, traffic volume on 1st and it being used as a speedway is still a big concern for residents who live along 1st Av. The neighborhood is working on this issue in the Whittier Alliance Transportation and Land Use Committee. Currently, the proposal seems to be to turn 1st Av. in to a two-way at least for the portion between Lake and Franklin and maybe a little North of that. (That would depend on what Stevens Square folks wanted) Barb Lickness Whittier ===== "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead __________________________________________________ Yahoo! - We Remember 9-11: A tribute to the more than 3,000 lives lost http://dir.remember.yahoo.com/tribute _______________________________________ 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
