Ed I think I have to side with Tony on this. I was pretty active with LCC in the days when Hiawathia was being rebuilt and I do not recall dealing with anyone other than Mike Monahan (sp?) and other city engineers. I do remember being pretty impressed that the city would do the design work, but also unhappy that we could not figure out a better way to get people and bikes across. When I look back and compare that experience with the "Reroute" the city was really great to work with. They were really up front with the design constraints, there were real engineers in the room, and listen to community ideas. Rather different from MNDOT who, as far as I know, never had a community meeting and then hid behind a bunch of technocrats. We never had any sort of dialog about design constraints or other possible designs. Guess it just reinforces what I have always believed, the people closest to the problem work harder to solve it.
Cheers; > Tony Scallon wants to take the blame for the catastrophe at Lake and > Hiawatha. He says the City designed it in collaboration with MDOT. I'm > sure that's true. At the time the underpass was being considered it was a > City road. But the County took it over shortly after that, and, whether the > City designed it or not, the County built it. It happened on Peter > McLaughlin's watch. He is responsible for the extended delay, the octopus > exits, no provisions for pedestrians or bicyclists. > Sorry, Tony, the buck didn't stop with you. > I fought with Tony Scallon for the length of his tenure on the City Council, > mostly over development issues. We fought. We argued. We campaigned > against each other. But, Tony, there is one thing I never gave you credit > for-you actually created the NRP. The most dramatic experiment in > neighborhood and grassroots democracy ever attempted in Minneapolis. It was > your idea that $20 million a year could be skimmed off tax increment > projects to fund neighborhoods. It was a great idea. We are all in your > debt. > But, Tony, Peter has to take responsibility for building that bridge. > Ed Felien > Powderhorn -- DeWayne Townsend Cooper [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
