JIM GRAHAM wrote:
The I-35 Access Project does not go that far North, according to PAC Chair Craig Anderson. This is not to imply that an access project further North is a bad thing, but only that it is outside the scope of this project. It would be their choice to begin a similar process for that area.I sat through the 35W "PAC" meeting yesterday in amazement. I had been elected to represent an impacted neighborhood, and felt that I may have been one of the few people at the table who was. Some impacted neighborhoods, such as Stevens, were not even at the table, other non-impacted neighborhoods were.
Like it or not, Urban Ventures is here to stay. They've made that perfectly clear since day one. They are impacted by this project. Likewise Abbott and Wells Fargo, St. Mary's, Harriet Tubman (which was not at the table), Teen Challenge (also not at the table), the post office (not there), A to Z gas station (not there), etc.. However, one can only invite them, they are free to turn down the invitation. My neighborhood appointed David Piehl as their representative. He did 2 years. There was a gap, then Dave Jensen was appointed. All the other neighborhoods were likewise invited and went through whatever their processes were to choose a rep.Also select non-profits such as Green Institute and Urban Ventures were at the table as voting members while others were excluded.
Some of us who lobbied the politicians requested that as many players as possible be at the table so that the decisions made would not adversely affect them and their delineation of their patterns of movement, which would impact the change, would be heard by engineers too. In my mind when I talked to Linda Wecejman, Linda Berglin, and Brian Herron (I can't remember if I talked to Peter McLaughlin or not) and asked them to talk to each other and lobby to support this. I requested mitigation from the ugliness and inefficiency of that blinkin-dinkin freeway. I drove bus for six years out of the Nicollet Garage (before the rebuild-in-situ) and we puffed tons more diesel into the air because of the awkward configuration of the freeway. Our clothes, our houses, our lungs were full of diesel and so was everybody around the bus operation. The bus company is, figuratively speaking, an immovable object.
WM: Because of this rebuild my property, which is worth very little, is worth more. It's kinda important to me too. I live on Lake St. and the dust I have to clean off my window sills in the summer is something to see. The number of times I have to wash curtains, scrub floors, etc. is tiresome. The fact that I can't grow veggies in my yard and eat them or hang out my wash during spring and fall cleaning is a drag. The fact that I run up and down Lake St. and 31st to get to the bank, the gas station... and have to go under those butt ugly bridges that scream ghetto offends my eyes every dang day of the world.Businesses such as Abbot, and Wells Fargo were VOTING members in what clearly was a conflict of interest because they were voting to increase their property values by spending 150 million taxpayer dollars. I think you indeed had elephants trampling the grass root neighborhoods with the composition of this "PAC".
WM: Since I lobbied for it and made some suggestions early on about the process I feel like what I thought might work in pushing this project was respected by the project and implemented. I have gone to all their open houses and asked questions which were answered. I have studied their process papers and diagrams and seen their model. I've listened to engineers and architects and neighbors and businessmen and women at these open houses. I asked for a fair process that considered what everyone had to say and I feel like I got that. That the committee did or did not choose some of my favorite things cannot be the issue for me. I asked personally that they considered everyone's ideas, not that accept them all. I fully expected them to reject more ideas than they kept.I am not speaking of the viability of the access project, I personally think the freeway system has to be "fixed" to mitigate the destruction of neighborhoods and harm to residents that was wrought upon the City of Minneapolis by the Freeways when they were first badly designed and built. I am speaking of the illusion of neighborhood support that has been woven around this project.
I have never gone to a meeting because the chair who was selected (Craig Anderson) is highly skilled and understood that his role was to protect the process. He did that. He does that. And he's done a stellar job of it.
I think others who lobbied for this mitigation process asked for similar things. I don't know it, but it would have to be so since I don't have anywhere near that much pull with any of those politicians involved.
Hennepin County fostering this sham group as some kindWM: Hennepin County may be fostering this process just to cover it's fanny, but I don't think so.
of "legitimate" citizen decision making group is at best a joke and at worst
a fraud.
WM: Actually, I think they did much better than I expected at getting both residents, businesses, county, city, state involved. :-) Good show. Rah-rah.Hennepin County and Corporations who will profit from the access projects have in large part added a few neighborhood representatives, to an already stacked deck, so as to claim some sort of legitimacy.
WM: Baloney. It is legitimate. Everyone at the table was invited. Many more were also invited. Anyone could have sat through the process for the entire duration of this first phase. I chose not to and to trust the judgement of my neighbors to do the work. You became involved at the eleventh hour, Jim, and you want to be included in the process with a separate agenda of lengthening the process at the end of four years. For all the people who have actually sat for four years, that's a pretty tall order. None of them intended this project to be their life's work and it's pretty cheeky to ask for that at this point.If the "Elephants" want this group to actually be legitimate then they need to remove the "marked cards" from the deck and have a re-vote including only those neighborhood "Citizen Participation" groups who have been "Legitimized" by the City Council. Then any vote they take would be "LEGITIMATE"; otherwise it is just a sham.
The excuse that hundreds of hours and time have been spent on the project isWM: Wrong, so wrong. It was hundreds of hours of work. People worked to listen, to be fair, to consider every concievable permutation. That's why it's taken so damn long.
just so much further trampling.
WM: Here is the list of legitimate judges: County Board of Commissioners, Minneapolis City Council, State of Minnesota, MNDOT, and the feds. They have been elected to do just that. This committee was a Project ADVISORY Committee. The elected bodies can accept the project's recommendations, reject them, accept some and reject others, shelve it, build it, trash it, smash it. The first phase was the concept. The PAC voted for the concept yesterday.The "Legitimate" neighborhoods thank you for that work. It will make their decision more informed. Now please leave the table for a moment and let the legitimate judges decide what is the winning hand.
My hats off to the chair, the committee members, the politicians, and the staff involved. It was a democratic process.
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