I took some time today to go down and check out for myself the current Lyndale situation. I drove from Franklin to 50th Street. My comment is that the traffic is no worse than I've ever seen it during rush hour. South Lyndale is physically narrower than Lyndale north of Lake. The Franklin-Lake section strikes me as a reasonable 4-lane street. The south section can accommodate 4 lanes but only due to rush-hour parking restrictions. However, if that part of town allowed the same kind of widening as happened to NE Johnson Street, they could possibly have as good a 4-lane street south of Lake. I think it is a bit LATE in the game to be pretending that you have a "residential street" south of Lake. The heavy traffic has been there since I arrived in the 1960s. Moreover, I think such streets are useful when work starts getting done on the north-south interstate highways. "Alternate routes" and all that. Maybe a more reasonable choice would be between having boulevards or parking on Lyndale. I don't think you can really have both.
As regards community input, I think its the case that we have kind of a chaotic situation as regards letting people know about policy processes. Being an active member of a community organization committee may give one better connections, but that shouldnt be necessary to get the information to people about what their government is doing. Years ago, the commercial newspapers considered such stuff their mission, but those years are long gone. So we need better ways. I noticed that League of Women voters have some good links to various government sites on their website. So that might be a good place to find out. And IDEAL system would recognize the organizations structure by which we're ruled and guide people to the community comment opportunities within that structure. That would help people structure their calendars to the LEVEL of involvement they have the time and interest for. Another thing people could remember to do is attend what they can and then spread to word to friends and neighbors. None of us can do it ALL, but if we get enough us involved in DIFFERENT THINGS, we might be able to cover it as groups. Another thing is that if you go in as an individual and criticise something, you may be courteously heard, but you will be heard as an isolated voice. So, if there is a COMMUNITY issue, you must find ways to have a LARGE number of people object to prove it. Don't think you "aren't heard" just because your one voice didn't turn the ship of state around. In a democracy, no individual has the right to veto a plan. ===== Jim Mork Cooper Neighborhood Minneapolis ------------- Paul Wellstone: Best friend Minneapolis ever had in Washington. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? HotJobs - Search new jobs daily now http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@;mnforum.org Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
