Jan Del Cazo (Chair, Lyndale Ave Task Force):I still support the plan our Task Force developed. However, I have soured on the whole idea of Task Forces and citizen participation in some instances. Unless the money is in hand to do the project and the schedule is for the near term, it often becomes a waste of a lot of people's time since the plan is subject to the vagaries of time and personnel changes
JM: Yes, that is a problem. America is too mobile for it to be possible to have the same people affected by the end of the project as were calling the tune at the start. Imagine the Hiawatha remodeling, which started with a freeway and ended up quite different. It could be that if you assembled nearby people TODAY, they might vote for a freeway. Who knows? Beyond that, I doubt they really got the stakeholders all together. No one owns the street they live on. I certainly know I don't. Because my property value is affected, I won't stand aside, but I didn't pay for the street, and I wouldnt expect more than a respectful hearing. I think it is RIDICULOUS to divide a street like Lyndale and give it different treatment depending on who lives on a particular portion. Lyndale, according to a source of mine, used to be under state control, but it got passed down to the county when (probably) the freeways began taking up most of MNDOT's attention and money. So, that means it can get different treatments in each of the cities it passes through (Brooklyn Park, Minneapolis, Richfield, Bloomington, ?). My contact feels that is ridiculous from a highway building and maintenance perspective. But budgets and politics rule how these changes are made. Anyway, slowing traffic on Lyndale is like slowing traffic on Minnetonka Blvd or slowing traffic on Lake Street. People live on all of them, and none of them are playgrounds for kids. Frankly, if the electorate were willing to shell out the bucks for law enforcement, traffic speed would take care of itself. These "traffic calming" schemes are just a silly way to save a few cents in taxes. And they lead to chaos in the overall traffic scheme. I think people who hate traffic should move AWAY from it. Get a hobby farm. Practically all my life has been spent in cities, and I've never been in serious danger, not even when walking a couple miles every day to school, crossing major traffic arteries. So use "citizen participation" with some acumen, don't pursue projects more than five years (20 percent of the population moves every year, so in five years, at least part of the population has changed several times). Bob Alberti:The amount of time I spend crossing the city on the one-way 26th and 28th streets is EQUAL to the amount of time it takes me to drive the three blocks south on bidirectional Nicollet Ave. to get from MIA to 28th St. JM: One way streets have some real advantages. Among them: No need for left-turn lanes to keep traffic moving (ergo, more capacity to move traffic). Plus, they provide pedestrians the opportunity of not having to look over their shoulder for turning cars when crossing the one-way street. I think things would be much worse on Lake if 26th and 28th weren't there for crossing town. Jim Graham: "Bike riding in urban settings is dangerous, even in summer months. JM: Have you done it lately? I did it all summer. It was just fine. What makes the difference? A. I stay off major streets to the maximum extent possible. B. If I have to go on a major street, I do whatever I can to stay out of the motorized traffic mix. That often means tooling slowly down the sidewalk in blocks with lots of parked cars. There's a double danger in th at case, the opening door and the narrow space. Of course, you can't endanger pedestrians, so it means slowing down. Lots of bicyclists are endangered by their need to go FAST no matter what the conditions. That impels them to risk either themselves or pedestrians. But anyone who uses common sense can be very safe in an urban setting. ===== 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
