As one of the consultants to the Lake Street Partners in 1996, I agree with Wizard that direct access to Lake Street from 35W has the potential to help revitalization by improving accessibility and creating more drive-by traffic for businesses. However, the devil is in the details. The proposed fly-over would redirect a lot of those potential customers and residents away from Lake Street and -- depending on the ultimate design and number of new lanes on Lake -- the sense of place at 4th (and at Nicollet) could easily be diminished rather than enhanced.
Another consultant to Lake Street Partners was Walter Kulash, a traffic engineer who "has specialized in the rapidly emerging field of livable traffic design. This view of traffic engineering recognizes that the narrow traffic planning goals of the past few decades -- moving the most traffic at the greatest possible speed -- are giving way to a far more inclusive view. In the new view of traffic engineering, traffic performance is balanced against other desired qualities of the street, such as its value as an 'address', its retail friendliness, and its role as a premiere public space of the community." So, what are the chances of re-engineering this project to eliminate the fly-over, maintain a more livable scale, and still provide access to Lake? John Rocker _______________________________________ 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
