Senator Berglin arranged for the 35W Access Project presentation at Horn Terrace Tuesday evening and Tom Johnson was ready to roll. There were many visual aids and also some visitors opposed to the access project that I had invited for balance.
I've been tracking on this project for a while - nothing like the four-year duration, but enough to get the sense of the thing. We're aware of the proposed expansion of Lake St. and one moment of truth came when I asked for clarification about the change in footage from the current curb-to-curb (60') to the proposed 18' median with roughly 40' for one segment and 30' for the other. Setting aside the occasional rigors of Minnesota weather, this is a lessening of pedestrian risk. Perhaps an "all-stop", "all-walk" interval will cure the problem of pushy drivers in the turn lanes - maybe limited to peak pedestrian traffic times. There are sometimes fairly substantial groups of pedestrians at Nicollet and Lake and some of Horn's residents are mobility-impaired. Nothing short of a special service district will keep the median and the 14' sidewalks clean. It will be helpful to have a new transit station at 35W and Lake especially with elevator access for mobility impaired passengers. Security is an issue here as it is in the Greenway and having populated activities in the vicinity of the transit features - eyes on the street - suggests an opportunity for a pedestrian mall with carts and storefronts with shallow facades. Even now there's an enterprising Latino family that sets up temporary shop with food and beverages for passersby (I won't say where to protect their entrepreneurial derring-do) and from time to time I see a pushcart vendor on the side streets. This is mildly reminiscent of Mexico's bustling street trade and perhaps covered space on either side of the freeway overpass can be designed to give these activities more square footage protected from the elements. We would derive greater benefit from a link to a dedicated light rail or wheeled transit vehicle system in the proposed HOV corridor than from the curious intention to have both public transit and private vehicles in that corridor. That seems inherently unsafe to me especially given that solitary drivers are free to abuse existing HOV lanes. Maybe someday there can be an automated way to track and ticket these scofflaws, but for now extending HOV capacity north of the crosstown would add to congestion and duck the real challenge which is to extend high-occupancy transit south and west from the CBD into the suburbs. The changes to the 35W exits and entrances that tidy up earlier mistakes have a certain allure but I can't say I think well of a southbound exit that would funnel major traffic into an already cluttered Eat Street region. Unless somebody gets serious about parking ramps beyond what's planned for the Cub Foods/Sherman Associates area, I can't imagine that increased traffic will find a handy way to stop and shop. The flyover ramp also seems awkward to me. There needs to be a way for local destination freeway traffic to get to the Mercado district on Lake St. - that will increase mightily over the years and I don't have alternatives in mind - just appreciation for the arguments of those who say such major public goals can be achieved with less cement. The big institutional uses north of Lake St. are functioning now and they are income generators - I just see the value of being able to walk or bike to work as being potentially preferable to Atlanta-style gridlock as a condition of employment. I also caution that the promise of mitigation dollars has to be considered somewhat ephemeral in a public process environment that must confront major capital shortfalls from the federal level on down. The notion that Hennepin County can bond its way through potentially even larger financing dilemmas seems to me more a matter of counting certain local elected noses in the short run - letting the runaway commuter herd continue to pour over the cliff. Better policy suggests coming to grips with the "less is more" lesson that the economy of scale can tame and channel this flow with improved public transit when the dollars aren't there for ever more freeways. Expecting an eventual loan guarantee from the State of Minnesota would seem particularly daft when the state's revenue shortfalls are so intractable. Fred Markus, Horn Terrace, Ward Ten in the Lyndale Neighborhood _______________________________________ 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
