I have just been skimming this thread, so maybe this has already been pointed out, but when I went outside this morning at 7 a.m. the air smelled like gasoline. And a cough that had cleared up during my holiday vacation has returned.
This is not the Minneapolis I moved to in 1979. Winter was bitter cold, crystal clear, the air moved and sparkled. Right now I am dreading next summer and even considering, for the FIRST TIME IN 20 YEARS, hooking up my central air conditioner and closing the windows -- even knowing that this will only increase the problem, in the long run. In the last 10 years, gasoline consumption in the metro area has increased faster than our population. Something oughtta be done about this :-( In 1997 I drove through the Ohio "rust belt" on Labor Day weekend. The factories had been burning all their worst stuff for three days, because the state didn't monitor air quality on holidays and weekends. The air was so bad it literally hurt to breathe. I didn't see the sky until I crossed the border into Wisconsin. I'm fearful that we are headed for the same. Regarding bikes and bike paths... I think the MOST DANGEROUS and scary place to bicycle in Minneapolis is in the neighborhoods west of 35W (Whittier, Uptown, the Lowry Hill area to downtown and the Northside, and the Wedge.) These are also high-density neighborhoods where many people choose to be car-free. This is where we need an agressive plan for a DEDICATED bikeway to get people back and forth across the freeway, through the Lowry Hill area, around the neighborhoods and north. It is totally NOT safe to bike over there. We NEED clean-running buses that don't make us choke, and that serve peoples' existing transportation needs, and we need them NOW, or better yet, yesterday. Please excuse all the emphatic capitals but, hey, my lungs are sore, and many people are biking around in this stuff, breathing hard. -- Holle Brian Bancroft _______________________________________ 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
