Regarding Keith Reitman's characterization of the Access Project ramps as "Urban Avoidance Ramps" (quite brilliant, I must say)
Scott Persons claims: The reason there is an exit ramp to 28th street is to relieve congestion on Lake Street that the new ramps bring, it also keeps the delivery truck traffic off of Lake Street. David Piehl asks: So, this is an outright admission that the new ramps will bring congestion, and that truck traffic will move to 28th Street, a residential street. Haven't project promoters been saying all along that the objective is to get traffic out of the neighborhoods and on to Lake Street? How will the neighborhoods gain if we see increased truck traffic??? Scott continues: It's quite a simple equation really, more customers means more business, or the equally successful equation capital begets capital. David Piehl writes: Whew! That assumes way to much to be relevant. The implicit assumption is that the traffic will indeed consist of "customers", which would then presumably translate into "business". Lake Street is already very busy; why do some businesses thrive, and others fail in the same environment? Did the ramps at West Broadway translate into more customers and more business for the Target that had to be shuttered?? Since the traffic has been at 35th and 36th for 40 years, did they develop into successful business nodes? And what's this about "capital begets capital"? I don't believe it's true, and have to say that after all of my graduate level economics courses and time with Fortune 500 companies, I can't think of anything to substantiate that thought. Even if it were true, does that mean we NEED or WANT whatever capital investment is offered? Should we build a huge jail, or a nuclear power plant in Lyndale neighborhood? That would certainly be capital investment! Scott categorizes Keith's comments as follows: Sounds to me like you may be suffering from a case of infrastructure investment envy, just a guess. David Piehl asks: And, maybe Scott is suffering from infrastructure investment addiction? Come on folks, all development and all investment is not by definition a good thing! Some is appropriate, some is not - it all depends on the impact; who bears the costs and benefits, and in what ratio. David Piehl Central __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ 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
