WM: From observation only, I'd say these businesses are owned/run by people who know how to do retail. They are not naive, but they are savvy in Spanish, Somali, and who knows what else. Unless you are trilingual, you're unlikely to learn what they understand. They're certainly smart enough to understand that if the road comes near their doors, they'll get more business.Someone told me that speculation was the lifeblood of this forum, so here goes:
Those businesses that reportedly want the Access project might simply believe what they've been told by Smith-Parker, et al about how the increased traffic would include customers coming to visit their businesses, regardless of whether that's actually true. Maybe they're just na�ve.
WM: Immigrants know more about how this joint (USofA) works than we do. They have to study the constitution and etc. to become citizens. These are not stupid people. They have been smart enough to come here, become citizens, start businesses, buy houses, all that stuff. It's a mistake to think these are not savvy people. An insult, too. You can bet your bottom dollar that immigrants who are being successful on Lake St. or anywhere else are the smart folks from their home countries. They've gone through a lot of complex steps to get here and get established. They are not naive and they're courageous. It takes big courage to leave everything you know and set out into what, for each immigrant, is a wilderness of the unknown.Or, some have said that many of the businesses along Lake are owned by immigrants. Perhaps they may be saying they favor the project out of fear of any repercussions from disagreeing with "authority figures" who support it. Many immigrants come from nations where disagreeing with authority figures comes with quite severe consequences. Isn't that why it's often hard to get immigrants to speak up about harms that have been inflicted upon them through police brutality and so forth?
WM: Business people voted at their node associations first; node associations keep records of their votes. What business people who came to the open houses think of the project also appears in the stenographer's record of comments dictated to him/her. There were also sheets people filled out at the open houses giving their feedback. There were interpreters as well. Those node votes and commentary were passed to the chair of the PAC, and then to all PAC members. Any further information can be garnered from Erin Armstrong, Keeper of the Info, or from members of the PAC. Since the PAC operates under the aegis of Hennepin County, there is a set of records at the County. The process was very thorough going.Or, since Scott Persons doesn't cite any sort of record showing that businesses actually support the Access project, maybe he's just making all that stuff up. After all, others have said the opposite, that many small business owners fear losing their their businesses due to Lake St being widened or from the impact the construction would have on local traffic.
Let me propose a positive speculation: The businesses, with few exceptions, want the project. With the project in place, trucks and people going to work at Abbott, Children's, Phillips Eye Institute, Anderson and Four Winds schools, Wells Fargo, the Sears site in the future, St. Mary's College, etc. will be steered onto 28th St. As the amount of traffic rises, which it is projected to do (county and state both have computer programs to do that), Lake St. will still be able to carry it's daily 26,000 (at 35W) more of which will be people coming to Lake St. specifically to visit the businesses. That will be good for the business climate.
Personally, I'm not going to like it at all since a goodly portion of those 26,000 daily autos will go right under my windows, kicking up dirt and smelling of exhaust. However, I will love not having so many semis playing the air brakes outside my windows and coming down my tiny street to cross over to 29th St. The bonus would be that increased business will finally drive out the last two remaining Lake St. prostitution saunas both of which, BTW, are businesses owned and run by Korean immigrant women. It has taken more than 20 years of struggle for Phillips, Central, Powderhorn, and Corcoran to get to this point in returning Lake St. to a viable commercial corridor.
I support this project even though it offers me personally very little gain for several years of disruption (part of which will be a nightmare as they tear up the street alongside my fence) while 35W, Lake St. and, hopefully, Nicollet Av. get reconfigured.
WizardMarks, Central
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