Stadiums - Sports Arenas _________ Gopher or Vikings stadiums will have games 8 to 10 days a year. What do we do with the structures the rest of the year?
Target Center has ice events, musical tours, and other events. People keep saying we need a single use stadium for a particular sport. Obviously, successful buildings do much more than service a single sport. What other events are planned for the buildings proposed? Can they really create additional activity in Minneapolis or at any other site? Questions of financing would be more clear if we knew what is actually being financed. Since the professional sports monopolies refuse to allow public ownership, any public funds must be directly recoverable even if the sports team moves to Anchorage (a warm Minneapolis?). Transportation. _________ Last week, one of the posts contained complaints about adding bike lanes to Lowry Avenue. The problem explained was that adding a new option without increasing the surface area just caused additional congestion and endangered both the existing and the new users. That is a valid point. In Northeast, railroad lines create choke points for surface transportation. Freeways and other obstacles are present as choke points throughout the city. New transportation options should be new and additional options. They should not reduce current options. For example, bike lanes could be on parallel side streets rather than the main street. At choke points, the bike lanes could share sidewalks rather than street surface. Currently both alternative areas are underutilized. Downtown areas are more of a problem. The skyways and parking garage entrances and exits limit alternative street use and additional transportation options. Elevated trains or pods would require skyway redesign. The parking garages do not currently enter and exit streets in a way that permits reasonable limits on certain surface transportation for specific types of vehicles. For example, streets can not currently be reasonably be limited to bicycles, bus, and streetcars. Each additional option reduces an existing option. We need to start planning rather than tacking on the latest option. We are not Amsterdam, Calcutta or Shanghai. However, we still do not have unlimited space to continue as we have. Thanks. John O'Neal Shenanigans Watch Northeast Minneapolis - Holland [EMAIL PROTECTED] REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
