Friday's compromise in the city council chokes the pedestrian life out of Lake at perhaps its most crucial node--Chicago.
Which is, as they say in the corporate world, "as designed." We have a big corporate development just around the corner, so to speak. Even the buses, one of the current sources of vitality for the intersection, are being diverted to the new Midtown Exchange node. Here is my read on what has happened on Lake. The "process" has created two Lake Street pedestrian choke points--Chicago and 35W. East of Chicago to Hiawatha we now have an area ripe for development with the Midtown Exchange. West to 35W has been designated as the valley of the cars. Of course it makes sense in the Wizard Marksian world to strangle street life. To wit, "If you will, take a walk through the Lake and Chicago intersection some time and tell me afterwards what kind of street life Niziolek, Lilligren, and Zimmerman, and you are trying to preserve. The police and the neighbors have been working for years to disrupt the pedestrian life around Chicago-Lake." Trouble is, by creating a distinctly auto friendly pedestrian hell between Chicago and 35W, "we" won't discourage any of Wizard's undesirable street life. In fact, it might just create a situation where street "entrepreneurs" do their advertising on Lake and make their deals on the residential streets near it. But of course, Wizard will be the first to alert us to the problem, I am sure. Finally, according to the minutes of the Lake Street PAC, Wizard Marks was not a member of that PAC initially. In fact, she is not listed as a member of this PAC until September of 2003, although she was operating as a member as early as June 2003 (according to the minutes) even as the official representative from Central Neighborhood, Marie Hauser, sat at the table. My point here is that the vaunted PAC process is very fluid depending on the whims of the project manager and the desires of certain individuals. This is kind of like having bruised ribs--it hurts to laugh. Russell Raczkowski Bancroft 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. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ 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
