Tonight: Ayd Mill Road EIS Hearing, Thursday, March 3, at 7:30pm at the
Buetow Music Center Auditorium, Concordia University, 300 Hamline
between Concordia Ave. and Marshall Ave. Or 275 Syndicate North of
Marshall (back entrance).
Councilmember Benanav on the Ayd Mill Road EIS...
The characterization of the Ayd Mill Road issue by Matt Auron of the
Chamber is wrong, manipulative and extremely disdainful of the
residential taxpayers who have been, and will continue to be
increasingly hurt by the Ayd Mill Road connection.
The south connection of Ayd Mill Road moves a four-block traffic
problem on Lexington Parkway to the residential neighborhoods north and
west of Ayd Mill Road in my ward. Lexington deserves relief, but to say
we're building a $44 million dollar four-lane highway to achieve calmer
traffic on Lexington is phony and disingenuous.
As mayor, Randy Kelly has hijacked the community and City Council EIS
process, with the Chamber's blessing. The so-called test of the 35E
connection has never been made permanent by City Council action.
Further, the mayor and his appointed city attorney have ruled that the
community task force and City Council process which selected a two-lane
connection have no legal standing.
Even if the city is not legally bound to its own EIS process -
involving thousands of hours of community volunteer time and a huge
public investment of staff and paid consultant time over the past 15
years - the city has a moral obligation to the citizen process it
created and promised to honor.
Mayor Kelly and the Chamber are promoting a 1950s solution to traffic
management. At the same time, they're creating a St. Paul bypass - a
shortcut for Dakota County suburbanites to travel through St. Paul
neighborhoods to downtown Minneapolis. Air quality testing of the
connection has revealed pollution and noise levels in certain adjacent
intersections in excess of those at Snelling and University, among the
most polluted intersections in the state of Minnesota.
The biggest hoax the Chamber is trying to perpetrate is that the new
road has improved neighborhood traffic. At evening rush hour, watch the
freeway traffic line up for about a mile at the Snelling Avenue
eastbound exit ramp to snake its way through neighborhoods to Ayd Mill
Road. Look at the excessive volumes of southbound traffic on Cretin and
westbound traffic on Marshall, too impatient to wait at the Snelling
exit.
When I looked at the high-tech computer animation of the "new and
improved" Ayd Mill Road that connects to I-94 at an at-grade
intersection at Marshall Avenue, I asked Public Works what possible
relief this will create for Ward 4 neighborhoods suffering with
cut-through traffic on Marshall, Cretin, Mississippi River Boulevard and
surrounding streets and the huge amounts of congestion at Snelling and
I-94 at morning and afternoon rush hour. Public Works could not
respond.
In the 1950s, St. Paul allowed the construction of I-94 through the
center of our community and destroyed the Rondo neighborhood. New
freeways don't alleviate traffic, they induce traffic. They smell bad,
they're noisy and they never, ever strengthen neighborhoods. Two-thirds
of our city's tax base is generated by residential neighbors, not by the
board of the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce.
What St. Paul neighborhoods need is not a $44 million city-funded
freeway connection; what they need is adequate funding for public
safety. The city is short 14 firefighters, 40 police officers and 16
emergency dispatch 911 operators. Why is the mayor proposing tax
dollars for Ayd Mill Road, instead of investing in the livability and
security of our neighborhoods.
As for Ayd Mill Road, it provides an unparalleled urban design
opportunity: a huge multi-acre parcel of undeveloped land in the midst
of the city's strongest and most vibrant neighborhoods. We need to look
at 21st century solutions: rail transit, a two-lane parkway,
recreational trails and even housing development. Why are we going
backwards? So that we can repeat the mistakes of the 1950s?
Jay Benanav
City Council Ward 4
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email Jay at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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