Jane Prince's position on Ayd Mill road as laid out in the email below accuses "Matt Auron's" position as phony and disengenuous.
The position further states that the Chamber position is "manipulative and extremely disdainful".
Manipulative and disdainful is beautifully displayed in Jane's email.
Jane says:
"they're creating a St. Paul bypass - a shortcut for Dakota County suburbanites to travel through St. Paul neighborhoods to downtown Minneapolis"
See Ayd Mill Road EIS, Executive Summary, page 2, "under the preferred alternative Ayd Mill Road would carry approximately 70 local and 30 percent through trips"
Jane wonders why a "highway" should cut through a neighborhood, it is not proposed that one cut through. A road, a 35-40 mile and hour road, with adjacent bike trails, regional trail, and weight restrictions, operating through a corridor that is for the most part is already there!
Yes, members of the coummunity have spent many hours at meetings, commenting on studies, EAW, EIS, but why is it that Council Member Benanav would simply dismiss the overall benefit of a connection for Ayd Mill because a few people in the already vibrant neighborhoods think their home values will diminish? Well, have they? No, I'd bet none of those that live around the corridor have seen their values diminish, or fail to grow at comparable rates.
Regarding the "biggest hoax". It is obvious that traffic would back up at the east bound Snelling Exit. Would it not make more sense to route traffic straight east on Concordia to make a connection to Ayd Mill, instead of merging right onto Southbound Snelling, and left to eastbound Snelling? The question is answered in the email below, "watch the traffic snake through"
What the "biggest hoax" truly is, is the manner in which the neighborhood's preferred alternative was chosen. Some Task force members "hijacked" the position by voting to give more weight to the votes of the district council members, and in the end eliminating the road all together, failing to give common sense and facts any consideration.
This is not just about Ward 4, It can be said this is about livability, a reduction in traffic head south on Snelling to access the vibrant neighborhoods to the south, where over 50% of the 2/3 residential tax base in Saint Paul exists.
The email suggests that we need to look at the two lane alternative, please correct me if I am wrong, but did council member Benanav not say to his diddainfully state tocolleagues on the council, he "would not forget this" when they voted for the two lane connection? Now its a 21st Century solution? What does a linear park do for the 21st Century?
Lexington has witnessed relief, now, so could Selby, Marshall, Hamline, Grand, Snelling and the many streets in between. The connection proposal makes sense, it does not have to happen today, but it makes sense.
"Air quality testing of the connection has revealed pollution and noise levels in certain adjacent
intersections in excess of those at Snelling and University", Jane is trying to manipulate your understanding of these air quality issues, although Selling and University is one of the more polluted intersections, the pollution in that same area has been well below MPCA standards for years, as would be the same for Ayd Mill Road at Hamline. For instance the 1 -hour CO concentrations at Hamline and Ayd Mill, tested and projected under the "worst case scenario" project 5ppm(parts per million), the standard 30 ppm. The same tests and projections measure 8 hour averages at 3ppm, the standard, 9ppm. (Ayd Mill EIS Section 8.1.2)
Firefighters, Cops, 911 Operators, they are funded from different sources, Ayd Mill could be funded from different sources, maybe some City General fund as well, just like STAR funds are not used for public safety. If the budget is so bad Jay, why did you vote for it?
I-94 and I-35E did have significant impact on some neighborhoods, but would it have been better to have never built I-94, or I-35E. They benefit to the region and the downtown Saint Paul FAR outweighed the impact of have our City isolated from the interstate system. Without it, would our Saint Paul residents that work in the West Metro or East Metro (that's OK right?) have stayed here.
Let common sense prevail over rhetoric,
Matt Anfang Highland Park
From: "Jane Prince" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Subject: [StPaul] Jay Benanav on Ayd Mill Road Date: Thu, 03 Mar 2005 13:42:55 -0600
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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