On Tuesday, March 25, 2003, at 01:10 PM, Eva Young wrote:
There is quite the city vs suburbs thread on the Minneapolis Issues list. I think this is a good forum to discuss this with less heat and more light.
I'm curious what folks here think of Pedestrian Friendly districts. There is a bit of a controversy over starting one of these on West Broadway. I've recently moved into the area -- I'm 4 blocks away from West Broadway - and I'm rather fond of the Lyn Lake area with coffeeshops and funky places like Intermedia Arts and Bryant Lake Bowl. Dyna Slutyer wrote on the Minneapolis Issues list that this is just South Minneapolis snobbery wanting to move into North > Minneapolis.
OK Eva, I'll take the bait...
West Broadway AKA CSAH81 AKA the Jefferson Highway's history was wriitten as much by the automobile and farmer's truck as the streetcar. Much of the routing in fact follows the even older Great Northern Railroad Monticello line, once home of the legendary Empire Builder as well as various and sundry mail, milk, and miscellaneous trains. Those tracks are still in good shape and make the proposed "bus rapid transit" along the corridor obsolete.
While the streetcars ran as far west as Crystal Lake for the first half of the last century, they only influenced the most eastern mile or so of the corridor. From Washington Avenue to Girard or so two story buildings butted right up to the sidewalks in classic streetcar route style. Sadly about half of these structures are gone, partly replaced by strip mall like development. From there west the properties along the route were largely not built until the boom of the 1920s and later. It is thusly historicly correct to state that the development of West Broadway was as much determined by the automobile as the streetcar.
The role the automobile played in the development of West Broadway is reflected in the several auto dealers that once lined the Avenue. At least 3 of these dealerships buildings survive- Northside Mercury at Aldrich, Ken Ray Chevrolet in the bend around Irving, and a Dodge dealer at about a block east of Penn. These dealerships were largely forced out by pressure from the auto manufacturers and canibalism from other dealers in the suburbs. Northside Mercury owned their own building and defied Ford by holding out the longest, but ultimately succumbed. Today both Ford and GM pretty much require that dealers locate along a freeway in the suburbs, and no way would they give you a franchise on West Broadway in Minneapolis.
None the less, their are still plenty of cars on West Broadway. Most of the cars in the surrounding neighborhoods are middle aged and older and need frequent repairs, So there is a healthy market for automobile parts and service on West Broadway. West Broadway also is a good route for many commuters from the Northside, Robbinsdale, Crystal to downtown. These folks are a ready market for drive thrus as these commuters won't always have the time to find parking then walk inside a "pedestrian overlay" type resteurant that city planner's seem to prefer.
In conclusion, most of West Broadway was never a streetcar street and it is ludicrous to redevelop it as one.
I'd encourage folks on this list to go drive along Glenwood Av. That is an area that seems to have so much potential.
Agreed- Glenwood Avenue and Theodore Wirth Park have been our Northsider's secrets for too long.
So anyway, I suppose I might be a latte drinking snob to kind of like pedestrian friendly spaces in the urban scene.
I think we can fit that in between the classic auto restoration shop and the commuter rail station...
peace,
Dyna Sluyter from the Northside
Eva Young Near North
Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: David Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Mpls] city vs. suburbs (fwd) Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-BeenThere: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Mailman-Version: 2.0 List-Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List-Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List-Subscribe: <http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/mpls>, <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List-Id: Minneapolis Issues Forum <mpls.mnforum.org> List-Unsubscribe: <http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/mpls>, <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List-Archive: <http://www.mnforum.org/pipermail/mpls/> X-Original-Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 10:48:05 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 10:48:05 -0500 (EST)
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 10:45:49 -0500 (EST) From: David Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: city vs. suburbs
For those of you who are interested, there is very interesting analysis of
the new suburbanization in the United States by David Brooks in the Weekly
Standard. "Patio-Man and the Sprawl People: America's Newist Suburbs."
It even mentions Minneapolis.
The Weekly Standard is conservative weekly magazine of politics, social
comment, and art.
The link is:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/content/public/articles/000/000/001/ 531wlvng.asp
Perhaps we can use some of the ideas from Brooks's article to anticipate
the trends and discuss possible policy responses for dealing with such
social and economic change in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area.
Trust me, the 2 part article is well worth reading.
David Wilson Loring Park
TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible.
________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy
Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
Eva Young Near North Minneapolis [EMAIL PROTECTED] Blog is up: http://lloydletta.blogspot.com
_______________________________________________
Twin Cities Metropolitan Issues Forum
http://www.e-democracy.org/tcmetro
Rules: Sign posts with real name. You may not post more than twice a day.
_______________________________________________ Twin Cities Metropolitan Issues Forum http://www.e-democracy.org/tcmetro Rules: Sign posts with real name. You may not post more than twice a day.
