[Winona] RE: Planning

[john finn]

[Winona Online Democracy]

It’s going to be interesting to see what the consultants come up with for our downtown and riverfront. How to advocate for “amenities” such as landscaped public spaces scattered throughout downtown and the riverfront without conjuring up memories of our failed pedestrian plaza will be quite a trick. (Note that my councilman, when asked at an election forum what City Hall should do to help revitalize downtown said, in effect: We got rid of the Plaza, isn’t that enough?”)   I’ve been participating in the Riverfront and Transportation “sub-committees”. Each group has had three meetings so far.   In the river group I’ve been trying to generate interest in cleaning up the overall trashy appearance of our riverfront, especially the area in the vicinity of the Riverview Drive entrance to downtown. Key to that effort would be somehow persuading property owners and City Hall that it would be a worthwhile endeavor. The Marine Art Museum is locating a bit up the road and our downtown riverfront hotel is in between. There are major obstacles to creating a pleasant pedestrian and bicycle corridor connecting those, as well as destinations to the east end of town, but maybe the consultants can think of something. Besides endorsing in theory that a riverfront bicycle trail be established from the Middle School to Prairie Island, not much in the way of big change has resulted from the meetings, in my opinion.   My downtown bordering neighborhood being environmentally vulnerable (noise, safety, etc.) to traffic growth is why I joined the transportation group. That and advocating for bicycles and public transportation. So far, specific proposals for improving the airport have been adopted. River commercial shipping was found to be in good shape with no significant improvements that could be addressed by the comprehensive plan. Moving the rail switching and storage yards from the Levee Park vicinity and from the Amtrak station, and removing the Wall Street tracks is being endorsed. But there will still be a rail line along the riverfront going from west to east with some additional use to make up for the loss of Wall Street access to the east end.   No changes to the downtown truck routes are foreseen, but a different route through the east end will be recommended. The next two meetings will be for roads and parking in general. I’m anticipating that doing whatever it takes to facilitate growth in single occupant car travel throughout town will get a big endorsement.   John N. Finn

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