Read on Twitter
Please please attend this! I'll be on the overnight shift at the hospital with @capandcane and I'm not sure we'll be able to make it. (He's feeling better, which means a) he's in more pain, and b) he's not his docile, only trying to escape every two hours self.) https://twitter.com/OurStreetsMpls/status/1310986228834152449
A reminder that Hennepin Ave from Washington to 36th (i.e. including the stretch between Douglas and Lake) is a city-controlled street.
There are NO EXCUSES about it being county-controlled, or their vision zero or complete streets or climate or equity policies being worse.
There are NO EXCUSES about it being county-controlled, or their vision zero or complete streets or climate or equity policies being worse.
Hennepin Ave was NOT the original N/S vehicle through-put route here. It was Emerson/Fremont (I think, or Dupont/Emerson, I always forget). Hennepin Ave WAS the transit-priority community corridor however.
Things have not always been this hellish here.
Things have not always been this hellish here.
When you attend this meeting, pay attention to what they're talking about regarding intersections. Their initial survey ignored MANY legal crossings along this corridor--we need every intersection to be safe/narrow for people walking/using wheelchairs. https://twitter.com/happifydesign/status/983431614133813248?s=20
The City has already approached the BAC/PAC to ask which of three bike-route options we thought was best. NO OPTION WAS THE FULL LENGTH OF THE STREET. No option allowed for safe biking between Douglas and Franklin.
Spoiler alert: people bike there! A lot!
Spoiler alert: people bike there! A lot!
The City tends to narrow car-lane widths in these redos EXCEPT at intersections (eg: the recent redo of the south side of Lake & Hennepin). These are the most dangerous places for people walking/biking, and where the street should be the narrowest. https://twitter.com/happifydesign/status/983151815536644096?s=20
Currently, many intersections are functionally six-lanes wide. Drivers use both bus and parking lanes for driving constantly.
I personally think that private vehicle traffic should be highly restricted on this corridors, and certainly not allowed by right 24/7.
I personally think that private vehicle traffic should be highly restricted on this corridors, and certainly not allowed by right 24/7.
It's got two senior high rises and a low-income public elementary school (Jefferson) with its recess area right on Hennepin. It's a high density residential corridor zoned for even more people to live here.
Making this a truck/commuter route is straight up violence.
Making this a truck/commuter route is straight up violence.
When I spoke to Mpls2040 planners about putting high density housing on to high volume vehicle routes, they said they're putting housing on bus lines (yay!) and that it's PW's responsibility to reduce/remove vehicles from these residential corridors to protect public health.
We CANNOT accept Hennepin Ave as a commuter/truck corridor.
This is the City's last chance for many years to show Hennepin County (which controls the design of almost every other community/residential corridor in Mpls) what our values are, what a public space should be.
This is the City's last chance for many years to show Hennepin County (which controls the design of almost every other community/residential corridor in Mpls) what our values are, what a public space should be.
The City will likely talk about "competing interests" on this corridor, and tell you that the 88' right of way is really not enough to do everything.
That's a lie. There are three interests:
1. people living
2. community gathering
3. moving people (NOT CARS)
That's a lie. There are three interests:
1. people living
2. community gathering
3. moving people (NOT CARS)
Push them. Make them tell their story WITHIN the context of spiraling climate breakdown. Total reconstructs, like this one of Hennepin, are supposed to last for 50-70 years. If we design more streets like the one that exists right now--car-centric violent--our planet DIES.
The staff working on this are really lovely people with strong values. But they're conditioned by the structures of PW and their sense of political realities so it's hard for them (individually/collectively) to even talk honestly about scientific reality and racial justice.
They are going to be wary of crossing the adjacent neighborhood organizations, dominated by wealthy white people with political connections who are car-dependent and entitled. (Hennepin Ave renters/transit? We're invisible.)
Remind them they've gone big on Hennepin Ave before.
Remind them they've gone big on Hennepin Ave before.
In ~2001, the city implemented MAJOR changes along Hennepin Ave. N/S streets like Colfax used to go through for cars, creating tiny concrete triangle islands along this diagonal street. Now they're pedestrian/community space, with plantings/benches.
Big changes are realistic.
Big changes are realistic.
Basically, they did this--but permanently--at a whole bunch of intersections twenty years ago. Society did not collapse. PW SHOULD BE TALKING ABOUT THIS TO SCARED ENTITLED CAR-DEPENDENT PEOPLE. We can do good things again, and more of them. https://twitter.com/BrentToderian/status/610286524173676544?s=20
In red are the car-connections that were removed in the early 2000s (my memory was wrong in my initial tweet, I've confirmed w PW). https://twitter.com/happifydesign/status/983426271110512641?s=20
Maybe you don't live on Hennepin Ave? Maybe you don't even use it regularly?
We still need you to show up, because, again, THIS IS THE LAST CITY STREET BEING REDONE FOR YEARS. What happens here WILL set the upper bar for what Hennepin County will do on streets near you.
We still need you to show up, because, again, THIS IS THE LAST CITY STREET BEING REDONE FOR YEARS. What happens here WILL set the upper bar for what Hennepin County will do on streets near you.
The City of Minneapolis over and over out-performs Hennepin County when it comes to sustainable, accessible, human streets.
Whatever this design ends up being, it will be twice as good as anything the county will give us for a decade.
Whatever this design ends up being, it will be twice as good as anything the county will give us for a decade.
Do you care about Broadway? Lyndale? Franklin? Central? Lake? University?
Show up to the Hennepin meeting, because this is where our post-Transportation Action Plan standards are being determined; they will only be watered down to even more car-oriented stuff on your street.
Show up to the Hennepin meeting, because this is where our post-Transportation Action Plan standards are being determined; they will only be watered down to even more car-oriented stuff on your street.
BUT if we can win a people-oriented, sustainable, accessible, bikable transit-prioritizing community corridor here? On this street bookended by the Walker Art Center and Uptown, near the lakes?
We'll help all your neighbors see what's possible where you are too!
We'll help all your neighbors see what's possible where you are too!
Other cities have done this as a tactic--picked one stretch of street for a whole cluster of meaningful, significant changes (whether just paint or full reconstruct). They find that this reduces future fights from people scared of change, who can see how much better they are.
Showing up tomorrow is the kind of systems-change action that we need around climate breakdown, friends!
If you're feeling individual change isn't enough, voting isn't enough, this is where you can really make a difference in reducing GHG emissions and supporting racial equity.
If you're feeling individual change isn't enough, voting isn't enough, this is where you can really make a difference in reducing GHG emissions and supporting racial equity.
I grew up biking on Hennepin Ave. Do you know how scary it is to be a small (<5') freshman on your pink huffy with a backpack full of library books, in the street with giant trucks because the police kicked you off the sidewalk?
This is our neighborhood, our community street.
This is our neighborhood, our community street.
Ask the City to consider not just Hennepin, but the whole grid in their design.
West of Hennepin has convoluted one ways/turn restrictions that are there ONLY to keep commuter traffic away from the mansions on the side streets (thereby forcing it past children/seniors/renters).
West of Hennepin has convoluted one ways/turn restrictions that are there ONLY to keep commuter traffic away from the mansions on the side streets (thereby forcing it past children/seniors/renters).
When the city considers throughput for motor vehicles, remind them to prioritize any simple changes on adjacent streets that could be made to them (removing rush hour turn restrictions, turning them to one-way) which would preserve overall vehicle movement but WAY more equitably.
Right now, there is a sidewalk gap between Douglas and Franklin, on the east side of the street. The City will claim that that's ok, because it's along the highway. But if you walk, you know sometimes you NEED that choice.
I've needed it when construction totally blocks the sidewalk and I'm forced to take a lane (repeatedly this year). When I've felt tingly-wary about something/someone up ahead. When the snow swirls too high to walk thru against the senior high rise, or the sun falls differently.
It is not for the City's car-centric engineers to decide where we want to walk or what the destinations are. We have the RIGHT to these two tiny, inexpensive parallel slivers of public space, without judgment, every day of the year. We have the right to choose our path.
