No Loose Ends

I got this via email from a long-time friend of this blog and the show, from Highland Park:

A week and a half ago the city told the neighborhood and businesses on the east side of Cleveland and Randolph(Luci, Sportsmans Barbers, and KEA photography) that the city was taking away their street parking and making it bike lanes.

They announced a meeting this Wednesday at Nativity Church to “get neighborhood feedback”. Kinda seems like they have their minds already made up.

Yep.  My thesis; there hasn’t been a “public feedback” meeting in the Twin Cities in thirty years that was actually intended to gather, y’know, feedback from the public.

It’s about “the process”.  The process says you have one or more meetings at some point in the process; you have the meetings, and you move on.

Randolph Ave is already full people that own homes and St Kates students/employees. There is no parking on the west side of the street, and James Ave a block up is a packed residential street. These people are screwed.

Sportsman Barbers has been their for more than 40 years owned by Ray Newton and his son Joe. I am friends with Kristie Anderson of KEA photography and she thinks our way. Her lease was up and she is leaving, but she can give you some great insight on this

I know you are a biker, but the bike lobby is wielding a heavy hand right now in our city. Damn the business community.

This is a good story

You know how lawyers say “never ask a witness a question that you don’t already know the answer to?”

The public analogue is “never ask for feedback when it can still affect the political class’ master plan.

10 thoughts on “No Loose Ends

  1. its like the city planners are running an old version of Sim City on Windows 98 then transcribing the results.

  2. I believe that public feedback has been heavily opposed to the Southwest LRT line going in at every step, and yet the Met Council keeps flogging it, even as the projected cost goes up roughly $100 million every month to where they now think it will be $2 billion – roughly two Vikings stadiums – all in the belief that Eden Prairie residents will give up their BMWs and SUVs to take light rail, or that there’s a need to connect North Minneapolis with the target-rich environments of the ‘burbs. Actually, I don’t think the Met Council believes anything like that. All they need to believe is that they are doing “good” (and helping their oligarch cronies), damn the cost.

  3. When did “We the people” morph into “We the sheeple”? When did we change from a constitutional republic into a monarchy?

  4. I sent an email to my councilman, since this is happening in our ward. I am a cyclist and think it is a boneheaded plan. First, River Parkway is just 4-5 blocks to the west and runs north-south with a dedicated southbound bike lane and a shared northbound path, also vehicle traffic is both slower moving and less dense, so street riding northbound is not a problem. If you needed another north-south bike lane, Fairview Ave. makes more sense, as it is another 3-4 blocks east. If it must be near Cleveland, then Finn, one block west, would be less disruptive to business parking, vehicle traffic, etc.

  5. Loren, you are using logic. Wake up and drink the kool-aid! You should be writing them how great you think their idea is and that every conservative person in the area supports it but Big Gay has reservations. Just watch how quickly they will change their plans!

  6. I’m sure Loren remembers when they tried to make Highland Parkway and Edgecumbe Rd a bike boulevard with Sharevrons (or whatever they call them). They tried bribing residents of Edgecumbe with “Free” sidewalks that weren’t wanted and Highland with “Free” streetlights. The majority of supporters that showed up to our District Council presentations were from Mpls.
    About 2 years later, they designated Jefferson Ave as the bike boulevard with Sharevrons instead of dedicated bike lanes. Ironically, they previously had the space for bike lanes, but the narrowed the road when it was rebuilt about the time of the original HP/ERd push.

    As to Fairview as the north/south route, I thought they painted bike lanes when they reduced it to 1 lane each way with a turn lane from 2 lanes each direction.

  7. Sharrows is what they call them. I think they are stupid. Cycles are traffic on city streets. Sharrows don’t protect cyclists, or provide any additional room for cyclists. What they do do is create the impression, that you shouldn’t expect to encounter a cyclist on a street without a sharrow. Additionally, in wet conditions, they can make things more dicey to ride on the roads.

    Jefferson is another one that I don’t understand the big push for. Summit with it’s bike lanes parallels Jefferson only about 5-6 blocks away.

  8. Did Ray used to have a shop up in Arden Hills? I used to go to a Sportsman barbershop run by a guy named Ray but it was more like 20 years ago.

  9. Don’t actually know about Ray or Sportsman’s barbershop, but the shop has been there for over the 25 years I lived in the neighborhood.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.