Having conceded defeat in the effort to convince city leaders to rethink their planned makeover of Hennepin Avenue, I was ready to move on and write about all the good news in the city. Well, in parts of the city.
And then someone dropped a bundle of info on me about the makeover of Lyndale Avenue, aka County Road 22, between Franklin and 31st, currently in the planning stages with construction scheduled to begin in 2026.
This is a joint project between the City of Minneapolis, Hennepin County and Metro Transit. Because Lyndale is a county owned street, the county takes the lead in the planning process. And you guessed it, there is consideration being given to removing parking to create more bike lanes.
Don’t get me wrong. I love bikes and boast about our commitment to being a bike-friendly city. I make our visitors ride the Greenway and the commuter freeway to western suburbs. I do errands by bike whenever I can.
But as (empty) bike lanes proliferated on city streets I began to feel about them as I did about the arrival of wild turkeys in our neighborhood. The first ones were thrilling to see. We took photos, we fed them, I even sheltered one over the winter. Urban turkeys! What a comeback!
But too much of a good thing can quickly turn to a nuisance. The turkeys took over the yard, teetering in roosts on tree limbs and pooping copiously on all below, eventually attacking us if we dared walk past them to leave the house.
So far, the bike lobbyists are more considerate than the turkeys. But their drive to put bike lanes on every city street and to reduce car usage 60% by 2030 is growing equally unwelcome.
I’m sympathetic to their desperation about an overheating planet. As I write this, it’s 90 degrees in October. In a perfect world we’d have no more gas-powered anything. In fact, in order to have a world at all, we need to drastically reduce our carbon footprint.
It’s their insistence on a very narrow way to do that rives a wedge between us. Putting bike lanes on every city street is a symbolic feelgood effort but does little to curb carbon, especially with jammed freeways ringing the city and car friendly suburbs just a few miles to the west. It’s like holding a bake sale when we need a Marshall Plan on steroids. Granted, getting world leaders to face up to that is no easy task.
But back to the Lyndale Avenue makeover.
According to the timeline on the county’s website, they are collecting citizen input from August through October, meaning NOW. Two public gatherings have already been held, and there is no mention of any future meetings, only a survey which is fairly limited in what is asked, along with a space to write in comments. Please take a few minutes to fill out the survey, choosing your answers carefully. https://beheardhennepin.org/lyndale-avenue?tool=survey_tool#tool_tab
The only other event mentioned on the county website is the Lyndale Avenue Open Streets festival, held on October 8 and noted as a good place to “chat” with the county planning team to learn more about the project.
That the county cites Open Streets as a good place to get more info is somewhat concerning. Most people enjoy Open Street festivals and don’t realize that they are put on by Our Streets, formerly the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition, an organization that lobbies for more bike and bus lanes. The city recently cancelled its contract with Open Streets when questions were raised over the city funding an organization that uses the funds to lobby the city.
A street festival plays to the benefit of the bike lobby. It’s easy to support more bike lanes on a sunny day when everyone is celebrating community and enjoying the lack of cars and buses, but ask the same people how they feel in February when they’re getting a sick child to the doctor or taking an elderly parent shopping.
There is also good news.
Unlike the Hennepin Avenue plan, which was put out for public review during Covid making it difficult for businesses and neighbors to come together with constructive feedback, the businesses on Lyndale are organizing.
Andrea Corbin, owner of the Flower Bar, 2736 Lyndale Ave., and Saed Wadi, owner of World Street Kitchen across the street, took three days to walk the length of Lyndale between Franklin and 28th, talking with business owners about the plan, particularly the possibility of removing parking.
As a result, 70 businesses have come together to create a coalition they are calling the Minneapolis Small Business Alliance. They plan to meet with city and county leaders to express their deep concerns.
“All of us are on the same page,” says Corbin: “We need parking!” She points out that most of her employees live in the neighborhood and walk or bike to work. But without customers from outside the area, who need convenient parking, her business won’t survive. And if her business fails, her employees will no longer be able to walk to work, or possibly even afford to live nearby.
There is much more to learn about this plan. And there is still time to organize. Go to the county’s website which includes PDFs of presentations and handouts. https://www.hennepin.us/residents/transportation/lyndale-avenue-safety
And if you want to play a part or give a comment, please contact Andrea Corbin at mplsbusinessal-liance@gmail.com or at 612-267-5404.
