We have several letters to the editor this month so I will be brief! For the first time in Hill & Lake Press history we are delivering via US Post. We hope you enjoy receiving it in your mailbox and find that delivery reliability improves.
This is a big week for the future of Hennepin Avenue when the City Council makes a historic vote on its redesign. Later this month we will cover the Park Board’s release of the Preferred Park Concept for Cedar-Isles Master Plan, which we will run in July.
Enjoy a lovely summer and please send us photos, artwork, stories, and poems expressing how you are experiencing the warm months at hillandlakepress@gmail.com. We hope to share these in August!
Craig Wilson lives in Lowry Hill and is the Editor of the Hill & Lake Press.
Uptown Businesses Respond to City about Hennepin Avenue Redesign
The following letter is being shared with City leaders this week on behalf of various business owners along Hennepin Avenue in anticipation of the City Council’s vote on its redesign:
Hello Mayor and Council Members. We are owners of businesses along Hennepin Avenue, and we have had a chance to meet with some of you to share our concerns and requests about the Hennepin Avenue reconstruction project. We have been saying that the previous version of the project design, and its removal of Hennepin street parking, put an undue hardship on small businesses - many of them, like ours, owned by people of color - that are trying to recover from civil unrest, high criminal activity, and the pandemic. We have lost many businesses. We should be finding ways to make it easier to conduct business in the City of Minneapolis, not harder.
We support the flexible compromise put forward by Public Works on May 19, with parking on Hennepin except during rush hours, when the lanes would be dedicated to buses. This is the kind of sensible plan which we have been asking for, and we appreciate City staff being responsive to our requests. We agree with the need to consider and address climate change, which has been a key theme of the project. But the amended plan forwarded by the Public Works and Infrastructure committee will adversely affect the entire Uptown community, threaten the viability of small and independent Uptown businesses and their employees and visitors, burden residential taxpayers, and provide yet another barrier to having an Uptown that can function as a vibrant commercial area.
Uptown is a destination, not just a rapid bus pass-through. The previous version of the design cast Hennepin as a corridor to be passed through, rather than as home to a major commercial and residential district where people with different transportation profiles come to work, shop, dine, and more. The Public Works staff recommendation, and its retention of on street parking, is a significant improvement.
Filling open storefronts with businesses. How does the City expect to attract and fill the numerous empty retail spaces in Uptown with new businesses, and keep the small businesses like ours which are trying each day to stay open, when only offering minimal parking options? The Public Works staff recommendation, and its retention of on street parking, is a significant improvement.
Bus platform positioning. As designed, some of the raised bus platforms obstruct sightlines to business. We ask that the project design be revised to an alternative plan to move the raised platform locations in front of Speedway on the northbound Hennepin route and Holiday Gas on the southbound Hennepin route. This would benefit two small local businesses, Osman Cleaners and The Balloon Shoppe.
Again, we support the flexible compromise put forward by Public Works on May 19, and not the amended plan forwarded by the Public Works and Infrastructure committee. Thank you for your consideration. We are available to answer any questions.
Ward 10 Council Member Aisha Chugtai is Wrong
I recently read the Ward 10 Newsletter from Council Member Aisha Chughtai and my blood is boiling.
For the record, I talked to every business owner/manager on the west side of Hennepin from 22nd to 28th Street a few weeks ago. Not one person endorsed the original proposal. In fact, several people reported that their longtime business would be forced to close if parking were removed from Hennepin.
Yet, by including Osman Cleaners on her outreach list, Chughtai implies that its owner is an enthusiastic supporter I assure you this is not true. I spent 20 minutes with the owner, and she reported that her business would be irrevocably harmed by the removal of parking as well as construction of a large bus platform in front of her business, which would obstruct its view from the street. Also, the owner of The Corner Balloon Shoppe has announced that the shop would close if parking were removed from Hennepin.
Chughtai reports that the proposed plan will be in effect for 60 years. Yet, in a recent Zoom meeting, the project planning team cited 50 years. These assumptions are both disingenuous and baseless, in my judgment. Electric vehicles, as well as public charging stations, are the future. Yet, they warranted not one word in plan documents I’ve read.
To date, I have seen no empirical studies or data that support permanent 24/7 bus lanes. Chughtai states, without evidence, that “24/7 bus lanes are the single largest tool for racial and economic justice.” Frankly, I’m not sure what she means in the absence of research data with specific citations. The plan applies to a 1.36-mile section of street from Douglas Avenue to Lake Street. On this corridor, bus stops will be reduced from 11 to three. What happens to street layout south of Lake Street to Southdale? If the current plan is not applied to the entire corridor from downtown to Southdale, the plan makes no practical sense. What is the value of “racial and economic justice” for a mere 1.36 miles? On what basis is “justice” by any definition even applicable?
What is the point of establishing an Area Parking Management Task Force “prior to the start of construction?” The task force should work in tandem with the street planning team; it should be working now to fully address and coordinate with the corridor design, not after the project is approved. Logic and common sense are required here.
Contrary to Chughtai’s assertion, riding the bus, biking and walking are viable options now. However, they cannot and should not be exclusive options. Despite her advocacy for buses, bikes and walking, cars are here to stay. The difference is that the majority of those vehicles will be electric in the near future. She also cites the “countless near crashes between pedestrians and vehicles.” From my 37-year experience on Hennepin, I can report that those crashes are the result of pedestrians running across the street to beat the light, and/or vehicles speeding through intersections to beat the light. The current project design is not likely to eliminate those illegal behaviors.
I am also skeptical of Chughai’s claims regarding the need for more bus lanes. She says that 17% of households in Minneapolis are transit-dependent, which would equate to 30,411 households (of 178,886 total), which cover 58 square miles of the city. How many of those households depend on the downtown-to-Southdale transit line?
Also, stakeholders need data supporting her claim that “83% of Metro Transit trips are outside a 9-5 commute” — i.e., for non commuting purposes. Experience and common sense lead me to question the validity of this statistic.
My greatest concern about the proposal is the addition of Hennepin bike lanes. I know many people in the neighborhood who are avid, year-round cyclists; I made a point to contact those neighbors. Not one of them currently cycles on Hennepin, and none of them said they would use Hennepin bike lanes because, as one neighbor recently reported, “Why would anyone do it when there are plenty of dedicated bike lanes within a couple of blocks?”
Chughtai concludes her newsletter by supporting the current project plan because it “centers on peoples’ safety, well-being and dignity.” I do not discount the importance of these human values, but I fail to understand how they apply to, or are the result of the proposed plan.
Sandra Nelson is a resident of East Isles.
We Support the Hennepin Avenue Redesign
My partner and I recently purchased a condo in East Isles after a long search for a walkable, transit-oriented neighborhood for us to call home. We can walk to the grocery store, choose from many delicious restaurants only a block or two away, and easily catch a variety of buses to take us anywhere else we need.
The Hennepin redesign serves to only enhance Hennepin as the bustling, neighborhood friendly transit corridor that it is. The design takes a people-forward approach to bike lanes and pedestrians, prioritizing safety and comfort along the street. And 24/7 bus lanes will provide an efficient and effective way for any of us to catch the bus all through the city. Imagine a quick ride to restaurants in Linden Hills, without needing to worry about parking or having to drive back home.
24/7 bus lanes are critical to the success of transit along Hennepin, including the new E-line. I’ve been on the bus when it has utilized transit only lanes and cruised past traffic, delivering myself and others to their destination on time. I’ve also been on a full bus when a car has parked in the bus-only lane, requiring the bus to maneuver back into traffic much to everyone’s frustration. As council member Andrew Johnson shared at the June 9th Public Works and Infrastructure Committee meeting, dynamic lanes don’t work. Cars still park in the lanes, causing a headache for transit users and traffic enforcement alike.
Our neighborhood is growing, and the need for accessible and efficient transportation is only going to increase. New housing is being completed near the Uptown Transit Station, with more housing planned at Seven Points. Imagine living next to a state-of-the-art transit line which can take you downtown in a fraction of the time it would take to drive, because of the infrastructure we’re planning for today. The renovated Uptown Theater is going to become a music destination, bringing several thousand visitors to Uptown for shows. Like the state fair or a Vikings game, the best and most efficient way to get there will be by transit, running swiftly along Hennepin Ave bus-only lanes.
I look forward to all of which will be gained by the Hennepin redesign. I look forward to a pleasant walk along Hennepin Avenue to visit some of my favorite shops, and patio dining without the need to shout over traffic. I am excited to take the E-line to downtown or south Minneapolis on a whim, without worrying about parking or driving home. And I’m looking forward to bragging about how great my neighborhood is, now that we’ve got a better Hennepin Avenue which prioritizes people.
Christy Marsden lives in East Isles.
Crime Drops in Lowry Hill After Buy Back Program
The entity that has a contract for additional police patrols in Lowry Hill sent the following info to program supporters on May 17:
As you may have seen, this morning the Southwest Voices local news website posted a piece claiming that additional MPD patrols in Lowry Hill are not reducing crime. The author’s stated purpose is to raise concerns about city-wide MPD staffing policies.
The facts: Since MPD officers started additional patrols in Lowry Hill, the number of carjackings has decreased from 8 to 2 and the number of armed robberies has decreased from 4 to 0, all in an apples-to-apples comparison of geography and length of time.
Details: In the Lowry Hill neighborhood, in the 99 days from October 30, 2021 to February 6, 2022, there were 8 carjackings (theft of a vehicle while it was occupied) and 4 armed robberies, among other crimes. The additional patrols in Lowry Hill started on February 7, 2022. In the 99 days since, there have been 2 carjackings and 0 armed robberies in that same geography, among other crimes. All data from the City’s Crime Locations Map.
There is always room for improvement, of course. In the same time periods and geography as the comparisons above, thefts of unoccupied vehicles have remained basically flat (decreasing from 9 only down to 8) and thefts of motor vehicle parts (mostly catalytic converters) have increased from 1 to 4.
Bottom line, though, since the additional patrols started, armed robberies and carjackings have dropped dramatically. We will continue to evaluate outcomes on an ongoing basis. Thank you for your support of the program.
Cam Winton is a Lowry Hill resident writing on behalf of Minneapolis Safety Initiative.
