urbanMSP

The City Council can't hold Bottineau as a hostage here because it isn't a credible threat; the party being threatened has to care if the hostage is shot, and the hostage-taker has to be willing to shoot. Does MnDOT really care about this light rail line more than the road? I doubt it. And as this has demonstrated, the City clearly cares more about making sure the line goes forward than shrinking Olson. I don't see much leverage there.

The Met Council certainly cares. If the city were to deny municipal consent it would force Met Council to address the issue with Mn/DOT. At the very least the city would get a nicer-looking car sewer.

Well phrased, alleycat. The council will not grow a spine, however, unless they have cover from advocates. This is the most disappointing aspect of the whole thing to me: the advocacy community doesn't seem to be engaged on this, even though it is probably the worst urban planning decision of the last three decades. Where is the MBC protesting against this huge barrier to cycling on the Northside? Where is ISAIAH? Transit for Livable Communities, I hate to say, are showing how out of touch they are advocating in favor of consent, even though a 6 lane Olson hurts the Northside more than Bottineau will help it. Disappointing and implies that urban Minnesota will continue to be a killing ground for the pleasure of suburbanites for the foreseeable future.

I agree that more advocacy organizations need to be involved. I do know that Harrison disbanded its transit equity group while the neighborhood organization was re-staffed and, er, reorganized. Now they have a new transit organizer and while they've been doing some work on Bottineau again, he came on fairly late in the game to really have the relationships to push things. I haven't been very connected with this new group (lack of car until recently and a 2.5-year-old makes it difficult) so I can't really say more than that.

And 16,000 west of Penn. This is silly.

That was the 2012 figure. The 2014 volume was much higher...just over 24,000, and more in line with adjacent segments.

In two years it jumps 8,000? Something significant regionally changed to either make 2012 the odd blip make 2014 the odd blip.

694 work? 394 work?

The Met Council certainly cares. If the city were to deny municipal consent it would force Met Council to address the issue with Mn/DOT. At the very least the city would get a nicer-looking car sewer.

Maybe. I know you're more connected in things than I am, but Yang et al. can do the same game theory calculations that we can. If they knew Minneapolis had leverage over the Met Council and the Met Council had sufficient leverage over MnDOT to change things, why roll over?

From what I've heard from a few sources, Goodman and Johnson were against the lane reduction, which weakened the City's position.

From what I've heard from a few sources, Goodman and Johnson were against the lane reduction, which weakened the City's position.

Johnson should be the one FOR lane reductions, especially given all the difficulties with the Hiawatha portion of Highway 55. The blue line proved that you need to be even more mindful of the highway next to the line. This entire corridor is still extremely inhospitable for pedestrians and has not spurred as much development as expected.

I agree that more advocacy organizations need to be involved.

If MNDOT is the problem, why are our community advocates not doing more to contact the governor and our state representatives? Should people start a petition to show that there is support for a better highway design?

Johnson should be the one FOR lane reductions, especially given all the difficulties with the Hiawatha portion of Highway 55.

Yes, but that would involve Johnson actually caring about the part of her district south of Victory.

Wrong Johnson, VacantLuxuries. Andrew not Barb is on TPW. Anyways, most of Barb's ward stops at Lowry and only a sliver goes to 24th Avenue N.

I agree that more advocacy organizations need to be involved.

If MNDOT is the problem, why are our community advocates not doing more to contact the governor and our state representatives? Should people start a petition to show that there is support for a better highway design?

As they say, you are the change you are looking for. But petitions are worthless. What's needed is raw power pushing against the status quo.

Organizations have limited resources. At any point in time they can only work on so many issues. Some of the larger racial justice organizations are working on things like ending mass incarceration, improving schools and so on. A fight over lane reductions on a relatively small stretch of road is not really on their radar. Unless the communities themselves rise up and demand change, it's going to continue to fly under that radar.

As an example, ISAIAH got involved in SWLRT primarily because NOC got very interested in it and the possibilities to leverage that fight for improved transit beyond SWLRT itself. ISAIAH and other groups responded to authentic action and demands from POC directly affected. Frankly, those organizations are not going to respond to a group of white liberals like myself, as much as I might like to think they will given the roles I've played within that organization. To get those organizations engaged, it has to come from the community.

The best way to apply pressure in a situation like this is to engage the neighborhoods and convince them it's a fight worth fighting and that they can win. If you create the power, power organizations will be drawn to it.

In two years it jumps 8,000? Something significant regionally changed to either make 2012 the odd blip make 2014 the odd blip.

One could just as easily question the 4,700 drop in the other direction between 2010 and 2012. Volumes were over 20K on that segment in 2010, much closer in line with the adjacent segments (west of Wirth Pkwy and east of Penn). So I'm thinking 2012 was the odd blip. I don't recall if there was construction on Olson near the park that year or not.

The main point still remains, though -- is there a need for 6 lanes with that volume of traffic? Snelling Avenue and Lexington Parkway in St. Paul both carry higher volumes on segments with 4 lanes.

To which I've replied in the past, no, except perhaps for the approaches to I-94. I can see a 3rd and perhaps even 4th approach lane beginning at Van White for that junction. But west of Van White, excluding turn lanes, I don't see a need for 6 unless we wanted to provided a dedicated bus lane for the C-Line.

Volumes are consistently above 30,000 on Snelling from University north to Pierce Butler and beyond. Lexington has volumes in the range of 23,700 to 29,000 up to Como Ave. Snelling and Lexington widen beyond 4 lanes at I-94, but Snelling gets up to 43,500 and Lexington gets up to 34,500.

Redeemer Lutheran Church, who also happen to run the Venture North bike shop, will file a federal suit if MNDOT doesn't make changes to lane count and pedestrian accessibility.

https://www.minnpost.com/politics-polic ... pact-blue-

God I love Redeemer.

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Yang: "Such is life."

Sums up his fatalistic approach to governing perfectly. He needs to go.

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If the they don't reduce the lanes then the C line needs to be routed down Glenwood ave. long term.

I didn't read anything about Redeemer filing a lawsuit. And from what I've seen, they don't have anything they could use to successfully win one...

Thomas Siburg, the director of urban planning and asset development for Redeemer Center for Life, Redeemer Lutheran Church's non-profit satellite, said the church will file a federal complaint against MnDOT claiming it is in violation of rules that require transportation projects not discriminate against protected classes.

Complaint, not lawsuit. If a lawsuit got three light rail stops on University...