A wrap-up of your comments from this summer. Thank you, as always, for sending in your thoughts and opinions. They make an impact on how we cover Southwest Minneapolis.
OPINION: The police are supposed to be our helpers, why do they seem annoyed with us?
(Aug. 2024)
And yet, "move your car" is simple and direct. Direct, which apparently is anathema to many passive aggressive Minnesotans. -Julia
Repeatedly, “one bad apple” is a complete fallacy. - Ryan
Melody, thanks for sharing this. I agree! I was raised in the church of Fred Rogers as well. - Leah
Maybe because the police officer is exhausted, working double shifts, dealing with a lack of community support–deserved by some in the force but not all–or going through a family illness or other crisis. There are any number of reasons why a human in a uniform might not always act in an exemplary way. It's called having a bad day. Some days a tired teacher may snap at a child, a frazzled nurse may be slow to respond to a call button, a distracted judge may make the wrong decision. It's a two way street. As long as some in the city, and on the City Council, continue to treat all cops as miscreants instead of partners in creating safer streets, they aren't likely to feel great about their jobs, about getting out of the car to be helpers. -Susan L.
Attitudinally, I could not possibly disagree with this more. We, as "The People," have spent far too much time over the last several decades teaching the police that they cannot expect even perfunctory compliance from us in "a situation.".Citizens all too easily forget that the job of the Police is hard, and that dealing, especially as they are today, vastly undermanned, with something like a major fire near a construction zone on what is normally a very busy main thoroughfare, is complicated. It would be nice if the author, rather than looking for yet another way to criticize a police officer, could pause and have the compassion to reflect on the fact that the driver, yes, may well have been confused about how to drive through the abnormal scenario (Lord knows I've been there...), but that the cop, God bless him, had to think in terms of the entire scene–not just the driver's problem of "How am I going to get through?" but the much larger problem of "How are we gonna clean this up and normalize the traffic over a several blocks area?" (to even the extent that it can be "normal" during a time of construction). To a police order to "move your car"–especially in a difficult time and place –the response of a good citizen is not to muse on how the officer could better make the order. It is to: Move. Your. Car. -Jim K.
Cornbread Harris, a blessed dude and music icon, historicized in “Deeper Blues”
(Aug. 2024)
A treasure. Can't wait to get my copy of this book. -Josh H.
Cat tour brings smiles to hundreds in Wedge neighborhood
(June 2024)
I love it! As a feline lover myself, I think this is terrific! My cat Leo would love something like this. He is such a ham and loves people. I would love to see this. -Edyie, fellow feline follower
That cat tour was awesome. Very sad that I missed the three legged cat. -Eva
What a fabulous article on the Wedge cat tour! Gorgeous photos too. - Elisabeth O.
Park Board to vote on potentially pausing Mall reconstruction in East Isles
(May 2024)
I have fond memories of using The Mall as the secret best place to find a parking spot in uptown in the days when I'd frequent the peanut bar, etc. But that just goes to show that the space is under utilized! I want a new mall so that I can create new memories that aren't centered around parallel parking. It's frustrating to hear emergency vehicles dragged out as a wedge issue (pun intended) to delay the improvements or water down the design. When emergency vehicle access becomes the barrier to pedestrian-focused city improvements, why don't we get the emergency departments smaller vehicles? This article discusses the issue and contains a link to another article which shows adorable city-sized emergency vehicles. We don't want Minneapolis to have the same urban character as Apple Valley, right? Why would we want it to have the same emergency vehicles? I know if I had to choose between Apple Valley and Paris, I would probably choose Paris. -Tom B.
East Harriet proposal could be the city’s first ultra-energy efficient duplex
(May 2024)
I love the idea of this but the only lot on that corner is very small and I find it hard to imagine all of the proposed structure and a carriage house would actually fit there without dwarfing the housing around it and looking very out of place. -Patricia
Dueling Visions for Lyndale Avenue Before Reconstruction Plan is Announced
(May 2024)
My partner and I have owned and operated ZRS Fossils and Gifts on Lyndale Avenue for 19 years. I am academically trained in the hard sciences and know how to look at and interpret data, identify biases and recognize when people are “cooking” their study results to make inappropriate conclusions. I have made it a point to read every available publication routinely cited in support of street parking removal in order to add protected bike lanes, as a benefit to local small businesses. Despite biking lobby mantras to the contrary, in every case the conclusions in those studies are either biased, incomplete, misinterpreted or outright fabricated. There are not “studies after studies after studies” to support small business benefits from conversion of street parking to bike lanes.
For example, Move Minnesota’s publication cites Toronto businesses experiencing the benefits of such conversions. They failed to mention, however, that in this case the elimination of parking was seasonal. On-street parking was retained on one side of the street. Off-street parking was added and loading/unloading zones were created. Local retail businesses conducted their own survey on the negative economic impacts that were ignored in the final report and the authors admitted their own subjective bias by stating the results before the study began.
There are already two local test cases on what will happen to South Lyndale Avenue if the biking organizations who wish to eliminate street parking in lieu of additional dedicated bike lanes get their way. Simply put, between reconstruction and elimination of street parking, both Hennepin and Bryant Avenue retail corridors have been economically eviscerated, with the former having very high vacancy rates for small businesses and the latter leaving many homeowners unable to park next to their residences. The bike organizations who clearly lobby for street parking removal and openly focus on making driving to local small businesses more difficult apparently intend to destroy every major retail corridor in Minneapolis via their hidden agenda to create 15-minute cities. Google the details – you may be surprised.
The Move Minnesota PR piece linked to in your recent article also cherry-picked a few individuals at companies around the U.S. who prefer or are allowed to commute to work on bicycles. Note that none of the examples include retail businesses, people who are either not physically able or reside too distant from work to use bike-based transportation, do not live in cities like Minneapolis where such travel is difficult to impossible in winter conditions, or employees who have medical or physical disabilities that preclude the use of bicycles.
Everyone is in favor of increased traffic safety and there are multiple ways to accomplish this on Lyndale Avenue. The most recent 4-to-3 lane conversion by Hennepin County was a big success. But removing street parking would only add to additional traffic problems and safety concerns: excessive intersection back-ups, illegal parking in traffic lanes creating increased vehicle diversion into opposing traffic, increased accidents, vehicles circling blocks looking for parking spaces while adding to the congestion and emitting additional carbon, and overall increased driver frustrations. It doesn’t make sense to focus on the addition of dedicated bike lanes on Lyndale from a safety perspective when this street already sees heavier traffic than neighboring streets. Lyndale Avenue South is a main county thoroughfare for vehicles enabling the movement of people from near and far seeking goods and services from our businesses and beyond via the safety, privacy, comfort and physical necessity/convenience throughout the frigid days of winter as well as the summer heat waves of Minneapolis. We need this higher-volume street focused on primarily serving the vast majority of Minnesota’s population who drive – not a dedicated bike lane on every-other street to service a small fraction of local cyclists.
Do we really want to economically destroy the Lyndale Avenue South small business community to provide specialized transportation for less than 10% of the local population? (The US Census estimates that only 5% of Minneapolis residents commute by bicycle.) While we admire, believe in and encourage cycling throughout our neighborhoods for a multitude of reasons, we also believe it is out-of-step and out-of-line to cause purposeful harm to the economic viability of our small businesses along the Lyndale Avenue South corridor. No one would benefit from a proverbial retail ghost town.
We have an extensive customer base – many of whom need to drive to our store from substantial distances in remote suburbs, throughout the state of Minnesota and from around the Midwest. If street parking is removed, there are over a hundred small businesses that will be negatively impacted along Lyndale whose customers will have an even more difficult struggle than exists today - competing with one-another and local residents as well for the scant amount of neighborhood parking that would remain. This would definitely not be good for anyone. Customers will not be willing to repeatedly subject themselves to experiencing this hassle – and they would stop supporting our local businesses. In summation, if you take away the people who walk or bike to our store, it will have a negligible effect on our business. Take away those who must use cars and we will likely soon be out of business. This is the reality the Lyndale Avenue South Reconstruction Project street parking decisions will have on our presently vibrant business community.
