Minneapolis Earth Day Cleanup

Choosing to wake up at 9am without any work obligations or epic bike rides may be a sign of me turning thirty.  Of course, I still stayed up until about 3am the night before, so I think I'm still legit.

On Saturday, April 21st, at 9:30am dull, my girlfriend and I rode our bikes the four blocks to Bryant Square Park (we wanted to fulfill our 30 Days of Biking obligation) to volunteer for the annual Minneapolis Earth Day Cleanup.  The forecast called for rain and more rain, but the skies were dry when we left, and we were going to test our luck.

The first wave of forces were dispersing as we left.  We went up to the registration table run by Julie Cohen, chair of the Livability & Engagement Commitee for CARAG, signed the waiver, and got our bags - one for trash, one for recycling.

Cleaning up litter can be fairly labor intensive if you want it to be.  At the beginning, we were picking up every single cigarette butt in sight.  As time went on, we may have a few more butts here and there.  If you're a smoker, please consider finding some way to not litter your butts.  There are designated receptacles throughout Uptown, there are some specialized containers you can buy, or you can just use a friggin' plastic baggie.  Otherwise, you're littering something that contains cadmium, arsenic, lead, and plastic.

Later on, we found some more interesting detritus: Christian proselytism, USI Wireless ads, a lego skeleton, a plastic ring.  We also spotted five different window kitties, all within a block of our apartment.

Our last landmark was the house at 31st and Colfax that had a moat of beer cans, butts, one condom, and other crap surrounding it.  After that house, we were fully exhausted, but we were fortunately a block from the park.  We dumped our bags with the previous bags - one containing the back of a monitor.

At the end, I entered the recreation center I have lived by for six years or more for the first time.  I ate a bit of muffin and a some Bull Run Coffee.

And just then, the rain started.  The Earth gave us a break on her birthday.

Keeping It Green Without a Lot of Green, or Beware of Falling Prices

This is an essay I wrote five years ago while working for the Twin Cities Green Guide.  It was never published, as it's a bit academic for a magazine, and as you can see I never really wrote an ending (if I can't think of a beginning or ending, I sometimes just write "Once upon a time" and "they all lived happily ever after," respectively).

Griggs Street Bikeway coming to St. Paul

Published in the Twin Cities Daily Planet.

April showers have fallen, and I am riding up to the northern terminus of what will soon be the Griggs Street Bikeway.  There is a smell of new life and growth in the air, an earthy, familiar smell.  The intersection of Minnehaha Avenue West and Griggs Street is attractive: well-kept houses and content people.  It is like a million other intersections in the city, and it is completely unique.

The Griggs Street Bikeway is another project funded by the federal Non-Motorized Transportation Program of which “Minneapolis area” is a beneficiary.  It will connect to bike routes on Minnehaha Avenue West and Summit Avenue and destinations in between.  Approved on January 25, 2012 by the St. Paul City Council, construction is expected to begin some time this year. The bikeway will include pavement markings, traffic circles, audible pedestrian signals, bumpouts, improved lighting, and updates to stoplights.

Full disclosure: I am a member of multiple cycling advocacy groups and a year-round bicycle commuter.

The project was presented to the public last October at Dunning Recreation Center, which lies along the center of the future bikeway.  I asked Emily Erickson, St. Paul Sustainable Transportation Planner, why the Griggs Bikeway was resolved by the Council in only six months, whereas the Jefferson Avenue Bikeway took four years of public hearings and compromise.  She replied that “bike boulevards are a new type of bikeway for Saint Paul, and there’s a learning curve to initiating any new project.  Because the process for Jefferson preceded that for Griggs, we were able to employ our lessons learned on the former to help the process for the latter go more smoothly.”

The learning curve must be steep to reduce a process to one eighth of its former time.  Perhaps after such a protracted and emotional conflict over the Jefferson Bikeway, the public sees the process as much ado over such a small something.  The learning in the curve involves not just city employees, but also residents.   What struck me in researching this article was that so many welcomed the bikeway.  In fact, I had to really dig deep to find anything remotely negative.

The typical impediments of cycling infrastructure include fiscal minimalism and status quo conservatism.  In other words “who’s going to pay for it” and “things are fine the way they are.”  Some oppose these projects due to a prima facie disdain for cyclists and support for all things automotive, but they are a minority.  Since  the money for these projects has already been earmarked, the payment question becomes less prominent.

Also, for many, things are not fine the way they are.  As a biker, I have no problem commanding most urban roads, taking the lane, and being traffic, but my perspective is that of a 30-year-old male without children.  To make bike and pedestrian infrastructure inclusive, the city needs to consider the needs of different genders, ages, and abilities.  Would a mother with her child feel comfortable riding down the bikeway?

One major difference between Jefferson and Griggs is their orientation.  Erickson states, “One of the key challenges in biking and walking in Saint Paul is navigating the barriers that transect our north-south corridors.  The Griggs Street Bikeway does this by providing a safe connection between our bicycle facilities on Summit and Minnehaha Avenues and across I-94.”  Many residents agree.  Sonja Mason, who lives on Griggs, welcomes the bikeway and adds, "I'd love to see a bridge over the railroad tracks north of Pierce Butler to get to Como Park."  Pierce Butler is designated by signage as a bike route, but traffic is moves faster than 40 mph and the shoulders often strewn with debris.


Looking for input, I posted a thread on the St. Paul Issues Forum on E-Democracy.  As with Jefferson, one point of major contention on Griggs is traffic circles.  Brian Tourtelotte, who also lives on Griggs, wrote, “I am particularly concerned with compromising pedestrian safety when cars are looking and merging and curving and signaling, and bicycles are looking and merging and curving and signaling.”  Traffic circles exist currently in St. Paul and Minneapolis.  Seattle has really embraced the idea, installing over a thousand traffic circles.  In one study, automobile collisions were reduced by 94 percent.

Locations along Griggs include a Tae Kwon Doe school, Gordon Parks High School, Landfill Books, Common Bond Communities (a large high rise of affordable housing), Holst Hall and Dobberfuhl Hall of Concordia University, Dunning Field, two community gardens, Pizza Lucé, and the Lexington-Hamline Community Council.  Griggs is a block from the Midway big box store colony on University, and two blocks from the Lexington Station of the Central Corridor Light Rail.  It is six blocks from the Macalester campus and a ends a block north of Grand Avenue.  It connects to bike routes on Minnehaha Avenue, Marshall Avenue, and Summit Avenue, and is close to Ayd Mill Road, which has been a proposed bikeway for some time now.

At the end of my short ride down Griggs, I bike to the large median on Summit Avenue and sit down to take it all in.  There are joggers and cyclists enjoying the brisk afternoon.  I recall that bikeways are not merely a means to get somewhere, they are a somewhere – a place to enjoy in it its own right.  I snap my final photo and head south to test out Jefferson Avenue.

Jefferson Prequel

I wrote this editorial about the Jefferson Bikeway in August 2009 for a paper based out of Highland Park, St. Paul called the Villager run by Maurice Mischke (not that Mischke... that Mischke's father).  They don't publish online for whatever reason, so until there's a way to link to a physical sheet of paper I never even saw, I can't link to it.

I can't remember if I ever titled it.

Jefferson Avenue Bikeway Resolution Passes, With Amendments

Published and edited article featured in Twin Cities Daily Planet.

“I’m beginning to know what Charlie Brown feels like,” lamented Dave Pasik.  “I keep running to kick that football, and the last minute, Lucy pulls it away.”

At Wednesday night’s St. Paul City Council Public Hearing, the football is the Jefferson Avenue Bikeway, or at least parts of it.  Charlie Brown is cyclists, Jefferson Avenue residents, disability advocates, and pedestrians.  Lucy is Council Member Chris Tolbert and the rest of the City Council.

The Jefferson Avenue Bikeway, a bike boulevard that will be realized on Jefferson Avenue from Mississippi River Boulevard in the east to the High Bridge in the West, has a lot of history in planning.  At about 2:31pm that night, local blogger Bill Lindeke tweeted:

“Big St. Paul meeting at St P city hall at 5:30,. Last minute amendment stripping out much of the Jefferson bike plan: show up if you can.”

Mary Turck asked me to check out this last minute maneuver.  I hopped on the bus and ended up on the same bus as Bill, them disembarked at the same stop and biking down the same road to City Hall.  I’d never seen his picture, but I knew it was him.  He looked and biked like a writer.

Editor

I went through the City Hall security checkpoint where the guard confiscated my wine corkscrew and bottle opener (I work in the service industry) and my helmet.  I then changed into long slacks so I could kinda sorta look like a reporter.  Ward 3 Legislative Aide Nicole Wittig-Geske was working double-time to get people copies of the amended Jefferson Bikeway resolution (PH  12-69) and to sign us up to speak for or against the resolution.  The amendment (please click the link in the previous sentence for text) removes most traffic circles, and modifies the crosswalks and pedestrian signals at some intersections.  This was a dodgy question, as many were for the resolution before amendment but against the amendment.

At about 6:40pm, we arrived at the public hearing for PH 12-69. Tolbert introduced the amendment to the resolution, then Council Member David Thune amended the amendment, asking that one of the traffic circles removed by Tolbert’s amendment be moved to Jefferson and Duke.

Emily Erickson, St. Paul’s Sustainable Transportation Planner, gives an overview of the project’s four-year history.  In February of 2008, the City applied for federal funding for a bikeway on Highland Parkway and Jefferson Avenue.  Only Highland was approved, but the Highland District Council voted down the bikeway.  In 2009, the City considered reapplying for Jefferson Avenue only, and soon, the Macalester Groveland Community Council and the West Seventh/Fort Road Federation issued letters of support.  In March 2009, Transit for Livable Communities allocated federal money to the project.  The next 15 months had extensive public hearings (there have been 23).  Elements of the project were approved by City Council.  Then came two more years of testing and public hearings.

The design features approved include bike lanes, sharrows, cyclist-specific way-finding signage, dynamic speed display signs, a speed limit reduction, traffic circles, improved lighting, advanced crosswalk signals, zebra-style crosswalks, two-sided parking, and removing or adding stop signs.

After Emily’s presentation, the public comment portion began.  There were 4 against the bikeway resolution in any form, 16 for the resolution without amendments, and 4 for the amended resolution, roughly. The opposed spoke first.

Gary Fisher (which may be a pseudonym, as it is also a bicycle brand) of Saratoga Street spoke first against the bikeway. “We don’t have any money.”  Colleen Kelly of Juliet Avenue said, “I resent my neighborhood being used as a social experiment.”  Larry McEntire, who owns a house on Jefferson, said he “objects to expenditure of additional funds on Jefferson,” and that it was fine the way it is.  He followed with saying that advanced stoplights are unnecessary because “exercise bikers don’t stop anyways.”

The next two speakers had signed up to speak against the resolution, but were in fact against only parts of it.  Brian Valento of Macalester Avenue said he was pro-everything in the resolution except what he called “concrete crop circles.”  Jessica Treat, Lafond resident and Executive Director of St. Paul Smart Trips, said that “’good enough’ misses the point… calm and safe streets.”  She said the last minute amendment “subverts public process.”

At this point, it became clear that the division of those for and against the resolution was confusing and flawed, and it was decided to give each remaining speaker two minutes.  Gary Fisher left the room shaking his head, as it became clear that instead of each side having 15 minutes as planned, the people for the bikeway would have more time than those against.

The first speaker in the for-bikeway-against-amendment group was Amber of Sargent Avenue who spoke with her baby in her arms.  She said she chose her residence based on its location, proximity to daycare, and road safety.  She said her perspective of what is safe changes dramatically when there is a trailer on her bike.  Deb Jeston of Jefferson said that the opposition to the bikeway does not live on Jefferson, but gets disproportionate attention because “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.”  She said she bikes on the sidewalk because as is, “on Jefferson, cars rule.”  Patrick Kampy  of Jefferson expressed disappointment in the length of the process and the “Eleventh Hour amendement.”  Elizabeth Fable of Jefferson said she was “proud to live on the Jefferson Avenue Bikeway” and was disappointed by the loss of traffic circles. Bob Spaulding, the St. Paul Transportation Committee Chair and the Planning Commissioner, said the resolution before amendment was approved by the Committee 14-0 after much deliberation and should not be changed.

Finally, we had a few people who had signed up in favor of the amendment.  Andy Singer of Berkeley Avenue said he likes traffic circles and said that the percentage of cyclists as commuters far exceeds the money spent on cyclists.  Jim Skoville, Professor Emeritus of Industrial Relations at the University of Minnesota, said he was in favor of the advanced pedestrian stoplights as people with mobility issues have difficultly crossing fast enough on the old stoplights.  I spoke last, saying that the bikeway will be used by Minneapolitans as well as St. Paulites, and that I disapproved of the amendment, but welcomed the overall resolution.

Shaken after speaking without much of a plan (I was busy taken notes and had changed my mind on speaking until my name was called), the Council vote was anticlimactic, though it was what matters legally.  The council voted unanimously to approve the amended resolution.

Tolbert then spoke on his decision to amend the resolution.  He said that there were five viewpoints to accommodate: 1. in favor of a complete bikeway, 2. in favor of calmer and less traffic, 3. status quo, 4. anti-roundabout, and 5. fiscal conservatism.  He said he did not want residents to feel like the decision was shoved down their throats, so he compromised.

I left the room then at 7:42pm, weary of discussion, and tried to make sense of what happened.  The majority of interested parties did not find out about the amendment in time.  Of those who did, the consensus of Jefferson residents was to keep the resolution as is – with traffic circles.  The plan will go forth without.