Neighborhood meeting on Minnehaha Ave Sept. 11
As a follow up to the community meetings hosted by Hennepin County in July, the Longfellow Community Council is hosting a meeting on Wednesday, September 11 from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m at the Tapestry Folkdance Center at 3748 Minnehaha. The meeting will feature a panel with local residents, a business owner and a representative from Hennepin County. The goal of the meeting is to hear thoughts from people who live, walk, bike, drive, park, or own a business on Minnehaha about “how this project will affect you and your livability during and after construction.” 
If you live in Longfellow (see map to the right from their website), we strongly encourage you to attend and offer your thoughts.
This community meeting is important because it may result in a vote by the Longfellow Community Council board expressing the LCC's prefered layout option. If you are a Longfellow resident or frequently use Minnehaha, your presence at this meeting could have a big impact.
Our position
We support a well-designed protected bike lane (cycle track) for Minnehaha because of it would provide a great and comfortable link between the Midtown Greenway and the Minnehaha Creek trails, attract more people to local businesses, and best serve the many families in the area. We hope that Hennepin County will work to revise their current cycle track proposal to better address safety at intersections, preserve street trees, and reduce parking impacts.
Background
In this summary document, we cover:
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tree impact (doesn't need to be more with the cycle track), -
safety (cycle tracks in 100+ US cities and prevelant in places with lower cycling injury rates), -
parking impact (doesn't need to be more with the cycle track), -
how cycle tracks can help spur more biking, -
the importance of considering health benefits of more biking, -
how we can design intersections safely, -
clearing snow.
Additionally, it is important to point out that more people biking is likely to be good for business. Increased biking leads to economic benefits for local businesses. New York City saw a 49% increase in retail sales after installing a cycletrack on 9th Ave. Bicyclists are also spending more money at local businesses around Nice Ride stations and elsewhere.
Plenty more info in our other blog posts on Minnehaha with the most recent first...
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More than 900 people have signed letters of support for a cycle track on Minnehaha -
Report from Commissioner McLaughlin's August visit to the Minneapolis Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting -
Report from August Hennepin County Board briefing on cycle tracks, Washington Ave, and Minnehaha Ave -
Report from July Public Meetings on Minnehaha -
9 myth-removing facts about cycletracks on Minnehaha -
Minnehaha reconstruction delayed until 2015-16 -
Why a cycle track doesn't need to cost trees or parking -
Riding Minnehaha with kids. Or not. -
Minnehaha Avenue what you can do (from April, but mostly still applies)
NE Diagonal Trail ~ Construction Complete!
If you ride on the Diagonal Trail reguarly, you know what a challenge biking the intersection at Stinson has been all Summer.
At one point I had hoped to make the situation better, but in fact it really made it worse.
So I am happy to report that a couple of weeks ago on my way to work I saw the paving crew out and the trail construction has been mostly complete since! There are a few finishing touches that still need to happen, but the Diagonal Trail construction is officially complete in my book.
Smooth as butter! I can see around the corner now. I can actually ride my bicycle ON the trail now. There is even a new cross walk button for me when I am headed south across Stinson. It's all good!!!
It's funny how much one disruption can affect a person's daily routine. You don't know what you have until it is torn up and you find yourself navigating through muddy ruts and overgrown shrubs and out into traffic. Thank you for finally completing the project Minneapolis!
Happy Riding NE Riders!
