July 13, 2010, Oxford/Jimmy Lee Recreation Center (summary by Matt Cole)
Attending: Dana DeMaster, Andy Singer, Ed Lehr, Deb Alper, Richard Arey, Rob Vanacek, Matt Cole, Steve Clark, Todd Zerger, Cindy Zerger, Steve Gjerdingen, Gene Gjerdingen
University Ave update.
We had talked about getting business groups involved. Mike Madden and Andy Singer involved with Community Agreements Coordinating Committee (an offshoot of the District Councils Collaborative). The CACC was supportive. We put the proposal into their format and submitted last Thursday. Minneapolis Councilperson Cam Gordon and Saint Paul Councilperson Russ Stark are on this committee as are Larry Peterson (a UABA Board member), and a lobbyist for AFSME. They said go ahead with proposal. Ann White was into idea of doing a study (either City or independent non-profit). Gary Toth at Project for Public Spaces (a non-profit consulting group) will have phone call with Andy Singer and Anne White tomorrow. Study could cost $25K to $50K. Gary thinking there may be a way around it or maybe go to Met Council and get them do to things.
Going to UABA’s Parking Committee Meeting on Thursday morning. Also looking for Asian Economic Development Association (AEDA) support. Andy notes that just UABA and AEDA will take lotsof Andy and Mike Madden’s time for the next month. Andy suggests that if anyone wants to work with other groups, contact him for letter and resolution ideas. Ideally, we get bike lanes; just getting parking would make the street more bikeable. It may be tilting at a windmills but Andy thinks it’s worth tilting at. Key is to get on agenda if they have some sort of monthly meeting, go talk and answer questions about it. trying to make as much noise as possible.
Hamline Midway Monitor has an article saying the City released money for offstreet parking. Andy: It’s $2 million or less, which is crumbs for the length of University. UABA is pissed because there is no real mitigation. Many of the groups have been told that this is all a done deal and any further programming is not possible. A lot of them have bought into this. There is no real money to mitigate even during construction.
The Midway Chamber of Commerce and big box stores may want more traffic flow and not care about on street parking. The Met Council are nervous about making the traffic flow lower than it currently is, so sentiment is anti-parking. The only study compares the current 8-lane (at intersection) study versus 6-lanes– 2 travel lanes, with left and right turn lanes. It should have instead compared the MET council proposed 6-lanes (at intersections) with 4 travel lanes to our proposed 6-lanes. If it did this, the two options would probably receive similar “Failing” grades for automobile “Level of Service” at intersections. So their false comparison makes our option look worse than it should be. Our model is one through lane, one parking/right turn lane and one left turn lane. The study Met Council did also assumes only 10% drop in traffic; other cities have seen 30-50% decreases.
There is a movement afoot to do a health impact assessment: Steve C not sure if it’s University Avenue only or the larger community. There are other groups we could approach but we don’t know who they are necessarily. Steve: As a bike group, we should insist on the bike lane. Andy: to get business group support, just the parking lane would be a good thing.
Rondo Group that had sued: Dana: who is that? what’s status? Nobody seems to know.
Richard: what about SmartTrips? Can they help? Andy: will talk to Brady & Jessica
Todd: what’s the obstacle for buy-in from TLC and Smart Trips?
Andy: SmartTrips and TLC are also multi-modal and may be worried about anything that jeopardizes the light rail project.
Andy: If UABA will not pass a resolution on this thing, the proposal is dead. If UABA signs on, maybe we can begin to get some mass going. There was an uproar when one lane was first proposed, but now that the alternatives are out, the one lane doesn’t look so bad. We think that Midway Chamber of Commerce supports 2 travel lanes in each direction because they believe it will bring more traffic into their big box stores. NFIB–National Federation of Independent Business.- Maybe see if they come aboard.
To do (for Matt): identify all the district councils. talk to Episcopal Church Homes work with Steve Clark (& tony) on counting on University. (count mid-block, maybe have tony pick spots for consistency–also stress accuracy–no inflated counts, etc). Dana will follow-up with AEDA, ask the MN Bicycle Alliance to sign letter, and contact Hamline-Midway Coalition.
Episcopal Church Homes: will be concerned for seniors. Is Jean Probst still on board?
Steve Clark: they did a bike lane on Riverside, almost instantly doubled bike lane traffic and dropped sidewalk riding by 75%. It was a 4⁄3 conversion, is kind of a rough street.
Starting a group to do bike counting.
Envisioning the St Paul Greenway Wednesday July 28, 2010 7:00 to 8:30 Linwood Rec Center, 860 St. Clair, Saint Paul www.smarttrips.org/greenway We did counting as part of BAB. It would be worthwhile to do big counts on University in August and September. On same Tuesdays as meetings. Can also send email to broader group to see who can count. Coordinate with Steve Clark & Tony on University counting places.
Web site ideas. Todd–anyone who has ideas, talk to him. WIll start to need content. Would like to do active issue pages, with details on what’s going on on various projects. Send web links, suggestions and bike photos to Todd at: todd (at) toddzerger.com Ways to share information on bike-friendly businesses. The kind of info it takes us each years of experience to figure out.
Also political contacts, Ward map links, district council links. Flickr, Facebook, blog on the site.
Also working on a logo. Todd and Andy showed their concepts. Dana and Cindy will meet to discuss organizational structure and make recommendations at the next meeting. Dana: The Bike Alliance of Minnesota is willing to act as our fiscal agent to get 501c3 non-profit status. They are already doing it with Mankato’s advocacy group.