November 13, 2012, Oxford Jimmy Lee Recreation Center.
In attendance were Steve Bergman, Deb Alper, Bill Johnston, Gary Fifield, Jeff Zaayer, Paul Ogren, Nick Rischiotto (spelling?), Pete Grasse, Mike Madden, Erik Peterson and Andy Singer. (Phil Moody met us after the meeting for beers).
We agreed to cancel the next two meetings in December and January because Andy will be away for both of them and Jeff will be away for one of them. Also there’s not much going on legislatively and Andy could use the time to catch up on some letters and other paper work. So THE NEXT SPBC MEETING WILL BE TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2013 (at Oxford/Jimmy Lee Recreation Center).
We discussed the upcoming MnDOT Snelling Study Open House, which will be happening today (Tuesday, November 27th) from 5-7pm at Hamline University’s Kay Fredricks Ballroom, on the 3rd floor of the Klas Building, just east of the corner of Snelling and Taylor Avenues. There will be a slide presentation at 6pm. Engineers contracted by MnDOT will be presenting various bicycle and pedestrian improvements for Snelling Avenue from the Fairgrounds all the way south to Selby Avenue. These will include protected bike lanes on Snelling from Como Avenue south to Hewitt. So I urge everyone to come to the open house (for some portion of that time) and submit written comments, positive or negative and make suggestions for any additional things they’d like to see. For example, some of us would like to see the proposed bike lanes extended further south from Hewitt to Minnehaha, but this would require the removal of some parking spaces. I will definitely be at the open house. For more info, see– http://www.dot.state.mn.us/metro/projects/snellingstudy/
We also discussed possibilities for bicycle count and accident data collection with Bill Johnston, a retired statistician who is interested in this data …and we briefly discussed what’s happening with the idea of making University Avenue a 2-lane street and restoring on-street parking and meaningful bicycle access. The answer is: “nothing is happening” other than vague promises from the city to try the idea when LRT construction is completed. If you support the idea, contact your city council representative and the mayor’s office and tell them.
Finally, the West Side Community Organization (WSCO) is in the middle of creating the latest version of its 10 year community plan for West Saint Paul. You can download a copy of the plan at– http://wsco.org/?p=992 It has a section on “Transportation” which I encourage those of you who live on the west side to read and post comments on. The SPBC did a West Side exploratory ride this summer and posted photos and commentary on our Facebook Page, which anyone can read (whether or not they subscribe to Facebook). See– http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.470464906299261.110596.133657969979958&type=3 Many of the issues identified in this ride have not been addressed in the WSCO plan (Roberts street, Cherokee and the High-Bridge, etc). So please comment if you have time.