On Thursday, April 5, 2001, there was a meeting with the City’s bike-path coordinator at Van Cleve Park to discuss neighborhood priorities among neighborhoods east of the Mississippi River for new bike paths and bike trails. This is the beginning of the City’s five-year planning process for new trails.
Brian Lundgren and Dave Polaschek from MHNA attended on behalf on MHNA.
Based on comments received from members, and discussion at the board meeting, the idea I took to the meeting was that Marcy-Holmes has good bike routes within the neighborhood, and the largest problems were in connecting to the rest of the city.
Working with other nearby neighborhoods (Como, Prospect Park, St. Anthony East, Sheridan, and U of M), we came up with the following priorities:
Improve connections along 5th St SE and 5th St NE. 5th St SE is a good (if narrow) bike path, but it doesn’t reach to the U of M transitway or into NE Minneapolis. Connections along University Avenue and 4th St SE were also suggested, but it was felt that due to fewer businesses fronting on 5th St SE, it was much more feasible to get a bike lane put through all the way on 5th.
Make connections available to the Dinkytown Bypass/U of M bike route, which will run from Bridge 9 through the Dinkytown trench to the transitway. All that needs to be added are curb cuts and a paved ramp on the slope near the bridge over the trench just east of Dinkytown.
Improve the bike lanes on 15th Ave SE, under the railroad bridge. Not only is this area sometimes poorly lit, but the road is almost always in bad shape.
Improve access to/from Bridge 9 on east side of river.
Improve access to the Como neighborhood at 17th and Rollins SE. Two curb cuts are needed, but Como has NRP money allocated for this project, so we do not need to treat it as a priority.
Improve 6th Avenue SE access to the river. The problem stretch is in the block between 2nd St SE and Main St SE. Hopefully this can be handled during the rebuild of 6th Avenue, but it will most likely fall to Marcy-Holmes NRP to push this, as the city considers this an adequate bike route.
Improve bike paths on 10th Avenue Bridge. This is unlikely to happen, as the bridge was just rebuilt, and we missed our opportunity. We need to be vigilant next time repairs are scheduled for the bridge, and raise the issue at that time.
Bike paths along Main St SE extension, connecting to E. River Road.
Bike paths both along Marshall St NE, as well as along the river (scenic path along river, commuter lane on Marshall). St. Anthony West opposes bike lanes on Marshall, but as a commuter route it is ideal, and their representative was not at the meeting.
Other general comments:
There is no agreement on what’s going to happen with the Dinkytown Trench. One part of the City Planning Department believes that this will be a fine place for a bike path and parkway. The Central Corridor people and the U of M believe this is the best place for LRT to cross the river (which would likely render Bridge 9 useless as a bike crossing, and cut the connection between the Dinkytown Trench bike trail and SE Main St.).
The 10th Avenue Bridge is likely a lost cause for another 10-20 years. The city was unaware of the problems with the current bike lanes, and any improvement will have to be part of a larger bridge construction project.
Based on existing bike trails & bike paths in other neighborhoods that were at the meeting, Marcy-Holmes is well-covered. This is due to being as close to the U of M as we are. More effort will be spent improving (or building) paths and trails in other neighborhoods. However, since the U and the River are prime destinations, we will benefit from connections to other neighborhoods.
Other things the city has planned:
Extension of the Cedar Lake trail to the Mississippi River. This should be completed in 2002 or 2003.
Midtown Greenway will be extended to at least the site of the Sears building by next summer (2002).
The NE Diagonal, running from Hwy 88 and Broadway NE will extend to Roseville along the old railroad right of way, and should be completed 2005.
