On October 16 the City of Minneapolis held an open house at Folwell Park to gather input on plans to convert a low-traffic street in North Minneapolis into a beautiful, safe, accessible route for bicyclists and pedestrians. Approximately 100 community members dropped in to give input on the greenway’s route, design and amenities. Now in the earliest planning stages, the greenway could become a bike boulevard (shared between bikes and cars but with traffic calming features), a full greenway with no motorized traffic, or a “half and half” with both a trail and car traffic. The greenway could increase green space and allow for amenities such as community gardens, playgrounds, barbecues and public art.
Open house attendees completed surveys to share their feedback. Survey results showed that 92 percent of attendees live in North Minneapolis, and 84 percent live within four blocks of a proposed greenway route. The City is continuing to gather feedback through an online survey and will report the full results of the open house and the online survey in November.
Community members who were not able to attend the open house can still give feedback at www.surveymonkey.com/s/NMplsGreenway until October 30. More info about the greenway project is available at www.minneapolismn.gov/health/ship/northminneapolisgreenway.
The bikeway will be the second of its kind in North Minneapolis. Examples for comparison include 37th Ave. between Queen and Knox Aves., Milwaukee Ave. in Seward neighborhood and the Midtown Greenway.
The greenway would be a north-south route starting at Victory Memorial Parkway on the north and passing Crystal Lake Cemetery, Folwell Park and North Commons Park. The community open house featured the different route options.
The greenway steering committee will meet on October 30 to review the results of the open house and the online survey. They will also review results of a traffic study conducted by the consultant for this project (SRF consulting), as well as additional info about utility impacts, storm water impacts, etc. If possible, the steering committee will use the info from the meeting to make a recommendation for a preferred route. (The steering committee is made up of community residents as well as technical experts from the city, county and other organizations.)
The steering committee will also be advising on an outreach plan between now and the second community meeting. They plan to do some extensive outreach to different cultural groups who were not well represented at the open house, as well as direct outreach to households on the preferred greenway route. In the meantime, the consultant will develop a concept plan including suggested designs along the preferred route. They will have a second community meeting sometime between December and February to present these concept plans.
This project is a response to community interest in a greenway and is supported by the City of Minneapolis through the Statewide Health Improvement Program, funded by the Minnesota Department of Health. This is part of a larger Minneapolis initiative called Healthy Living Minneapolis. Previous efforts in North Minneapolis include Venture North Bike Walk & Coffee, the Nice Ride expansion, the installation of bike and pedestrian way-finding signs, and the Bike Walk Move campaign. The City has also continued to improve the bike infrastructure in North Minneapolis by adding the greenway on 37th Ave., and bike lanes on Emerson and Fremont last year, and by maintaining bike lanes on Plymouth, 26th and Lowry.