Bills have been introduced to study the Twin Cities Boulevard. Take action by contacting the Transportation Committee Chairs and requesting that the bills receive a hearing date.
Thanks to your advocacy, Representative Samantha Sencer-Mura (63A) and Senator Omar Fateh (62) have introduced bills in the House (HF 2270) and Senate (SF2180) to commission a comprehensive feasibility study of Twin Cities Boulevard, an I-94 highway-to-boulevard conversion between downtown Minneapolis and Saint Paul. This feasibility study is critical to ensure that the community has an opportunity to legitimately consider options that do not rebuild the highway and better understand how I-94 impacts their lives. The bill needs to be heard in either the House or Senate Transportation Committee before the legislature’s committee deadline to be considered for inclusion in a larger transportation spending bill.
We recently learned that the Our Streets Minneapolis application to fund a feasibility study via a USDOT Reconnecting Communities Program grant was not selected. While disappointing, legislation is another path forward to understand cost and implementation, traffic implications, climate justice, public health implications, and more.
Rep. Kaohley Vang Her, Rep. Leigh Finke, Sen. Claire Oumou Verbeten, Sen. Jen McEwen, Sen. Sandra Pappas and Sen. Scott Dibble have also signed on as co-authors. We greatly appreciate their leadership and respsonsivness to community calls to action.
Action Needed by March 24
The bill needs to be heard in either the House or Senate Transportation Committee before the March 24 committee deadline to be considered for inclusion in a larger transportation spending bill. To ensure that this happens, contact Transportation Committee Chairs Rep. Frank Hornstein and Sen. Scott Dibble and voice your support for these bills so that they receive a committee hearing date before the deadline.
You can also use the sample message to call the offices of Representative Hornstein and Senator Dibble and leave a voicemail.
Rep. Frank Hornstein: 651-296-9281
Sen. Scott Dibble: 651-296-4191
Suggested Script:
Hi [Senator Dibble OR Representative Hornstein]. My name is [Name] and am reaching out to urge you to schedule a committee hearing date for House File 2270 & Senate File 2180, which would commission and fund a comprehensive feasibility study of a highway-to-boulevard conversion of I-94 between the downtowns of Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
There is an urgent need to fund a feasibility study this year. The future of this corridor is currently being planned via MnDOT’s Rethinking I-94 project. This project is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to repair the highway’s historic and ongoing harms, invest in racial, economic and environmental justice and reconnect every community in the project corridor.
The impacted community deserves an opportunity to consider a future without the freeway. MnDOT is now designing initial project options. Despite a pledge to “rethink” I-94 and consider all options, MnDOT’s process prioritizes traffic and ignores the highway’s intersectional harms. A feasibility study would help to answer questions about the possible benefits and impacts of a boulevard conversion, particularly for those who live near I-94 and who experience the highway’s harms daily.
Please commit to supporting this important legislation and scheduling a committee hearing before the deadline.
Next Steps
If the bills receive a committee hearing date, they will be voted on by members of the House or Senate Transportation Committees. We will post additional information about the committee hearings and how to testify and submit comment as soon as it is available.
If you haven’t already, you can also contact your local legislators using this action step to ask them to support the feasibility study bill.