It has been a few months since our last campaign update. Things will pick up soon as MnDOT nears the release of Rethinking I-94 project options. Here is where things stand on the Twin Cities Boulevard campaign.
Despite broad community support and a clearly identified need, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) did not apply for a Bloomberg Philanthropies asphalt art grant for the Olson Memorial Highway & Van White Boulevard intersection. Although the City of Minneapolis expressed support for asphalt art on Olson, because MnDOT owns the right-of-way, MnDOT needed to approve the project.
Open Streets Minneapolis, the highly-anticipated event series that closes city streets to motor vehicle traffic, will kick off the 2023 season this Saturday, June 10, 2023, in Midtown.
Community organizations in the Near North neighborhood of Minneapolis joined together to ask the City of Minneapolis, Vision Zero, and MnDOT to apply for funding to install an asphalt art pilot project at the intersection of Olson Memorial Highway and Van White Boulevard.
Minneapolis City Council Members Robin Wonsley and Jeremiah Ellison are proposing a resolution to address the historic and ongoing harms of Olson Memorial Highway, a notoriously unsafe highway that destroyed a redlined Black and Jewish community when constructed. The City Council will vote on the resolution Thursday, May 11, 2023.
Our Streets Minneapolis (OSM), the nonprofit advocacy organization advocating for people-first transportation, announced José Antonio Zayas Cabán has been named executive director. OSM works to make streets places where people can easily and comfortably walk, bike, roll, and use public transit in the Twin Cities.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is collecting feedback on its future budget for the state highway network, called the Minnesota State Highway Investment Plan (MnSHIP). This network includes interstates like I-94 and other state highways like Olson Memorial Highway.
Despite a history of community pushback, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) released proposed project options for the Highway 252/I-94 project, all of which either maintain the current highway and its ongoing harms, or expand the highway, increasing concerns of safety, traffic, air pollution, environmental effects, and equity.
Congress for New Urbanism, a national organization that champions walkable urbanism, selected the campaigns to Bring Back 6th and replace the Rethinking I-94 corridor with TwinCitiesBoulevard for the biennial Freeways Without Futures report.
Days before breaking ground, Mayor Jacob Frey and Public Works Director Margaret Anderson-Kelliher dropped a watered-down plan for the Bryant Ave S. reconstruction, undercutting years of community engagement and a previously approved plan that aligns with Minneapolis transportation goals and bicycle and pedestrian safety.
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