All panelists received your lists of questions by March 23 and were asked for responses by Monday, April 16. The following includes their responses.

During the community meeting, participating entities encouraged residents to contact officials with their concerns and inquiries.

Alondra Cano, Minneapolis Ward 9 Councilmember:  Alondra.Cano@minneapolismn.gov
April Crockett, MNDOT Metro District West Manager:  april.crockett@state.mn.us
Peter McLaughlin, Hennepin County District 4 Commissioner:  Peter.McLaughlin@hennepin.us
Pam Steffin, MetroTransit Customer Relations and Community Outreach & Engagement Manager:  Pam.Steffen@metrotransit.org
Michael Sullivan, Minneapolis 3rd Precinct Inspector:  Michael.Sullivan@minneapolismn.gov

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Resident-submitted Questions

Physical Improvements at Hi-Lake

• I drive and walk in the Hi-Lake Area. The lanes on Lake are too wide and the on/off ramps are too broad and gently curved. These environmental markers encourage and enable speeding, no matter what the posted speed limit says. Additionally, the crosswalks don’t prioritize pedestrians with priority crossing and leading pedestrian intervals in what is arguably a transit-oriented development. How will Tier 1 & 2 developments improve the pedestrian experience at Hi-Lake?

Question directed to: Alondra Cano, April Crockett, & Peter McLaughlin
Alondra: —
April: —
Peter: “Crossing either Lake Street or the on/off ramps from Hiawatha Ave is challenging for any pedestrian. As we’ve started working through the design exercise to determine what would make a safer landscape for all users, MNDOT has been a supportive partner in our response to the design they created with the City in the 1990s when lake Street was a City street.
Shortening crossing areas, increasing under-bridge lighting, narrowing lanes, reconfiguring the way cars approach and pass through the intersection are all design elements that could make the Hi-Lake intersection safer. A joint City/County report details the initial study results and clarifies the next part forward for Phase 2 of the study: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cip/hilakestudy”

• What are physical changes that will make the area safe?

Question directed to: Alondra Cano & Peter McLaughlin
Alondra:
Peter: “Shortening crossing areas, increasing under-bridge lighting, narrowing lanes, reconfiguring the way cars approach and pass through the intersection are all design elements that could make the Hi-Lake intersection safer. A joint City/County report details the initial study results and clarifies the next part forward for Phase 2 of the study: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cip/hilakestudy”

• I am a YWCA member and parking in the area is horrible. How will new school and new construction make it better?

Question directed to: Peter McLaughlin
Peter: “I’m a Y member too.  Parking is terrible.  The County built sufficient spaces for our project and the housing project.  Some of these spaces are available in the evenings. We also approached the YWCA during development of our project to see if it would be interested in developing some additional parking spaces as part of our project.  The then Executive Director of the YWCA said she wasn’t interested.  Parking for the school should be addressed in the school project.  Subsequent stages of development on our site will address parking for those new elements.”

• Hiawatha Ave is a highway that divides our neighborhoods. Is there a way to make it less of a highway and more like a neighborhood street?

Question directed to: April Crockett
April: —

• What can be done from a design standpoint to light up the underpass so it feels safer and more welcoming?

Question directed to: Alondra Cano & Peter McLaughlin
Alondra: —
Peter: “Enhanced lighting will be part of any project for the underpass.  The lighting combined with an art installation will help make the space more welcoming.  The end of the blue bathroom tile will be a step forward.”

• Ways to continue to improve bike/ped. transit car flow (while reducing car use) at Hi-Lake, 32^nd& Hiawatha, 21^st & Lake, YWCA, South High, Shopping, Housing?

Question directed to: Alondra Cano & Peter McLaughlin
Alondra: —
Peter: “See the plan link in Question 1: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cip/hilakestudy”

• Wellington has installed metal spikes on the benches around Lake Street station. How do we ensure improvements go beyond physical changes to the intersection and improve all aspects of the public space around this area?

Question directed to: Alondra Cano, Peter McLaughlin, & Pam Steffin
Alondra: —
Peter: “In a pretty fast turnaround to respond to last year’s problems under the Hiawatha bridge, the County, with American Indian CDC, created 18 units of housing for persons who are chronically inebriated. It has been operating since early December.  The County and others continue to support outreach by social workers to help connect people in need of services to those services.  Long-term, the opening of retail space in the County’s Lake street frontage and the occupation of the initial 123 housing units and all the subsequent units, plus the continued success and energy of the Midtown Farmers Market will enhance the entire area.”
Pam:

 

Funding/Timeline/Engagement Process

• There is a lot of conversation about short term improvements. Those are nice and we do need improvements, but we want to make sure those improvements aren’t done at the expense of the Tier 3 plan. Can you ensure that this will not occur?

Question directed to: Alondra Cano & Peter McLaughlin
Alondra:
Peter: “As I indicated at the forum, Tier 1 and 2 improvements will not detract from the efforts to build Tier 3. We have the outlines of a plan and the many partners are committed to getting it built after public engagement.

• Can you describe the tangible phases of this project and a timeline?

Question directed to: Alondra Cano & Peter McLaughlin
Alondra:
Peter: “For this and more information, see the plan on the City’s webpage:  http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cip/hilakestudy”

• What can residents expect from the public entities in the next 12 months?

Question directed to: Alondra Cano, April Crockett, Peter McLaughlin Pam Steffin, & Michael Sullivan
Alondra: —
April: —
Peter: —
Pam: —
Michael: —

• When the light rail was planned, why weren’t the issues of this intersection addressed? Were community action committees informed?

Question directed to: Alondra Cano, April Crockett, & Peter McLaughlin
Alondra:
April:
Peter: “The Highway 55 Bridge, planned and built before the LRT was in the works, set the stage.  This planning was led by MNDOT and the City of Minneapolis, because Lake St. was then a City street.  As LRT was planned, the options were limited and much of the planning was done well before the current sensibilities about pedestrians and bikes had matured to where they are today.  We’re now trying to reflect those sensibilities in a new design for this century, not the car-dominated designs of the past century.”

• When will you listen to Minneapolis residents when spending money on experimental transit methods & put forth real reasons how transit affects pedestrians, people with disabilities and bicyclists & motorized scooters. For example, let’s redefine what transit is needed for lower income people and families with children need to get to and from these fast bus lanes, inappropriately located fast transit stations, and lack of facilities at bus stops- gentrification of transit is shutting out more of the disenfranchised, 40% of City’s population lives below the metro median income for a household of four ($171,000). Why are transit decisions made without full input?

Question directed to: Alondra Cano, April Crockett, Peter McLaughlin, & Pam Steffin
Alondra: —
April: —
Peter: “The transit system has been starved for more than a generation.  Recent efforts to build LRT and BRT lines are designed to connect people to jobs and school.  The economy moved beyond the transit system and left people without good options.  We’re trying to create those high quality options, despite the Republican opposition to transit that has starved Metro Transit of funds.  The proposed lines will dramatically increase the connectivity of people to jobs and will provide disproportionate benefits to low-income people and people of color in the region. (See Yingling Fan’s research at the University of MN, “Linking People to Jobs”.  One key finding: Proposed transit improvements will have large localized benefits in disadvantaged areas in Minneapolis and St. Paul.)  Development of housing and jobs near transit stops will compound the benefits of the transit investments.  It will take time to overcome decades of over-reliance on cars to recreate a balanced transportation system and a development pattern that reflects it.”
Pam: —

• How much funding is available now?

Question directed to: Alondra Cano, April Crockett, Peter McLaughlin Pam Steffin
Alondra: —
April: —
Peter: We now have a plan. The funding will be assembled over the next few years.
Pam: —

• How do we make sure projects such as the Hiawatha LRT Bike Trail gap, the Lake Street Bus Rapid Transit, or Learning Dreams public art are coordinated and work towards a broader vision for the entire area?

Question directed to: Peter McLaughlin
Peter: “Ongoing dialogue and continued engagement of the community will help insure success.  Seems like Met Council, which is responsible for Lake St. BRT, and the City, which is responsible for LRT Bike Trail and development in the city, also ought to be answering this question.  They are the bigger pieces of the puzzle going forward.  The county, through its Hub project and Community Works, has tried to lay out a broader vision.  We are now at the implementation stage where the appropriate actors need to step forward. I hope Learning Dreams can be part of the fix under the bridge in a way that includes youth and the community.  Unfortunately, because of the County project, the initial outreach was done through Corcoran, and Longfellow was left out.  We will fix that going forward.”

• How will the collaborative process be visible to the public? The bike/ped. trail gap project is an example of how transportation projects where City/County/State/Transit facilities crossover often faces gridlock and finger-pointing on who is responsible for what.

Question directed to: Alondra Cano, April Crockett, Peter McLaughlin, & Pam Steffin
Alondra: —
April: —
Peter: “The recent meeting highlighted the need and the community’s desire for more transparency and collaboration. We are now on that path. I’m committed to those goals and trust that the community will hold us accountable.”
Pam: —

• The City of Minneapolis has an influx of new funding for streets. Will there be a capital budget request from Public Works for long-range improvements?

Question directed to: Alondra Cano
Alondra: —

 

Policing/Safety

• I walk, drive, and bike in the area. What can be done to reduce prostitution, drug deals, and vagrancy along that section of Lake Street?

Question directed to: Michael Sullivan
Michael: —

• With hiring of 3 sets of police officers in the past four years, would you be willing to support a moratorium on hiring until a reasonable and diverse training program is created to fully represent the diversity at all levels in the Minneapolis population? Why or why not?

Question directed to: Michael Sullivan
Michael: —

• What can you share about security/police presence near this intersection?

Question directed to: Michael Sullivan
Michael: —

 

Other Questions/Comments

• What is being done to address the giant parking lot in front of Target? It is a part of the problem.

Question directed to: Alondra Cano & Peter McLaughlin
Alondra: —
Peter: “Hennepin County has made a huge investment in the top TOD site on the Hiawatha Line with our Hub.  We’re also serving as a land bank to allow for the full buildout of the 6.5 acre site as envisioned by Corcoran Neighborhood.  We’ve invested in Lake St. (County Rd. 3) but we are not the development agency in the City.  In my opinion CPED and Longfellow need to take the lead on this next phase of reinvestment.

• I believe that to truly transform Hi-Lake we need more people living in walking-distance from the intersection. What, if any, efforts are underway to encourage Target and other adjacent businesses to release under-utilized surface parking for development?

Question directed to: Alondra Cano & Peter McLaughlin
Alondra: —
Peter: “I have spent the last five years fighting to get a large TOD project built on the SW corner of the intersection.  The County invested $57m and is now acting as a land bank to facilitate the removal of the old school, creation of a plaza on which the farmers marker can operate, sold some of the land for the creation of 123 units of housing now under construction and continues to work with Corcoran on the next phases of the development.  This has been our priority.  Others need to step up on the issues east of Hiawatha.”

• When can we expect a meeting that is near to and accessible from the intersection in question?

Question directed to: Melanie Majors, Executive Director of LCC
Melanie:  LCC is planning to hold another community meeting in September of 2018.  We will be coordinating the meeting with Trinity Lutheran Church which is near the intersection.

• How will LCC engage the residents, including renters, that live nearest to this intersection and walk daily? This room isn’t reflective of the diversity of stakeholders.

Question directed to: Melanie Majors, Executive Director of LCC
Melanie:  LCC has created a 4-phase strategy to do the broadest engagement possible.  We are meeting with potential community partners and sharing our surveys, strategy and ideas so that they can use them easily to reach out to their targeted constituencies.  LCC has also added a Hi-Lake survey online that will remain until the Minnehaha/Lake Open Streets event on July 22^nd.  LCC will also survey residents during the Open Streets event and hopefully we will capture the input of people who use the intersection regularly.  LCC will continue to use our media resources for outreach and we are always open to other ideas.

• Would you expand a bit on MNDOT’s efforts to reduce carbon footprint and other environmental impacts on Hwy 55 at Lake Street?

Question directed to: April Crockett
April: —

• Inspector Sullivan mentioned the Management Company. Who is the management company? Do they oversee the interchange?

Question directed to: Michael Sullivan
Michael: —

• With the additional 200 City & worker vehicles being introduced to this immediate area by the Roof Depot Water Works relocation, please take this extra traffic load into planning considerations. Also, do not leave East Philips out of community input opportunities.

Question directed to: Alondra Cano, April Crockett, Peter McLaughlin Pam Steffin, Michael Sullivan, & Melanie Majors
Alondra: —
April: —
Peter: “East Phillips definitely needs to be involved.  As we have in other areas, the County is prepared to assist with investment in affordable housing, transit oriented development and cleanup of polluted land.”
Pam: —
Michael: —
Melanie: LCC has begun to engage East Philips (EPIC) in this process and will seek out other partners in the area such as Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI).