More about bicycling

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More stuff about bicycling:

“The best streets to cycle down are illegal to build in the majority of North America’s suburbs, because they’re too narrow, too pedestrian-oriented, too enclosed. Even the ones that are very pedestrian-oriented often restrict cyclists to bike lanes when they’d be safer mixing with cars” writes Placeshaker Hazel Borys with links to more bike stats (like Grist’s Bikenomics series) and this great video about bike lanes.

And Jay Walljasper’s Winter? Schminter! in MinnPost providing some corroboration for my assertion that there is no bad weather (for bicycling, running, walking or anything else outside) just inappropriate clothing.  Walljasper’s companion piece Bike Boom by the Numbers documents the increase in cycling in Minneapolis.

Finally, what all cyclists really want to know: How not to get hit by cars

 

Redistricting questions

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Don’t believe everything you read in the Northfield News, especially not headlines like Redistrict? Council wants to eliminate wards.

The goal is balanced, accessible representation for the residents of Northfield.  Dividing the city into geographic wards is one way to try to meet that goal, but not the only way.

The big advantage of the ward system is giving designated representation to each quadrant of the city by a resident of that ward.  Ward residents know who to call if they have a problem.  2nd Ward residents have needed help with or had questions about street lights, snow-plowing (not this year, obviously), beavers, parks, mowing (or rather non-mowing of vacant lots), trees, city maintenance, and traffic near the soccer fields at Spring Creek Park.  In turn, I keep closer track of what happens in the 2nd Ward and if ward-specific issues show up on the agenda – street projects are the most obvious – I have a special interest in making the best choice for the ward as well as knowing more about my home territory.  Erica Zweifel has consistently advocated for her 3rd Ward constituents in the siting of the Safety Center, improving pedestrian and bicycle connectivity across Highway 3, and working with St. Olaf College.

But, consider some other factors:

Geography is often not relevant: most issues are not specific to one ward and it is difficult to identify a ward-specific perspective. This was one of 4th Ward Councilor Patrick Ganey’s reasons for raising the question.

No geographic division will cut cleanly: Neighborhoods cut across ward boundaries and there are multiple neighborhoods within each ward. As well, some constituencies are better defined than others.  Would it make more sense to assign Council members to represent the colleges, retirement communities, non-English speaking residents, or any other identifiable group?

Some Council members are more responsive than others; wards with conscientious representatives get much better representation and conscientious reps get more work.  Prior to the last election, I got a significant number of calls from two other wards because their own ward representative could not be reached.

Council members tend to have particular issues they care about, know about, and work to advance; we could each represent areas of government rather than areas of town.  Have a land use problem?  Call me.

The school board elects at-large representatives with the top vote-getters from the pool being elected (4 seats open, for example, then the top 4 win).  If the Council adopted this system, we might imagine it could broaden the candidate pool – if there are openings on the Council, a candidate would not have to wait for the right ward opening, two strong candidates who live in the same area might both be elected, candidates might find it less daunting to run as part of a group knowing they didn’t have to get the most votes.   On the flip side, campaigning only in one ward might seem simpler than a city-wide effort.

In practice, some of my time goes to ward-related constituent service while more of it goes to general city business like tax levies, policy-making, etc.  For the city business part, wards are less important.  But, when calls to city hall can’t get streetlights fixed or residents have questions about city issues and services that’s when having ward representatives or some other easy way to know who to call is crucial.  Wards, whatever their shortcomings, make it easy: if you know where you live, you can figure out your ward representative.

The decennial redistricting is at least an opportunity to ask if we can do a better job of representing Northfield residents than the current system and, if we think we’ve found a better system, then we need to ask voters if they agree.  It’s a discussion, not a decision at this point.

Social media are not new

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Luther, rather than being controlled by the devil, was rather media savvy

On the flip side of social media use by government is social media use against the government: How Luther went viral.

Social media in social uprising is not new, but good reformers centuries ago learned how to use the communications tools and networks available at the time to reach their audiences.

Perhaps we can generalize that government and authority which are geared toward stability (or stasis or worse depending on the critic) will usually lag behind those with passion and zeal for change.  But, government officials can learn to use grass-roots tools – even the Vatican has a YouTube channel.

Economic development fads and fashions

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The history of local economic development is a story of academic fads, says Mario Polese, professor at the Centre Urbanisation Culture Société at Montreal’s Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique.

On one hand, this article gives me a little more support for my contention that big schemes like the 530 acre business park are ill-conceived and not destined for success.  On the other hand, even the more entrepreneurial efforts at economic development programs take a beating here. The last paragraph says it all and, indeed, this is what I’ve been advocating all along.  No silver bullets, no simple answers, just do government well over the long term.


The Cost and/or value of sidewalks

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Maple Street project map

Last week, I went to the first neighborhood meeting for the Maple Street reconstruction project.

One planned addition for this street is adding sidewalk on the east side of 44′ wide collector street with existing sidewalk on the west side.  So far in my Northfield experience, sidewalks – new sidewalks where none had existed before, that is – always generate opposition and Maple Street is no exception.

Here are the biggest objections plus the existing policy infrastructure of the City:

Property value: Sidewalks will lower property values.  For a particular home in Northfield, it’s difficult to say whether adding a sidewalk raises or lowers property value without a comparison of similar homes with and without sidewalks.  However, realtors are reporting higher prices and preference for neighborhoods with high walkability – sidewalks, places to walk to, proximity to stores, schools and other services.  In addition to Complete Streets advocates, powerful lobbying groups like AARP are advocating for neighborhoods with better pedestrian and transit opportunities.  There’s no readily available evidence to show sidewalks lower property values, except when they’re in poor condition.

Cost: New sidewalks are too expensive.  On the individual plus side, Northfield does not assess property owners for sidewalks.  On the collective downside, the cost of new sidewalks is spread across the entire tax base of the city.  Policy-wise, I think this means the City believes the sidewalk network benefits the entire community, not just the property over which they run.  As a dollar amount, sidewalks add to the cost.  However, if the citywide goal is a comprehensive sidewalk network, this is the least expensive way to do it.

Usefulness: No one will use it (because: they walk in the street anyway, there’s a sidewalk on the other side, there aren’t sidewalks on connecting streets). Obviously, neither I nor the folks on Maple can know what will happen on a future improvement since it’s not there yet.  There is a sidewalk on the west side, but there is also a sidewalk on the east side further south and I look at the addition of sidewalk as completing an unfinished project to link Jefferson Parkway (and soccer fields, walking trails, playground) more completely.

There are not sidewalks on connecting streets yet.  Certainly Woodley Street is the most critical street on which to add sidewalks to connect to Maple and when that segment is set to be reconstructed, I am sure sidewalks will be a major topic (we try to add sidewalks when reconstructing streets to decrease the overall cost). Retrofitting sidewalks is an incremental process – right now, the opportunity is Maple Street (and our other 2012 projects on Linden/Lockwood, Roosevelt Drive and 8th Street).

Neighborhood character: Adding a sidewalk will change/ruin the neighborhood.  There are several issues which surface here: loss of trees, loss of green yard space, or just that the look will be different.  Certainly the sidewalk is a change, however, it may not be a bad one.  The city is really trying to find ways to save mature trees and increase the number of trees overall, but, yes, trees may be removed for both the street reconstruction and a few more for the sidewalk.  The yard space is city-owned right of way, so there’d be the loss of use of it, but no loss of property (private landscaping in the right of way may be destroyed).  Perhaps, a sidewalk will be a place kids will play, families will meet, and more kids will walk to school.  But, yes, a sidewalk will change the neighborhood.

Safety: Most sidewalk opponents considered the west side sidewalk sufficient for safety (traffic speed was the big safety issue- and it is a big one).  For me, however, it’s a big consideration.  There’s a lot of research to show that pedestrians are safer on sidewalks.  With Sibley School in the middle of this stretch of street, there are elementary school kids walking to school from all directions including through Sibley Swale park which empties onto Maple almost at the school with no sidewalk or obvious place to cross to the other side.  Starting in January, Northfield Transit begins its route deviation system which will run south to north on Maple Street so people will board (and wait) on the no-sidewalk side.

Established city policy and practice: Northfield has developed policies to support connectivity, foster streets as places for people to meet and interact, increase pedestrian access, and pedestrian safety.  Northfield’s Comprehensive Plan and Transportation Plan lay the policy groundwork for a multi-modal transportation network with high quality, pedestrian friendly streets.  The addition of the sidewalk on Maple Street is called for by the Safe Routes to School study completed in 2009.  The Land Development Code calls for sidewalks on both sides of collector streets (of which Maple is one).   We’re planning for a Complete Streets policy to ensure streets are safe and accessible for all.  Maple Street is an opportunity to continue implementing this vision and eliminate a gap in our sidewalk network.