The editorial board of the Pioneer Press has no historical memory. Soucheray referred to that stretch of I-35E Parkway through the West End as "Practice Freeway" - not Ayd Mill Road. Soucheray wrote many columns on how he thought that the reduction in speed and truck access along the stretch from West 7th to the Capitol was idiotic. I don't, but that was Soucheray's obsession, especially after he watched motorists violate the speed and load restrictions right and left. They still do, of course, but motorists are violating speed limits on every street and freeway in the US.
The idea behind the parkway rules was a compromise between the neighbors' resistance to anything going in and the highway builders' need to complete the link between north and south. The resistance was to the noise set up in that echo chamber sound corridor beneath "The Hill" and to the pollution levels trucks and traffic volumes of freeway dimensions create. The resistance down along the West End was against the corridor's slicing and dicing of community as well as the noise and pollution. Ayd Mill Road ‹ the Short Line, as we called it for 30 years, was local link originally planned for expansion and connection between 35E and 94, stopped in its tracks by Monsignor Gilligan of St, Mark's and north end neighbors who envisioned the same splitting of their community as 94 created in the 60's when the Black community saw itself cut in two by I-94. It was never called the practice freeway that I know of. Only the editorial board of the Pioneer Press, apparently. Andy Driscoll Crocus Hill/Ward 2 -- "Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity." - Lord Acton -- Visit our weblog: http://newswired.blogspot.com Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 08:57:50 -0600 From: "John Mannillo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [StPaul] Pioneer Press Editorial In yesterdays lead "editorial smorgasbord" the Pioneer Press had a picture of 35E with a headline... "The Practice Freeway" and started out: "Here at the Pioneer Press, columnists and reporters have long referred to the stretch of 35E that runs through downtown St. Paul as "the Practice Freeway" because the 45 mph stretch of limited access, divided highway is a place beginning drivers can go to experience freeway driving without having to drive freeway speeds" I may be mistaking but isn't the "Practice Freeway" how Joe Soucheray always referred to Ayd Mill road? In fact it was called the Short Line when he coined the term, before that section of 35E even existed. It's also possible my memory is getting muddled. John Mannillo Downtown and Highland Park ------------------------------------------------- JOIN the St. Paul Issues Forum TODAY: http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/ ------------------------------------------------- POST MESSAGES HERE: stpaul@mnforum.org To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
