If you oppose the 35W Access project, you must act now to influence the Minneapolis City Council. Call or email tomorrow to your city council person. Call or email other city council people. Call or email the mayor. Tell them not to support the 35W Access Project. Call or email friends to ask them to do the same--to contact these folks and tell them to say no to the 35W Access Project.
For supporting information go to the STRIDE website. http://stride-mn.org/home.htm You'll see on the left (the Stop the 35W Excess) side a quaintly phrased link saying "why this project sucks." Lot's of good stuff there if you are composing your message. Alternately, you can peruse the text that follows my signature for material. Finally, if at all possible, come to City Hall Friday 9:30AM Room 317 for the show. Exact time of the 35W Excess vote is unclear--the agenda has not been posted yet. It appears, however, that the Excess vote should be down the list a bit. You can probably come later than 9:30AM and still witness the vote. Should be interesting in any case. The official agenda should be posted tomorrow. Take a look at the following site to make sure that this item is not pulled and to get a sense of what time you might need to arrive. http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/2004-meetings/20040130/ Thanks, some information follows my signature Russell Raczkowski Bancroft Neighborhood Reasons we should oppose the I-35W Access/Lake Street Projects: 1. The I-35W/Lake Street Project (known as the "Access Project") is theoretically designed to relieve traffic congestion and provide better "access" to businesses on 28th. Street, Lake Street, and perhaps eventually 38th. Street. These projects propose automobile-based solutions that do nothing to promote alternative forms of transit (such as mass transit options, bicycling, and walking); instead, they further dependence on automobiles and non-renewable fossil fuels precisely at the time when we can anticipate the end of the world's petroleum supply, a potentially catastrophic problem for the world economy. 2. Approximately $40 million of this $150 million project will be used to accommodate two additional lanes on I-35W. This expansion of I-35W as part of the Access Project is only part of a larger process of segmentation. The Access Project at Lake Street is one segment; the Crosstown expansion project is another piece; the I-35W/I-94 interchange will be another; and the lanes added south of I-494 on 35W are the other increment. Put these together and you have what is essentially the project that was rejected by the public ten years ago. This process of segmentation is illegal, and project proponents therefore deny that segmentation is taking place. 3. Incidentally, MnDOT can avoid the Environmental Impact Study required when a large-scale highway expansion takes place by pursuing the project illegally in segments. An Environmental Impact Study (EIS) has not been conducted for this project. Instead, the weaker Environmental Assessment is being performed, and even that has not been completed. 4. Transportation studies clearly show that adding road capacity actually encourages people to drive, thereby perpetuating congestion. As the Sierra Club puts it, "Trying to build our way out of traffic congestion is like dealing with a weight problem by buying bigger pants." The result is that you end up with more traffic than before, a condition called "induced travel." Paradoxically enough, then, the proposed solution to traffic congestion not only perpetuates but eventually increases the problem. 5. Large private corporations such as Wells Fargo and Allina stand to benefit substantially from these projects, but city, county, state, and federal taxpayers will pick up the tab (estimated costs are between $150-174 million). Moreover, the law firm, Smith Parker, representing both companies has been hired by the County to manage the public process, raising the question of a potential conflict of interest. 6. Finally, the impact of this project on the health of our community is a grave concern and one that must not be ignored by Greens. A study conducted in Denver suggests that children living within 250 yards of streets or highways carrying more than 20,000 vehicles per day are six times more likely to develop cancer and eight times more likely to develop leukemia. The study suggests that benzene may be responsible (over 80% of benzene emissions come from motor vehicles). Portions of Lake Street already carry more than 20,000 vehicles per day, while traffic on I-35W exceeds those levels several times over. [The I-35W resolution passed by the Transportation and Public Works committee of the City Council last Tuesday reports that the segment of I-35 from 46th. Street to Lake carries 195,000 vehicles per day-the highest volume of traffic in Minnesota.] These figures should receive special attention and study here in Minnesota, where only a few years ago the MPCA found that levels of ten known carcinogens exceeded state health benchmarks. The highest concentrations were in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area; four of the ten carcinogens (benzene; polycyclic organic matter, or POMs; butadiene; formaldehyde) can be traced directly to mobile sources such as automobiles. [And contrary to what many of us would like to believe about MN, the MN Dept of Health tolerates higher levels of these toxic compounds than many other states; in fact, the Sierra Club reports that levels of benzene would have to be ten times higher than in Michigan before such levels were identified in MN as posing a health problem.] Sources cited: Pearson, Robert L., Howard Wachtel, and Kristie L. Ebi. "Distance-Weighted Traffic Density in Proximity to a Home is a Risk Factor for Leukemia and Other Childhood Cancers." _Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association_. 50 (2000): 175-80. Sierra Club Website. "Danger in the Air: Recommendations of the Sierra Club's Minnesota Air Toxics Campaign to Clean Up Air Pollution in Minnesota." January 2001. REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
