Minneapolis Sculpture Garden reconstruction and bikeway opportunity
On December 12th and 14th, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, together with the Walker Art Center, convened two CAC meetings and an open house on tthe reconstruction of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. This is an exciting project for quite a few reasons. Beyond the obvious one of improving and maintaining an important landmark in Minneapolis, there are bicycle-related aspects of this that are crucial to Minneapolis’ network of bikeways.
The most important element of this project is to make sure that we secure an off-street bikeway running along the west side of Lyndale Ave S between Dunwoody and Vineland, shown as a thick red line on the map below (the light green one is the Dunnwoody Blvd off-street trail which will be built as part of the Southwest LRT TSAAP; see pg. 3-10: http://www.swlrtcommunityworks.org/~/media/SW%20Corridor/Document%20Archive/investment-framework/ch-3-van-white.pdf).
A Minneapolis Sculpture Garden bikeway would bring people from the Van White LRT station, North Minneapolis, and the Cedar Lake Trail right to Loring Park and Downtown Minneapolis. It would only require about five feet of Park Board land, and given the extra foot and a half that will be added to this area, this is very doable.
Accessing the Sculpture Garden by bike will, of course, necessitate bicycle parking infrastructure. The shortfall in bike parking at the Garden was pointed out by a teacher who had brought over 100 students by bike to the Garden who they had to lay their bikes all over the park. The design team agreed that parking will need to be considered, but it’s imperative that we let them know how important it is to all future users of the park who will get there by bike. According to the designs shared with us, the west end of the Sculpture Garden where the Cowles Conservatory faces the parking lot will be turned into a welcome area. This is a crucial area for robust and plentiful bike parking. Others at the meeting mentioned the possibility of adding a Nice Ride station there too, which would be great. The north end of the Garden will also need good bike parking facilities, see the areas in red on the map below.
Still, off-street bike lanes remain the most important aspect of this project. We should applaud the designs for the Sculpture Garden, as they look really great - they include reverting part of the park to the native wetland habitat that it originally was before the parade grounds were built on top of it 125+ years ago. And our recent, significant victory for cyclists in the extension and separation of the Loring Bikeway as part of the Hennepin-Lyndale Bottleneck reconstruction means that the tide is turning and now’s the time to keep pushing for enhancements that will calm, green, and make safe this vital corridor for Minneapolis. Connecting the Sculpture Garden to the Green Line and North Minneapolis is paramount. Making sure that Minneapolis’ signature destinations are easy to visit by bike is equally crucial.
Please fill out this online survey to express your desires for a bike connection to Van White and beyond: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BKM3XMR
The Hennepin-Lyndale corridor is an area of art, parks, urban density, and is a true confluence of diverse neighborhoods. It’s also an indispensable cycling corridor. I look forward to helping build on our recent successes by making the reconstructed Sculpture Garden another linchpin in our City’s ever-growing network of bikeways.
The next CAC is at 5:30pm at the Walker Art Center on January 20th. Hope to see you there!
Coalition turns 5 and celebrates big budget victories
The Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition celebrates its five year anniversary today, and I am so grateful to all the volunteers and supporters who have helped this organization grow to what it is today!
We've made a remarkable amount of progress in just five years, and laid the groundwork for big changes in the future. Last night we saw another victory, made possible by your support! The hard work of our volunteers and staff paid off as the city council adopted a 2015 Minneapolis budget that includes a first--$750,000 in funding for protected bikeways--that is part of the best budget ever for biking and walking.
Neither that victory, nor really any of our success over the past 5 years would be possible without the dedication, hard work, and support of our volunteers, members, and supporters. To get this win, we delivered more than 3,400 postcards to the Minneapolis City Council from residents of Minneapolis who wanted better and safer bike routes to school, to work, and to just get around. Our volunteers and community partners spent countless hours talking to residents, collecting signatures, and making calls to get those signatures. That energy and enthusiasm for better biking has made the Coalition the success it is today, and has helped make Minneapolis a great city for bicycling in just a few short years.
Together, in just the past few years, we've put on 13 Open Streets events, in all parts of the city. We put on the first Minneapolis Bike Week last year, with over 10,000 participants. We've seen the installation of our first protected bike lanes, with 30 more new miles to go. We've won biking on the Lowry Avenue bridge, bufffered bike lanes on Park and Portland, and protected bike lanes on Washington Avenue. And we have so much more coming soon to continue to grow bicycling in our city for everyone who wants to ride.
And we're just getting started. I invite you to join us as we continue to work to make biking even better in Minneapolis. Together we can make Minneapolis a city where bicycling is encouraged and everyone feels comfortable riding. Your membership or additional donation plays a big role in providing us with the resources we need to continue that work.
Thank you for all that you do,
Ethan Fawley
Executive Director
Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition
