Laserfiche WebLink
i <br />•V <br />jr <br />i- <br />series of 40 house meetings that <br />pedestrian issues cam' up in <br />nearlv everv discussion. Residents <br />of Minneapolis want safe and <br />attractive places to take a walk or <br />ride a bike. This fits in well with <br />two new ideas being heavily pro­ <br />moted by Green CiK activists: <br />"traffic calming” and urban vil­ <br />lages. <br />Traffic ca'ming. a concept <br />developed in the Netherlands and <br />now widely used in Europe and <br />Australia, involves redesigning <br />streets to allow people to coexist <br />VNith cars. This is done by employ­ <br />ing a set of clev er and inexpensive <br />design features that remind <br />motorists to drive slow and keep <br />an eve out for people on foot, on <br />bikes and in wheelchairs or baby <br />*'^The Linden Hills neighborhood <br />has installed traffic circles and <br />well-marked crosswalks lo curb <br />speeding drivers. In the Wedge <br />neighborhood and along 31st St. <br />near Uptown, local residents have <br />persuaded citv officials to narrow <br />the'vWdth of streets in <br />places. <br />s <br />•a <br />4 <br />0- <br />Elil <br />Chicago and Linden Hills. It's no <br />coincidence that these neighbor­ <br />hoods have among the highest <br />propertv v alues in the Twin Cities. <br />The idea of urban villages figures <br />prominentlv in many neighbor­ <br />hoods' NRP plans and in citizen <br />meetings surrounding the <br />upcoming revision of Minneapo­ <br />lis' zoning codes. <br />To the new urban-oriented <br />ecology' activists, the biggest <br />threat facing the state is continu- <br />ing suburbsin sprawl. State Rep. <br />Mvron Orfield's Metroprolitan Sta- ^ <br />biiization legislation, a series of ^ <br />bills that aim to take away the v*. <br />unfair advantages outer-ring sub- <br />urbs now receive under existing <br />state and Met Couned policies, is j <br />the most important environmen- , <br />tal initiative of the '90s. Orfield s <br />idezs have won attention and . <br />praise from across the country, as 0 <br />have efforts by the local Land . <br />Stewardship Project to put the <br />brakes on unsustainable sprawl <br />that turns productive farmland j <br />into en\ironmentally taxing sub- ^ <br />urbs. <br />Among the other key groups m , <br />this new urban environmental Jg <br />movement: the Neighbor- <br />hood Transportation Net- J <br />work, which rallied opposi- > <br />tion to the widening of 35W j <br />and promotes sustainable > <br />transportation such as light <br />rail: the Cedar Lake Park <br />Association, which pre- <br />st.wcd lakeshore land as a <br />new p ark and blazed the trail <br />for a nev ’ bicycle path from St. <br />^ mW Louis Pari to downtown Mill- <br />. i:. ..U \ f PtlhUf <br />r' <br />neapolis: the Minnesota Public <br />Lobby. vvh*.:h stopped high-rise <br />developments beside parkland <br />and now is tackling the issue of <br />noise pollution from airplanes. <br />Tran<;if for I ivahle Communities.