County Commissioners Office

Last Sunday I (Will Peterson) met with Katie Hatt from Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin's office. I am pleased to report that it went very well and we can expect county representation at some of the upcoming meetings. We discussed a number of things from the Complete Street program to short term traffic enforcement. From pedestrian activated crosswalks to protected parking. Ms. Hatt is very familiar with many aspects of traffic taming and is interested in New urbanism. The outlook is seems positive!

We're still trying to get to the bottom of EPA sound regulations and who is in charge of monitoring them. (MN state statute 116.07) I should say that we don't know if Cedar is in violation of MN EPA, but it would be good to check. We also discussed all the issues identified by Access Minneapolis, the city 10 year transportation plan, including severely over capacity traffic and high speeds and high accident intersections.

Ms. Hatt was going to try to put us in contact with some of the planners and engineers for the county, since Cedar is a county road, they would ultimatly be in charge of a redesign.

I'm very happy to have made contact, and thank Ryan Richardson for his help in setting up the meeting, And again, to Ms. Hatt for meeting on a weekend before a holiday!

Thank you! More to come...

Next Meeting: 'Moving Forward'

Hello,

This post is to confirm our next meeting date:

Wednesday, January 7th from 6:30 pm-7:30 pm
Meeting will take place at the Sibley Recreation Center


View Larger Map

Please comment on this post to RSVP. Agenda to follow soon.

Thanks!

Minutes from Dec 3rd, 2008 Meeting

In attendance:

Councilmember Scott Benson
Susan Hensel: Corcoran Resident & Business Owner
Kay Carr: Standish-Ericsson Resident
Ryan Richardson: Northrop Resident
Janice Macau: Northrop Resident
Joe Jones: Northrop Resident
Will Peterson: Northrop Resident
Jeri Elsner: Northrop Resident
Morgan Zehner: Powderhorn Park Resident

Topics:
-Official name change from Cedar Avenue Restoration Project to Cedar Avenue United.
-Noise regulation: Who is in charge of making sure that Mpls conforms to State Environmental Control Agency Standards. MN state statute 116.07: https://webrh12.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/statutes/?id=116.07
-Jury is out on this one. Between now and then we are going to contact Peter McLaughlin at Hennepin County
-Group Organization and roadway segmenting
-We took a long look at the map and divided the roadway into sections taking into consideration land use, businesses, neighborhood feel/age, major streets, bus stops etc. We drew some lines with magic markers. This will be posted on this site soon.
-these segments will help group organizers distribute material and information more effectively as membership grows. It will also give residents an opportunity to reclaim their neighborhood identity as the project progresses.
-Promotional Material: this tied in with the official name change and group organization, as well as this blog.
-The official flier will be done/printed soon for distribution after Jan 1, so as not to get lost in the holiday bustle.
-We discussed briefly the contents taken from Access Minneapolis: 10 year transportation plan and how they [don’t] address problems with Cedar Ave.
-This flier will be available in both printed and digital format in the following weeks.
-Digital Media
-We discussed blog vs. website. This will likely be a topic that continues to be re-assessed.
-The Google group combined with the G-mail account is becoming cumbersome. A website or blog with a subscription option (or RSS feed) is likely a good solution for the time being.
-for now I’m trying blogger and will readdress this when needed.
-If I missed anything that anyone present would like to add, please comment. This is meant to be a community blog and I strongly encourage participation, as long as it relates to the project.

The look of this blog may/will change over the next few weeks as it is being tooled to fit the needs of the group.

Thank you everyone for your interest and participation!

The accident scene

The accident scene
Originally uploaded by turbofan

A recent accident on Cedar Avenue. Could this high speed incident been prevented by enforcement or traffic calming?

Brand New

This blog is being created as a way for anyone to check on the progress of Cedar Avenue United (the Cedar Avenue Restoration Effort)

This blog will house meeting times, topics, minutes, events and initiatives. It will also track our triumphs and [hopfully few] set-backs.

If you are concerned, please join us in the effort. The look of this blog may change as our group grows and develops.

Please weigh in, if you live in South Minneapolis, this is about your neighborhood!