Great Meeting!

Meeting notes for 2/4/09

Meeting went well.

New faces from: Standish-Ericksson, Bancroft and Commissioner Peters McLaughlin’s office. Welcome!

CAU group description and meeting info has been published in FRNNG’s ‘Close to Home’ and ‘Corcoran Neighborhood News’ (correct me in the comments if I missed something!) we are still looking forward to having the same info posted in Bancroft, Page-Hale-Diamond Lake, Standish-Ericksson, Powderhorn, Phillips Alley etc. (suggestions in comments too please) BIG thanks go out to Jeri E. for all her work on this!!! We’ll look forward to seeing who else we can work with. Sharon H. suggested pursuing ‘Family Times’, ‘Best of Times’ (published by Family Times for people over 50), and ‘Southwest Journal’.

Jeri also created a poster-style advertisement for display in businesses and organization offices. All in attendance approved the material and it will be made available shortly in PDF form. This should make for easy creation on a personal basis, and quick distribution. Please e-mail cedartraffic (at) gmail.com with inquiries.
A wish list was started. We are striving to keep things in reasonable perspective as we list off items by designating them into 3 goal catagories: Short Term, Middle Term and Long Term.

Short Term

• Paint Road Lines-Parking, Lanes, Cosswalks, Bike (?)
• Crosswalk Signs
• Add Speed Limit Signs
• Add Stop Signs
• Add Trash Cans (especially near bus stops)
• Plantings-work with relevant groups such as neighborhood greening committees and Metro Blooms etc.
• Gain easements on street-side height restrictions on plantings
• Create and Distribute Yard Signs (Respect our Neighborhoods: Slow Down etc)
• Increase Speed Enforcement
• Pursue Official studies on traffic Speed and Noise
• Re Assess Speed Limits based on street use, traffic noise and street segment

Middle Term

• Neighborhood Banners along roadway (overhead or from lighting poles etc)
• Parking Changes/restrictions(?)-roadway segment specific
• Bike Lanes, Mixed use segments, Bike Boulevards-tie in with various projects along
• roadway: Midtown and River-Lake Greenway, Potential South Metro Bikeway from
• Bloomington
• -bike lockers, racks, bike/bus racks- all encourage multi-modal transit
• Street Art- Pavement painting (Paint the Pavement)
• Historic Markers
• Pedestrian Activated Crosswalks

Long Term

• New and Improved Lighting
• Curb Bumpouts
• Neighborhood specific street scaping
• Protected Parking
• Traffic Tables
• Roundabouts (this wasn’t mentioned in this meeting, but has been in the past)
• Cyclist considerations in Improved pavements
• Improved and Appropriate pavement

These are just a few of the things mentioned. Many more will likely be discussed.

We also discussed how we can create a visual for our…well, our vision.

We have a number of talented designers (architects, landscape architects, landscapers, gardeners etc) along the roadway. Perhaps they would appreciate the opportunity to help the community and display their talents publicly. I (Will) strongly feel that a visualization of our wish list will be key in gaining support from residents and [especially] businesses along Cedar. We could use suggestions for this. We have no budget, but feel that our project offers residents and businesses many benefits, including: increased property value, better livability, increased safety, improved parking and accessibility, more transit options, better visibility/safety for local businesses etc. etc ETC. As you know, the list goes on and on.

Katie Hatt, from Commissioner McLaughlin’s office brought up the potential funding of the South Metro Bike Way; a project that would/will connect Bloomington with Downtown. Many of the people in attendance felt that including this in the Cedar Avenue United plan would be a good idea. Representatives plan to draft letters from neighborhoods to Transit for Livable Communities supporting the program and its potential utilization of Cedar Avenue and surrounding community. So far we have people from FRNNG, SENA, Bancroft willing to send letters. If you are interested personally or come from one of the as-yet-unaccounted-for neighborhoods and would like to speak up please contact us via e-mail cedartraffic (at) gmail.com
We will be providing a framework for the letter in order to provide an individual, but unified, voice.

We discussed a lot, and made significant progress. I know that I may have missed mentioning some important topics. If you can think of anything that I missed please leave it in the form of a comment.

Thank you ALL!

By suggestion, the next meeting will include structuring the group into an organized unit. I welcome this idea as it’s apparent that our membership is growing rapidly. Please put some thought towards any specific functions you may like to have in the group, including roadway-segment representatives. We will discuss all options presented.

-Will Peterson