Meeting Minutes KingBridge Partnership Meeting July 13, 2006
The meeting was held at Anodyne Coffee and began at 7:15pm. Attendees included: Mark Hinds, David Motzenbecher, Margaret Sines, Steve Jevning, Steve Brandt, Elizabeth Glidden, and Kathleen Varner, notetaker.
Riverlake Greenway–Steve Jevning gave an update on the committee meeting that was held on July 5. Neighborhoods represented at the meeting were Bancroft, Longfellow, Standish-Ericksen, and Kingfield. No residents from Bryant. Elizabeth Glidden, Mpls. City Council, offered that there is support from the Mayor’s office.
Steve Clark was hired to run a modal shift project. TLC, Transit Livable Community, secured $25 million dollars for over the next five years for a demonstration project. Its goal is to get people out of cars and onto bikes and walking. In 3 years the Greenway project is set to finish; if we merge the two operations we can get the bridge as part of the project. This was agreed upon by all at the meeting. Another Federal grant provides $1 million dollars and these are granted every five years. We need to involve the mayor’s office and convince them tell Public Works to apply for more money.
Steve Clark also met with Steve J. and Steve Brandt. They learned that the $1 million will be spent on project planning and infrastructure. We need to keep KingBridge on the radar. Steve Clark is committed to entice folks to use bikes, not cars. A bike committee will form, geared to the city of Minneapolis, not the Twin Cities, although if a part of the project(s) included other parts of the metro areas, they would be included as well. By spring 2007 the first request for money should be in place.
Steve Clark wants the KingBridge to convey from its appearance that it is to be used by bikes and pedestrians. He does not care for portions of the Longfellow neighborhood that do not have designated bike lanes or where lanes are shared with parked cars.
He suggests we create a bike route over Hiawatha Ave. that is amenable and attractive. It should avoid the electrical transformer station and interference from the Light Rail. Another suggestion around Sibley Park on 40th street is to take out the stop sign at the bottom of the hill so bikers could continue, and divert autos around to other adjacent streets. Consideration also has to be made for bikers to safely cross such busy streets as Park Ave., Portland, Cedar Ave., and Bloomington Ave. Question: Can we get funding for signage, Wayfinders, pointing to local restaurants, points of interest, etc., on the bike route? A distinction must be made between recreational bikers, vs. work commuters. For recreation, flowers could be planted along the way to make the route aesthetically pleasing. Commuters need fewer obstructions such as stop signs, and connections to the Light Rail. A Project Memorandum will be created as part of the next step. Questions: Could the design of the bridge be moved up if we had the money? Can we pool our resources with Riverlake Greenway in raising money? The next Riverlake Greenway committee meeting is Wednesday, September 13.
Aquatennial and Kingfield Park Festival— Thursday July 20, from 6pm-8pm. We will post a display of the DrawBridge winners. Leonardo’s Basement will display a bridge building structure. There will be bicycle puppets that the kids will have made. There will be U.S. Navy recruiters present.
Funding update—David and Mark met with the mayor’s office. They also spoke to Victor’s Café on 38th Street. We will plan a fall fundraiser there on a Sunday from, probably, 3pm-6pm with music. David talked to Dean and they will meet again regarding philanthropy. Margaret reviewed a list of donators, the spreadsheet of funding corporations that was created last year by Pete.
Prize money—Sara will cut the DrawBridge prize checks next week. We were unable to secure prizes from Art Materials. We still need to furnish prizes to South High School art class, and two $50 checks. (Is this right?)
Southwest Journal—we need to provide them with photos and a list of the DrawBridge winners. Before that is done, our website needs to be updated, so the newspaper doesn’t publish the winners before the names are posted on our website.
Recruitment efforts—focus on Bryant Neighborhood. Elizabeth will take a sign up sheet to the summer picnic, to be held Sunday, July 16, at the Bud Garden, at 40th Street and Clinton Ave. So., from 5pm-7pm. Kathleen will ask for institutional endorsement from St. Leonard’s Church at their next Transition Team meeting on Saturday, July 22.
Vice Chair—Steve Brandt was elected by acclamation to be the Vice-Chair of this committee.
The meeting concluded at 8:20pm. The next regularly scheduled meeting is Wednesday, August 2, 7:00pm.