Echoing the popular Midtown Greenway bike highway that cuts through south Minneapolis, city planners hope to build a “Northside Greenway” through six north Minneapolis neighborhoods.
Minneapolis is ready to design the Northside Greenway. Do residents want it?
Minneapolis planners have relaunched a project to convert 4 miles of north Minneapolis streets into an enhanced bike and pedestrian route with greenery, art and places to gather.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
November 19, 2024 at 1:30PM
But unlike the Midtown Greenway, which gave new life to an old abandoned railroad trench, the Northside Greenway would be integrated into 4 miles of residential streets where people currently live, park their cars, attend school and run businesses. Although the idea for the Northside Greenway originated with grassroots groups, it has taken more than a decade of deliberation to reach the start of design.
Alexis Pennie, a four-season cyclist who heads the group Northside Greenway Now, said when he first started advocating for the project, there was not as much investment in alternate modes of transportation. Now that more streets throughout the city are being designed to improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians, he believes north Minneapolis deserves new infrastructure.
“Getting us to this stage, there has been tremendous work, countless hours of people talking to people, door knocking in multiple languages ... to better understand the needs and the concerns,” Pennie said. “That can’t really be quantified, but that definitely had to happen because there’s so much distrust.”
The Northside Greenway would run along the low-traffic, north-south blocks of Humboldt and Irving avenues, through the neighborhoods of Folwell, Harrison, Jordan, Near North, Sumner-Glenwood and Webber-Camden. Bike infrastructure along that route could differ block by block depending on what planners hear from residents. In some places it could be totally grade separated from car traffic, while in others it might be as light a touch as a lane painted on the ground.
Plantings, public art installations and small places to gather may dot the route, contributing to the concept of a greenway being a low-stress place for people to enjoy urban greenery and talk with neighbors.
The city has conducted surveys and workshops with diverse community groups over the years, and in 2016 set up a year-long demonstration project along five blocks — later scaled back to three after some residents complained — to gather data on snow removal, traffic and other factors. At the end of the project, Wilder Research survey found that 73% of respondents wanted some kind of greenway on their street.
Audua Pugh, executive director of the Jordan Area Community Council, said she will always drive a car, but supports the Northside Greenway because she expects it to calm traffic and boost a sense of comfort and safety. Most of her neighbors were “OK” with the demonstration project along Irving Avenue, Pugh said.
“[Reaction] is gonna be mixed like it’s always been, but I would like to believe that people will want green space, especially with climate change being what it is,” she said. “I think we will want more safe spaces, more green space, and to be able to slow down traffic.”
Construction in 2026
The project, broken into two phases of construction, has secured at least $8.7 million in local and federal dollars. Construction is on the clock to begin in 2026, which means the city will need to have plans created next year around the design goals of health and functionality, said project manager Peter Bennett.
Council Member Jeremiah Ellison, who represents some of the neighborhoods that the Northside Greenway would pass through, said at an event this summer that he’s heard from a number of northside cyclists who want him to support the project. That’s a marked change from earlier in his tenure, when it seemed like far more Northsiders were angry about bike infrastructure because it became a “proxy” for larger conversations about gentrification and displacement, he said.
“I think that gentrification and displacement is much more about values, who owns, who benefits, those kinds of underlying things,” Ellison said. “I think that if that proxy didn’t exist, people would actually realize that they do get to enjoy those kinds of amenities more than those amenities ever become a detriment to the community.”
An open house at Folwell Recreation Center at the end of October officially relaunched the Northside Greenway project, drawing cyclists and skeptics.
Engagement consultant Dan Edgerton of Zan Associates said residents’ feedback this year identified traffic calming, cycling safety and gardens as priorities. He acknowledged that the potential loss of on-street parking can trigger negative feelings, but the project does not yet have a map with detailed designs showing where that might occur.
“I think that’s what causes people to have those reactions, when they look at it and they’re like, ‘oh man, that’s my house, and where’s my parking?’” Edgerton said. “We don’t really have that yet, and that’s why we’re doing activities like this. I want to get people to tell me what features we can design that would allow them to see themselves [as a part of the project.]”
“Is this really for us?”
Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw, who also represents neighborhoods in the Northside Greenway’s path, said she’s heard from constituents who support the project as well as those who believe it’s a nonstarter out of concerns for parking, access for emergency vehicles and Metro Mobility.
“I’ve had conversations with people about, just traditionally, them feeling like greenways mean gentrification,” Vetaw said. “Is this really for us, or is this for the change that people hope comes in the neighborhood, that pushes us out of the neighborhood?”
Vetaw said it’s not her style to push things onto her constituents that they don’t want. She advocated for removal of the 53rd Avenue bike lane bordering Minneapolis and Brooklyn Center after residents showed her footage of vehicular accidents they said were caused by the bike lane.
“People don’t understand it,” Vetaw said. “People think their car goes in it, but it’s a two-way bike lane. It’s just so confusing to people, like people don’t know how to drive over there.”
City planners in Traffic and Parking Services could not find evidence to support allegations that the 53rd Avenue bike lane had caused accidents. Planners found that the crash rate of 1.1 crashes per month was about the same before and after the bike lane was introduced in the summer of 2022. Of the 23 crashes documented between mid-July 2022 and March 2024, none of the reports mentioned the bikeway specifically.
Of the 23 reported crashes, 19 involved a driver running a stop sign or improperly proceeding after stopping, two involved drivers running into parked cars, one involved a driver running off the road at high speed and another involved a driver making an erratic move and hitting another moving car, said city spokesperson Allen Henry.
“We can only comment on crashes that have been reported and we know that not all crashes are reported,” he said.
According to 2014-2018 American Community Survey data compiled by Minnesota Compass, 10.6% of Camden community households and 22.8% of Near North community households don’t own cars.
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