The Our Streets crew really packed the room at the MnDOT meeting today. About a hundred people in total, with fifty arriving by bike. Bike parking overflowed, so nearby fences were commandeered for the cause. We had a brief rally outside the building before going inside.

I was one of the first people into the room. One of the MnDOT folks asked me how many people we had - their eyes bulged a bit when I said about a hundred.

MnDOT was very polite and I felt like they heard the words I was speaking, even if they didn't seem to be listening. Our ask is a simple one - don't eliminate the at-grade options for I-94 at this point in the project; advance those options to conduct a more comprehensive study.

With a hundred of us and so few of them, we really just took over the room. I spent more time chatting with other attendees about urbanism. Met a student studying urban design. Met someone else working on designing rail networks in Minnesota. Biked back to Minneapolis with a software engineer I met.

I'll end by paraphrasing one of the best lines from the rally:

People ask where the cars will go. But did MnDOT ask where people would go before it paved over their homes? No! Did MnDOT ask where kids would play? No! Did MnDOT ask where the elderly would walk without endangering their health? No!

#Minneapolis #Urbanism #Minnesota #OurStreets #I94 #MnDOT