Lack Of Organization
At the 3/8/16 Greenway Council meeting, we learned the following:
– The Greenway Council is a self proclaimed “ad hoc body” and “not an actual entity”. They are looking at organizing, and are unsure whether they should be non profit, for profit, or co-op. This might have been good to figure out before several years of planning had happened. Just a thought!
– They do not have a business plan, and are floundering around trying to figure out what kind of plan they need. We – as those affected by this plan – are blown away that plans are in place already for this demo, and they do not have a business plan.
– They have stated repeatedly that they “do not have a budget”. At one point, it was stated “Budget allocated is still up in the air”.
– They do not have a plan at all for upkeep costs on the greenway. “Long term funding” was on the agenda and got tabled.
– There is no money in the Minneapolis budget for an actual greenway, or any of the additional side costs (such as additional snowplowing) at all. There is only budget for 1 year of greenway demo. What is the point of inconveniencing us all with this demo, with no budget, no business plan, etc?
– There were several students on hand. At one point, one went into a rambling question about how he’d submitted designs as part of a school project. Was this all planned by students?
– Any talk of actual issues for homeowners was met with confusion, and/or outright admission that they hadn’t considered it. As an example, it was asked whether homeowners would have to cover the additional costs a greenway would present, in circumstances like sewer repair.
As it is, we are responsible for costs up to a certain point on the street. With a Greenway in place, those costs would be MUCH higher – moving installations, pulling up and replacing landscaping, etc. The Greenway council does not have a plan for additional costs in such a circumstance. More concerning is that they had not even *considered* it.
On a side note, at least one board member was over 30 minutes late to the meeting. Several people walked in around that time, we’re not clear how many were board members beyond one.
- Additionally, one board member stated that they had never heard of Lind-Bohanon. This homeowner is not amused that a voting member on this board had never heard of one the neighbourhoods that they were looking to encroach on.
Outside of that meeting...
- The fire department apparently didn't even know about the temporary greenway until a week and a half after it was set up (see HERE), much less have any input on the matter. Five of the 6 blocks set up are done in such a way that will NOT fit a fire truck through (see HERE), and the 6th block is set up in such a way that a fire truck cannot make the turn onto the street from a cross street, as many residents on that street witnessed recently. Shouldn't this have been one of the primary issues to set up? Why wasn't the fire department involved from early on, and CERTAINLY before set up?
- Local police officers were not aware of what was going on until after the set up, as well. Several showed up to the June Greenway Council meeting (See HERE), and expressed grave concerns with the whole thing. Again, for the amount of times the council has been crowing about how they'll have extra patrols (which made one of the officers LAUGH), they haven't been consulted, and haven't approved of any of it.
