Highway 100 project.

[MNDEM2004]

Should highway 100 be finished from 694 to 494? The latest is that it will be more than 10 years before completion.

[riverwalker]

1. I miss the lilacs

the thick rows of lilacs that used to line HWY 100. In the spring it was incredibly beautiful, the scent was amazing. They ripped them all out to widen it.

[Worst Username Ever]

2. Have you ever noticed near St Louis Park

That there are picnic tables and grills lining the highway?

In the 50's and 60's when the highway was built, planners thought that people would want to picnic and hang out by the highway to watch the cars and revel in this new "marvel." Obviously, no one wants to hang out on a highway, but the tables are still there.

[Oreo]

17. I always wondered about that!

Thanks. I always thought that was pretty strange.

[KitchenWitch]

3. I just want the ramps at 494 and 100 to be finished

I live off Normandale Blvd and this project has been over two years...I am sick of driving 5 miles out of my way to get on 494.

[trotsky]

4. The St. Louis Park area has become such a bottleneck.

It's too bad, because that's also (as noted above) the only place where it retains that tiny glimmer of its original charm and history. Plus the bridges in that area have that old style to them.

I mostly drive in the segment from 394 to Brookdale, and the improvements they've made there have been phenomenal. No more lights stopping you just as you get rolling. I miss the neat little businesses and shops along the way, especially what used to be at 100 & 36th. But progress always comes at a price, unfortunately.

Oh and they had to demolish that nice little shady park area on the lake at 81 and 100. That was a bummer.

[MNDEM2004]

6. Robbinsdale Twin Lakes area

is also gone. No more beach or swimming area. What a waste.

[no name no slogan]

10. That was a travesty

Until I was 12, my grandparents used to live right across old Hwy 52 (now 81) from the Twin Lakes Area (on the 4500 block of Perry Ave).

Originally the park was supposed to only be "temporary" until they clover-leafed the 100/52 interchange. However, it was still a nice place to go during the summer. As my mom was a single parent, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents in the summer. Consequently we'd go there at least once ever week or two.

That whole area used to be not only convenient, but also fairly peaceful and human-scaled. But now it's all just a jungle of concrete and asphalt. How sad.

[question everything]

16. The problem there is that, first, this is where it goes from three to

2 lanes. Than you have several intersections: Excelsior/36th, Hwy 7 and Minnetonka/5 in rapid succession. So traffic there crawls even during non rush hours time.

One of the on northbound ramp - from Minnetonka Blvd, I think, leads to a very short accelerating lane so cars either sit there waiting for an opening, or literally take chances by jumping in.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. In the end, it's impossible to keep up with traffic demands

as long as people insist on living in sprawling suburbs and having the two to three cars that such a lifestyle requires.

No city has ever built its way out of congestion for more than a couple of years at a time.

In fact, no major city in the entire world has solved the problem of traffic congestion, with or without great mass transit. Tokyo has massive traffic jams that are composed of only 20% of the city's commuters, since everyone else takes transit or cycles.

I'd say emphasize completing the proposed transit improvements (Northstar commuter rail, Northwest bus way, I-35 bus way, central light rail) and even go beyond that: extend the central light rail from Wayzata to Stillwater, a north-south light rail extending from the existing line from Anoka to Hastings, and then a circular line connecting the old downtowns and "new urban centers" of places like Edina, St. Louis Park, Robbinsdale, and so on around the entire inner suburbs of the Twin Cities.

Residents of Denver have just voted to tax themselves to build an extensive rail system, and Portland has just finished its fourth line. Even Dallas, Phoenix, and other unlikely cities are ahead of Minneapolis.

Rail systems do not solve the problem of congestion, but they give people alternatives to congestion.

Some people will drive even when it doesn't make sense. But a good transit system provides alternatives for people who can't or don't want to drive everywhere.

[LittleWoman]

7. Highway 100 used to be called the Belt Line

because it was the highway that went around the city. How times have changed! When I was at Robbinsdale High School (class of '63) one of the big hangouts was the Robin's Nest, an A & W just off 100 and 36th. I imagine that is long gone. Haven't been out that way since we have been in exile in Ohio for too many years. We get to the Twin Cities every year at least once, but our travels have not taken us to that part of town. Frankly, the traffic in the cities is the pits and not likely to improve without a serious commitment to mass transportation on the part of the population. Maybe that will happen when gas gets to $5 a gallon. In the meantime, hubby and I will move to Duluth when we finally shake the dust of Columbus from our shoes.

[no name no slogan]

9. Welcome to DU!

You may have known my mom, who was Robbinsdale '65, or my aunt, who was '63. I grew up in Maple Grove in the 1970s and 1980s, when it was still mostly farms. So we had to "go into town" for most shopping, which meant Robbinsdale, Crystal and New Hope. In fact, my 87-year-old grandfather to this day still calls 100 the Beltline.

I myself live in Mpls now with my wife (just west of DT out 394), and we still use 100 quite a bit to get around. In just our 7 years living here, it's amazing how much the expansion of 100 has affected the area. Once I get north of 55, I barely recognize the area anymore. My great aunt lives in an assisted living place in Robbinsdale, and I get lost trying to get there via 100. It's actually easier to go up 94, and take Broadway there.

The metro area is in sad need of greater mass-transit options. I think we've proven, repeatedly, over the last couple decades that expanding highways will NOT solve the problem, but only encourage greater expansion. I watched it happen in Maple Grove, as a kid, when the 494-94-694 interchange was completed, and development skyrocketed. My dad, who lived there with us until 1975, can't even FIND our old house anymore as things have changed so much.

Maybe one day the rest of the politicians will catch on. But while we still have Carol "pave it all and paint it green" Molnau as Lt. Gov., it won't happen.

Welcome to DU!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. I see exurban development as akin to voting for Bush

It makes no sense, but people do it anyway.

In order to afford a large house (for them and their maybe two children, never mind that they themselves grew up as one of four children in a house half that size), people will move an hour out of the cities, far away from any conveniences, and then complain about how awful the commute to work is. :crazy:

Since Mom and Dad probably both work, each one needs a car, and even if Mom stays at home, she needs a car, or no errands will be run while Dad is at work. Meanwhile, the kids need to be driven everywhere, since there is no safe way for them to get to their required schedule of activities, including "play dates." (Apparently, kids don't find their own friends in the neighborhood anymore.)

This means that the kids have little or no independent life until age 16, when they get their own car, which requires getting a part-time job so as to be able to afford the gas and insurance.

I've talked to retired teachers who shake their heads over the parents who explained that Ryan or Ashley was falling asleep in school because they had to close at Burger King and that they needed the job in order to pay for the car. Why did they need a car? In order to get to their job at Burger King, of course! Obviously, people who can't see the circularity of this argument would have no trouble accepting Bush's lies before breakfast.

These same exurbanites then gripe endlessly about taxes being too high. Gee, do you suppose if they lived in a smaller house in a more convenient area and didn't keep three cars (including at least one SUV or minivan, of course) they might have more disposable income? But no! What would the neighbors think? Is it any wonder that Pawlenty won the exurbs?

Sorry, that's just one of my pent-up rants about why I'm feeling increasingly alienated from American culture.

[Krupskaya]

14. Nice generalizations.

Stupid people are everywhere. We could write similar rants about other forms of development as well, without solving any problems.

-- Posted by an exurban mother-of-two with multiple cars, kids with schedule of activities (not "required," though), a small house and no concern about what the fuck the neighbors think.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. My rant is based on my own brothers, both of whom live that way,

Fortunately, only one of them votes Republican. :-)

I KNOW that not all exurbanites are Republicans.

[LittleWoman]

12. I may have known them

but keep in mind at that time Robbinsdale High School was the only high school in District 281 and the graduating classes were huge. There were 751 in the class of '63 and they just got bigger until another high school was built. All those baby boomers you know!

[no name no slogan]

13. I can relate to that...

I graduated from Osseo in 1987, one of 699 in my graduating class. I literally walked through commencement next to a guy I'd never met, or ever seen around school before.

Our class was huge, but the one after mine was 800, and the one after that (the year my cousin graduated) had over 900. They had to extend the between-class break from six minutes to eight minutes, just so you could get to your next class on time. What a way to teach kids...

[CatholicEdHead]

8. Need more light rail

to keep the alternatives a viable option.

I HATE driving in the Cities. I am glad I do not have to commute.

Some type of park and ride arranged with more light rail is what is drastically needed to combat this sprawl.