Comment 65089

By jason (registered) | Posted June 23, 2011 at 09:46:57

in today's paper there is an article about the International Village downtown. The current director of the BIA states the difficulty in getting people to the area due to it's current highway configuration along King and Main and 'cut through' mentality of drivers.

It's one of the reasons I attend far fewer charettes than I used to. Despite the great ideas and optimism that comes from them, they are doomed to failure because the people in the room participating aren't the ones who can implement the ideas. The folks at city hall have been tasked with that job and 15+ years of ignoring experts advice has proven how massive the leadership and vision gap is in this city between engaged citizens and the city's administration.

Every year we hear the same thing at the Economic Summit and every year we do nothing about one of the biggest hindrances to our city - urban, one-way, truck freeways.
As I visit other cities, it's painful to see how far behind we're falling. Other cities are converting streets, building LRT, scrapping height restrictions, planting street trees by the thousands, widening sidewalks, adding bike lanes, bike sharing and bike signals (nice to see us finally get one on Aberdeen soon) We continue to post truck routes through the heart of the city and then wonder why businesses won't flock to Main or Cannon.

King East through the International Village reminds me of Delray Beach (I just visited last week). Only difference is the one-way design and lack of pedestrians.... the two are very connected. Lead or lag. Those have been our two options for decades now, and on this issue we are firmly planted in the lag department.

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