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What do Lake Street people want?
published 05.29.03
online at http://www.swjournal.com/display/inn_news/news01.txt
by Scott Russell
Southwest Journal
Amid important debates about freeway ramps and street widths, the
folks who live, work and play on Lake Street have a tapestry of
opinions
Hennepin County is getting ready to rebuild Lake Street - ripping
out the street and sidewalks and redesigning it from Lyndale Avenue
east to the Mississippi River.
If recent Southwest debates about adding Lake Street freeway ramps
and re-striping West 50th Street are any indication, emotions will
run hot around traffic. Everyone will agree they want Lake Street
to be a vital commercial and pedestrian corridor; they likely will
disagree on how best to get there.
Reconstruction work is scheduled to start in 2005, but decisions
made in the coming months will shape the project. Issues include
sidewalk widths, parking restrictions, how many traffic lanes, and
streetscape upgrades such as lighting and planters.
The upside for some is increased traffic. The downside for some
is increased traffic.
Some feel the county's projected traffic increases will boost business;
others just see more congestion.
Noted local photographer Wing Young Huie, who documented life on
Lake Street in a 2001 photo exhibit called Lake Street U.S.A., recently
found himself caught up in the controversy.
The county asked to use some of his photos in a brochure explaining
the Lake Street reconstruction project, he said. He agreed - and
after it came out, he got a call from STRIDE, a group opposing new
I-35W ramps at Lake Street.
The I-35W project and Lake Street's reconstruction are separate
but related. The I-35W project would widen Lake on either side of
the highway to accommodate more traffic.
"I didn't know about the controversy," Huie said. "I
told the county I did not want my photos to be used in the future."
He did not want to be seen endorsing one vision over another, he
said. His art is more concerned with what is, rather than with what
should be.
"My main concern is that Lake Street is a very vital area,"
he said. "It is the cultural corridor. Minneapolis tried to
make 3rd Avenue into the arts corridor. Lake Street is the cultural
corridor.
"It is vital, not because of what the city has decided, but
because Lake Street is what we are becoming. It is the future of
America. It changes every day. How many new shops are opening on
Lake Street? It is representative of all the different cultures."
The Southwest Journal walked Lake Street from Lyndale to I-35W
on three occasions during the past weeks - a morning, an afternoon
and an early evening - to get people's impressions of the street:
whether they felt safe, whether they thought Lake Street was vital,
and what improvements they would like to see.
The conversations were generally brief. Many had not heard about
the Lake Street reconstruction project; a few more were aware of
the freeway ramp debate. Questions did not probe opinions on turn
lanes or streetscape, simply people's impressions.
Some people were too busy to talk. Some did not speak English.
Some didn't want their names used. For several people, the important
issues were pretty basic - pick up the trash, fix the potholes,
get rid of the graffiti.
Some conversations offered counterpoints to prevailing arguments.
Those who oppose Lake Street freeway ramps say new immigrant businesses
are revitalizing the corridor without more traffic. Yet some working
in those immigrant businesses, such as Liban Mohamed, welcome the
ramps and more customers.
Some argue that Lake Street does not need to accommodate bikes,
since the Midtown Greenway has a bike trail one block north. Yet
a young biker named Richard (no last name, please), by all appearances
strong and street smart, said he chooses Lake Street because it
has more activity. He said he did not feel as safe on the Greenway.
For those willing to talk, here is what they had to say about Lake
Street.
Denise Arambadjis, co-owner of It's Greek to Me restaurant, said
Lake Street has come a long way, but she would like to see it improve
more.
Lake Street "needs to reach out to the city," said Arambadjis,
who has worked at the corner for 21 years.
"It has to reach out to the suburban base. People are still
fearful of Lake Street."
She feels safe walking west from Lyndale Avenue, where Lake Street
has more street life, she said. She does not feel as safe walking
east, "where everything shuts down."
Adding the freeway ramps at Lake Street should help, she said.
It may add traffic, but traffic is already bad at times.
"When you get more stores and activities on Lake Street, it
will be friendly for pedestrians," she said. "I love Lake
Street. I grew up in Chicago. I am used to big traffic.
You hate to see pockets of decay."
What may make Lake Street threatening to some - its diversity -
makes it feel safer to Garry Fleming of Lyndale.
Fleming lives a half-block off Lake Street, but could not stop
to talk on a recent morning; he was running to catch his bus downtown.
He passed his Red Cross business card and said to call.
"I wanted to be in an ethnic neighborhood," he said during
the follow-up interview.
"I can understand how those individuals who have grown up
in a predominantly white setting might have difficulty with Lake
Street. The mere fact being a black man growing up in white America,
I am always in the minority - except when I am in urban areas that
are predominantly black."
He said he has had white friends who felt uncomfortable introducing
him to their families because he was black.
"That is what I am accustomed to in America," he said.
"Having people speak a different language around me doesn't
bother me."
As for improving Lake Street, Fleming said adding freeway ramps
and more traffic was a double-edged sword, increasing both business
and congestion.
"I am open-minded," he said. "I don't have a firm
opinion one way or the other based on what I know."
Susan McDonough has lived in East Calhoun for two years and was
taking an early-evening rollerblade down Lake Street.
"I skate down here looking for new adventures to pop up, a
new crack in the street - new jumps or new ways to go off the curb."
She has met a lot of friendly people on Lake Street, but it stops
feeling safe to her after I-35W, she said. "It gets into the
ghetto," McDonough said.
She would like to see graffiti removed, buildings painted and the
street repaired.
"The streets are ridiculous," she said. "There are
potholes everywhere. If it looked more kosher, then more people
would want to come. Streets down here don't look Uptown-ish."
Paul Schatzlein of Schatzlein Saddle said he gets calls from customers
who can't find the store as easily as they thought.
They will call on their cell phones, heading south on I-35W. He
will ask where they are. The customer will say they already passed
38th Street. He will tell them to get off and double back.
"I've got a lot of people who wish there was a Lake Street
exit," he said.
He would like to see the Lake Street reconstruction put concrete
aprons at the bus pullouts, he said. "They tear up the tar
terrible," Schatzlein said. "I know it costs a lot of
money. They are always patching it, too."
Tom Folden lives in an apartment above Lake and Grand, and if anything
he would like to see Lake Street have more mom-and-pop-type businesses,
like Whitney's Market or other small convenience stores.
"I love Lake Street. I can't get enough of it," said
Folden, who is unemployed and trying to get a job at a local bakery.
He said Lake Street is vital the way it is, and he doesn't favor
changing the freeway ramps.
He grew up in the Fridley/Columbia Heights area and started coming
to Lake Street when he was 17 or 18, he said. He lives in a $700-a-month,
two-bedroom apartment, with sauna, hot tub and room enough for his
drum machine.
The apartment is centrally located, Folden said. He can go west
and get the more expensive Uptown fare or go east "and get
good deals on food."
He said the corner's best entertainment is watching people, apparently
drunk, emerge from the Yukon Club and make idle threats at each
other.
"Usually it's the girlfriend that calms him down," Folden
said.
Lisa Yovicson of Tangletown said Lake Street east of Lyndale could
use more restaurants - not the chain fast-food places, but "nicer
ones like down there," she said, pointing west.
Yovicson had just finished shopping at the Mall of America, took
the bus to I-35W, got off at Lake Street and was walking to visit
friends at Lyn-Lake.
She used to live at 32nd and Grand, she said, and thought it would
be a great idea to add freeway ramps at Lake Street. "People
are so tired of going to 35th" Street.
Liban Mohamed said new freeway ramps at Lake Street "would
be a very nice idea."
"It would save me five minutes," said Mohamed, who lives
in Southeast Minneapolis and volunteers at the Banaadir coffee shop
to help out the owner, a friend.
The new ramps would send more traffic on Lake Street and make it
more vital, he said.
"It would be good for business for sure," he said. "People
stop when they see the espresso sign."
Shawn Allison of Lyndale said one indication of the Lake Street
area's improved fortunes is the new townhome slated for the vacant
lot at West 31st Street and Pleasant Avenue, one block south of
his home.
Allison lives just off the corner of Lake and Pleasant, and he
said Lake Street could still use some help. He was spending part
of his afternoon pulling dandelions from the boulevard of the closed
H&J Pawn shop, because the owners didn't. He also has to pick
up trash from people who get take-out from the Wendy's restaurant
across the street, he said.
He would like Lake Street to be more people-friendly, with more
lighting, he said. He would like trash cans back on the street.
"We used to have them on the corners," he said.
Lake Street already had too many cars, he said, but he wasn't concerned
about making it more bike-friendly because of the Midtown Greenway.
"There is plenty of access for people who need to bike,"
he said.
Sharon Jackson said she thought it would be a good idea to add
freeway ramps at Lake Street, even if it meant more cars.
"Traffic is traffic. It's a main street," she said. "You
just have to deal with the frustration."
Jackson and her daughter Sharday Jackson were taking a long walk
down Lake Street - from Chicago Avenue to Lyndale Avenue and back
- for exercise. "We ate too much for Mother's Day," she
said.
Her idea for a better Lake Street? "We need lights - more
street lights - and flowers and nice, smooth pavement and maybe
a little wider
intersection," she said.
Bob Peterson of Stevens Square said he doesn't feel safe on Lake
Street and would like to see it like it was in the 1970s. "Everybody
got along," said Peterson, who was making his daily run picking
up cans in the neighborhood.
"I'd like to see the
theaters back again," he said, recalling places like the East
Lake Theater, the Globe and the Rialto.
Abdisalam Abdulle, manager of Amerisom Grocery & Meats, said
Lake Street already had a lot of traffic. Still, Abdulle said he
would like to see new freeway ramps added at Lake Street. The store's
customers come from Burnsville, Eden Prairie and Eagan, he said.
Lake Street traffic is so constant that drivers leaving his parking
lot who want to go east toward Nicollet must turn right (west) towards
Lyndale.
He would like to see a stoplight at Lake and Pillsbury - "It
is very dangerous, people cannot cross," he said.
Warren Croft of Kingfield sat on the sidewalk at Lake and Nicollet
with young daughter Ixabel, waiting for AAA to fix a flat tire.
He is generally satisfied with Lake Street the way it is, he said.
"You see that Mexican bakery?" he said, pointing south
along Nicollet. "It wasn't here five years ago. I think the
street is revitalizing by itself."
Croft said he has lived in the neighborhood for eight years, initially
in Lyndale, and he has seen it steadily improve, notably from the
Mexican and Somali businesses.
The Lake Street upgrades he would like to see are mostly cosmetic:
"Remove the graffiti. Sweep the streets. Fix the potholes,"
he said.
"Lake Street is feeling pretty good," said Mershon Corbett.
"I think it is alright the way it is. ... Maybe if they kept
it a little bit cleaner."
Corbett, a student at the Minneapolis Community and Technical College,
was waiting to get a bus home to St. Paul.
"Maybe if there was a center of Lake Street, clearly defined,
of course, that would be nice. Maybe Chicago and Lake."
Seth (no last name, please) said he would like to see lights added
along Lake Street under the I-35W bridge. "It has a back-alley
look right now."
Seth is a self-described dabbler at the University of Minnesota
who was heading home with the videos "Afraid of the Dark"
and "Bringing Out the Dead." He has lived in Whittier
for five years and said he feels safe on Lake Street, even though
he was mugged once near his apartment in the late 1990s.
Lake Street is "Minnesota's little New York," he said.
"It has a little bit of everything, modes of dress and different
languages. If I didn't like it, I wouldn't be living here."
He said he thought Lake Street was 70 percent vital, 30 percent
not vital.
"Uptown is one thing," he said. "Here - anyplace
you see check-cashing places - it is a different group of people
from Calhoun Square. Lyndale is vital. As you move away, there is
turnover and businesses that prey on people's misfortunes."
He questioned whether this was a good time to spend a lot of money
on road reconstruction.
"It is something you wait for a boom time to do," he
said.
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