The Streets for People Work Group held a virtual meeting on Monday, April 20th. After strategizing on how to connect while maintaining social distancing, the Streets for People Work Group reconnected via Zoom to discuss strategy and actions to put people first on our streets.
Focusing Around the Transportation Action Plan
We decided as a group to focus resources and efforts on the Transportation Action Plan (TAP). If this plan is implemented to its full potential we'll have a vibrant city that provides a positive experience for people who bike, walk, and roll. We then shared issues that are important to us in how the City implements the plan:
- Winter sidewalk maintenance
- Performance based regulations that can adapt as conditions on the street change. For example, if more people use a street for biking rather than driving, the street should automatically be adjusted to create more space for people biking rather than just keeping everything the same.
- Using equity and public health frameworks to prioritize and fund TAP projects
- Prioritize project decisions using a complete streets framework so that people who walk, bike and roll get the experience they need on the street.
- Create a Minneapolis street typology guideline. Street typology guides provide a standard so when a street is to be reconstructed the design is already set. This ensures that Minneapolis streets across the city provide the same standard of safety and joy.
From there we discuss how we can accomplish our goals in two ways during these times:
- Connect with our government representatives by phone, email and attending meetings.
- Build a community with people in local organizations and communities where we can support each other’s efforts to create a more just and equitable city.
Immediate Opportunities for Positive Impact
After our discussions we identified immediate ways volunteers can take action:
- Comment on projects under review using our internal advocacy guides--join our work group to learn more!
- Become a Ward Leader: Help keep us aware of what issues are important to people who live in your community by identifying community groups and attending their meetings.
- Invite friends and colleagues who are interested to join the volunteer group immediately or for our next meeting.
- If you’re not yet connected, please sign up to be a volunteer using this link.
With that we ended the meeting and planned to hold our next meeting in May. We hope to see you there!
Support Our Work
Sign up to join the work group here or make a gift to Our Streets Minneapolis today!
