At their November 2019 meeting, Pedestrian Work Group members recognized the need to prioritize winter sidewalk maintenance in the 2020 City of Minneapolis budget. We support the additional resources for maintenance in the budget. Ash and Abigail Johnson, chair of the Minneapolis Pedestrian Advisory Committee met Council Member Linnea Palmisano to deliver over 300 postcards supporting improved winter sidewalk maintenance--just a fraction of the over 1,000 postcards we collected. Increased funding for winter sidewalk maintenance will likely remain in the budget--as revealed in the budget mark-up meeting December 6th.

As Our Streets Minneapolis celebrates our 10th anniversary, we're taking a look back at some of the volunteers and groups that helped us get where we are today. As a community driven organization, we depend on local folks lending their skills and time to our movement.  

Lesley Schack became a core volunteer with our organization when it was just a group of passionate folks without so much as a name. Lesley's work with Our Streets Minneapolis includes advocating for better bike lanes on streets like 1st Avenue, and laying hard-won foundations for Open Streets Minneapolis.

We kicked off our November meeting with a presentation from Kelsey Fogt, a Minneapolis Transportation Planner. Kelsey provided an overview of the upcoming protected bikeways project on 1st Ave S, Grant St and 2nd Ave S. The group was particularly enthusiastic about the elevated bikeway portion that will go behind a floating bus stop. We hope to welcome more Public Works representatives to future meetings!