Advocacy Posts

At Our Streets Minneapolis we are devastated by Minneapolis police killing George Floyd. His death is a tragic loss. Our thoughts are with everyone impacted by George Floyd’s death, especially his friends and family.

We are an organization dedicated to making streets places where everyone can bike, walk, and roll easily and comfortably. We know that our streets will not be safe until everyone in our community can move through them without the threat of police violence.

At Our Streets Minneapolis we are devastated by Minneapolis police killing George Floyd. His death is a tragic loss. Our thoughts are with everyone impacted by George Floyd’s death, especially his friends and family.

We are an organization dedicated to making streets places where everyone can bike, walk, and roll easily and comfortably. We know that our streets will not be safe until everyone in our community can move through them without the threat of police violence.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a big impact on our work. Our staff began working from home on March 12th and will do so for the foreseeable future. A few weeks ago we shared that we won’t host any Open Streets Minneapolis events in June, and are prepared to cancel any event that poses a significant health risk. 

Now we’d like to share how we’re changing our advocacy in response to COVID-19.

Earlier this spring the City released a draft Transportation Action Plan. Once a final version is adopted, this plan will guide transportation projects in our city for the next ten years. At Our Streets Minneapolis, we’ve been following how the the Transportation Action Plan takes shape very closely. And, we think this draft is pretty good.

I’ll admit that I opened the public draft of the Minneapolis Transportation Action Plan with more than a little skepticism about how the plan would address the climate crisis. Sure, I expected the plan to promote biking, walking, and transit, but I doubted I would see more than lip service around truly shifting how we move and use our streets to align with what the climate crisis demands.

The City of Minneapolis released its Transportation Action Plan draft last week. This plan is an addendum to the Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan that will guide transportation projects in Minneapolis for the next ten years.

We are thrilled to announce the creation of the Streets for People Work Group. This volunteer work group is a combination of the Downtown Bikeways and Pedestrian Work Groups. This change enables volunteers to discuss street space holistically and more efficiently advocate for streets that deliver safety, justice, and equity regardless of a person’s identity and lived experience.

The Downtown Bikeways Work Group came together in January for their first meeting of the year and had a packed agenda. We kicked off the meeting by talking about fun things we did over the holidays. Group members are energized after the break and excited to get back into advocacy.

There’s a lot happening in the City that we’re engaging in. Folks talked about advocacy efforts including influencing Hennepin County transportation decision-making at the Franklin Avenue Open House, and the Lyndale Avenue S Community Forum organized by Commissioner Marion Greene.

From welcoming a new Executive Director to celebrating our 10th anniversary, 2019 has been a huge year for us. At Our Streets Minneapolis we are grateful for your continued support as we work for a city where biking, walking, and rolling are easy and comfortable for everyone. With only six staff this year, we depended on our local community to make this all happen. Thank you for working toward our shared vision of a city that puts people first!

Join us as we look back on all we accomplished together this year and look ahead to what we have planned for 2020. Plus, be sure to read to the end of this post for an update on our financial situation.

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.