Equity Posts

Our Streets Minneapolis encourages members and supporters to weigh in on Minneapolis 2040. We are also commenting as an organization. We talked about why the Comprehensive Plan matters to Our Streets here, and we shared how it might affect you here.

People also want to know what our priorities are, so we’re sharing our top five issues here.

One: We support the goals and priorities shaping the plan and feel it needs to go further

The way we build our streets and neighborhoods shapes our days. It determines whether we have a real choice to walk, roll or bike as we run errands, go to work, or visit friends and family. It ups (or eliminates) the odds of bumping into our neighbors, or chatting with passers by.

All images from https://minneapolis2040.com unless otherwise noted

• Are our neighborhoods complete, with access to employment, retail services, healthy food, parks, and other daily needs via walking, biking, and public transit?
• Can all Minneapolis residents afford and have access to a quality home throughout the city?
• Do people of color and indigenous peoples feel safe [re: police and from crime] in every neighborhood? Is the air safe to breathe in every neighborhood so human-powered travel is safe?
• Does a well-designed physical environment in Minneapolis foster positive interactions? Does it promote commerce, pedestrian activity, safety, and health?

These are questions Our Streets Minneapolis works on.

I think a lot about the future of our city. Will we choose to address our worst-in-nation racial disparities? Will we plan proactively for our changing climate? Will we invest heavily enough in safe transportation choices that everyone has real choices? If we don't, what does that mean for our children's health, access to opportunity, and lives? 

That's the reason I advocate for a better city. I'm thinking 20 years out, doing my part to shift from old habits to calling out racist policies and creating a community equitable for every single person. 

That's also why I think Minneapolis' Comprehensive Plan, branded Minneapolis 2040 is important. It's our city envisioning the future we want, planning a path to get us there -- and inviting all of us who live, work, or play to weigh in. 

So, what's the big deal with the plan? 

This post originally appeared on Grease Rag. 

Going to your first group ride can be intimidating. Getting in the saddle with a bunch of strangers takes trust, courage, and sometimes a friend to tag along. Whether you’re new to cycling or you usually hit the road alone, here’s a few reasons to give a FTW (Femme, Transgender, Women)* group ride a try.

There are many reasons I keep my car despite living in a city that in many ways makes it easier to go carless. Some of these reasons are rational needs, some are ingrained fears, some are wants that sometimes outweigh my knowledge of the damage of a car. Here are my barriers to biking.

Our Streets Minneapolis works for a city where biking, walking, and rolling are easy and comfortable for everyone.

We envision a city where: 

Older adults and people with mobility challenges are healthy, independent, and connected with their communities through streets and sidewalks designed for them.

I live just off Franklin, and have regularly bussed and biked along it for decades. One day many years ago, I was surprised to see someone rolling down the east-bound traffic lane in a wheelchair. It was on that particularly harrowing section of Franklin between Portland and Chicago.

I immediately wondered what was so wrong with the sidewalk that someone felt compelled to take such a risk. A quick glance at the sidewalk and it was obvious.

And as I checked out the sidewalks from the bus windows over the years, I saw examples like this along much of Franklin Avenue, although most don’t have the dirt desire-line path to broadcast just how inadequate the sidewalk is.

I’ve been learning about what the Americans with Disabilities Act requires when it comes to our sidewalks. I’ll share how things work in another post. Today, I want to share my single favorite discovery.

Hennepin County has an online map with photo images and descriptions of every intersection, curb cut, signal actuation/beg button, and sidewalk obstruction on county streets. That map is here.  

This. Map. Is. Amazing.

A recent Outdoor Magazine article, “The Bike Industry's Sharpest Minds on How to Make Roads Safer for Cyclists: Eleven experts weigh in with their biggest, craziest ideas—all of which are eminently doable,” was being shared widely on social media. I was excited to hopefully see some of the familiar names and faces get some limelight. To my dismay, I did not see a single person who was visibly of color, and there was no discussion of race, class, gender, access, or any of the other things that I find are inextricably connected to “safety.”

Here is a collection of perspectives from Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) advocates. Some of our sharpest minds.