Saint Paul Public Works will be doing mill and overlay projects in 2021 on:
St. Anthony Avenue from Snelling to Victoria
Concordia Avenue from Lexington to Marion in 2021.

(Work excludes off-ramps and the signalized intersections of Snelling, Lexington, and Dale, which are being addressed through separate projects)

St. Anthony and Concordia often have traffic speeds that are very high, and they are often used as a way to bypass traffic by motorists who do not treat them like the neighborhood streets that they are.

We have heard from neighbors for years that the crossings at the pedestrian bridges and at the schools can be very dangerous. Maxfield has spent significant time working to create safer crossings for their students, and reaching out to the City to address the issue. 

The City of Saint Paul is responding by using the scheduled mill and overlay project as an opportunity to do further community engagement along the corridor, and identify how they can improve safety for pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists. 

They are currently encouraging people to take a survey, both online and while tabling at community events. They are also setting up special meetings with people along the corridor like, Maxfield, St. Paul College, and Jeremiah House. They will follow up this outreach period with a community meeting in the fall to review design concepts. 

You can participate in the survey by following the link below:

 https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/94frontageroads​

Metro Transit is in the planning stages of creating a new rapid transit line to Minneapolis and Saint Paul, that would potentially run along RT 21. 

They are doing community engagement and outreach along the bus route starting in late August. 

These are their main questions for the community:

• Should this rapid transit bus come to Saint Paul, or should it just operate in Minneapolis?
• What route should it take? It could stick to 21 bus Route, or it could be rerouted.
• Should it replace the 21 bus entirely?
• How do businesses feel about the potential trade offs? The bus stops are larger, and may obscure business fronts.
• How will this impact people with disabilities? Rapid transit bus stops are further apart, and this could create an access barrier in the winter.

Planned community engagement/ outreach activities:

• Talking to people on the bus and tabling at bus stops
• Tabling at established community events (SUPC provided a list) and Metro Transit hosting an event.
• Drop-in office hours at SUPC: we will provide a space for staff to have 1 on 1's with neighbors and businesses

Note: The Greenline led to the loss of community businesses and displacement of neighbors. This issue has been observed around the country following the development of new light rail transit. I asked Metro Transit to provide us with analysis of how the new rapid bus lines have impacted the communities they were placed in. 
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More information:

This item will be on an upcoming Community Improvement and Safety Committee Agenda

August 20, 2019
5 PM
SUPC Office

Committee Members:
Judith Tande (committee chair), Mary Morris, Martha Tilton, Eric Ebbeson 

Cody Olson from Metro Transit is our contact person for this issue