Bryn Mawr NRP Phase II Planning
Area 5 Focus Group
Monday, March 7, 7-8:30 PM
In addition to Julia Classen, facilitator, and Greg Lecker,
note taker; attendees include: Karen
Kesl and Clarence Shallbetter.
Additional included comments were received by e-mail from Matt Start
(Area 3) and Dik Hedlund (Area 2) since the last reported minutes. Length of neighborhood residency varies from
a few years to 30 years. Area 5 is the
neighborhood area bounded between
Neighborhood
strengths:
- Location within city; accessibility – close to downtown Mpls (6 minutes, maybe 8 minutes by bus), western and southern suburbs and jobs; halfway from everything, near the near-North-side and near-south-side //
- Even with traffic congestion, Bryn Mawr is probably uniquely sited to provide the most ready accessibility to one-half of the job market in the Twin Cities, although heading east on I-94 is more difficult because of access, even trying to move into the far left lanes to downtown Minneapolis is difficult
- Older homes, mostly single family homes
- Very friendly, neighborhood feeling, mix of families and single folks
- Neighbors know each other but not as much as I would have expected, though the potential is there – You either know or don’t know your neighbors – it’s up to you
- BMNA speaks with one voice for the neighborhood
- Home appreciation – living here since 1974, I would never have imagined the home appreciation that we’ve seen – disproportionately more than other areas – regardless of whether maintenance and improvements have been made
- Great pride in homes and yards – routine maintenance, high number of shrubs and hedges!
- It’s almost as if one cannot move into the neighborhood unless one is a gardener. I visited the neighborhood during the garden tour a few years ago, after I bought my house but before I move in.
- Amazing neighborhood events
- Sense of neighborhood containment by the green belt of parks, even though it has been some time since I’ve really used them
- However, Area 5 is less connected to the parks than the other six areas of Bryn Mawr
-
Bassett’s
- Downtown Bryn Mawr – provides a small town feel with some of the essentials – at least if you’re looking for coffee or pizza//
- Glad that the gas/service station is there – especially when you need it – it’s at least one business for which one doesn’t need to travel outside the neighborhood
Neighborhood
weaknesses:
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- Separation of I-394 – it’s an obstruction to either walk over or drive across to the rest of the neighborhood
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What issues are important or will be important in the future? Opportunities?
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Ever growing incidence of graffiti; it’s showing
up again. Let’s fix it quickly to show
our discouragement
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Future viability of downtown Bryn Mawr
businesses is questionable – even as much as we enjoy them, I question whether
most of them be there in 25 years.
Downtown Bryn Mawr is not something that that many folks drive by. The viability of the businesses is so
influenced by larger markets. It’s
difficult to ensure or predict viability.
-
I’m less concerned about attracting more
businesses. Don’t know what other
services we need
- Lack of parking in downtown Bryn Mawr //
- There is no or virtually no parking in downtown BM. How can we have additional stores or increased business if we have no place to park these non-walking customers? Shoppers from Areas 1, 2 and 7 have to drive there. Regardless of what is to be done to the present downtown BM business stores or any change of items sold in the grocery store, or the opening of any type of bar or restaurant, or a business in any remodeled store the question of parking must be raised and answered. Where are additional customers going to park ? Does the BMNA want to discuss parking meters in downtown Bryn Mawr on Penn Ave north & south of downtown Bryn Mawr?
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Where are the residents of the west side of Penn Ave
south of downtown to park? Where are the residents
on both the west & east sides of Penn Ave north of downtown to
park? The question of parking has been raised (in a business association
meeting) but not answered.
Any improvement in volume of merchandise in downtown stores
& any increase in drawing power of downtown businesses will
necessitate an increase in customers so that the store owners can make more $
(a reasonable idea). A joint meeting,
involving the traffic committee (of which I'm the co-chair), the BMNA business
committee, and the residents surrounding downtown Bryn Mawr (and anyone
else who might be interested in attending) should be convened to discuss
the primary issue of parking in & around downtown Bryn Mawr. The rationale for this is that
businesses generally must conform to traffic & parking conditions and
availability, and not the other way around!
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Better marketing of downtown Bryn Mawr businesses to
Bryn Mawr residents and to surrounding neighborhoods like the new residents in
Heritage Park
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* The lack of City investment in maintaining the
infrastructure of the City; yes, they are planning to complete mill and overlay
of streets in Areas 1 and 2. But, what
about other areas of Bryn Mawr – Hawthorne and Queen Avenues in particular –
patched potholes open up again. What
about alleys?
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* Conditions of garages (along with the alleys
themselves, and some of the retaining walls) are poor, in general
- Research city inspection of garage conditions. We already know of inspections for unsanitary conditions on lots. Address unsanitary conditions behind the Bryn Mawr Market (in the alley area)
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In the future, residents may be responsible for costs
of maintaining the alleys, for instance, as the City continues to hemorrhage
funds.
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The schools are not great and are in need of
improvements // – people are moving out of the city because of the quality of
schools. The reduction in number of MPS
students totalling 10,000 over 5 years leads to the destabilization of our
schools. Where does Bryn Mawr fit in
this equation? Who knows what will
happen to our feeder schools, such as Anwatin Middle School, as we hear of
other Jr. high schools being shut down.
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Land development on the fringes of the neighborhood –
Fruen Mill, South Frontage Road
- Development in Harrison, along Glenwood Avenue, and in Heritage Park (2,000 to 3,000 people) will have an effect and could offer opportunities for Bryn Mawr: possibly a full-service grocery store like the one that used to exist on Glenwood Avenue. Development of Heritage Park, Bassett Creek Valley and the Van White Boulevard is going to affect Harrison more than Bryn Mawr, since Harrison properties are so undervalued. The BCV is going to be a prime residential opportunity since it will be located within easy walking distance to downtown Minneapolis
- My wish is for the Southwest Metro LRT line, even if it scheduled as only the 3rd or 4th in a list of LRT lines
- I don’t think that LRT will affect traffic/transportation congestion. There is not sufficient support for transit and transportation. What will the region and the state do to improve traffic and transportation for the region. From what I’ve heard, it will be more than 25 years before a third lane will be added to highway 100 between I-394 and 36th Avenue North. Traffic on Highway 169 is at a standstill. Congestion is not unique to Bryn Mawr. What to do – adding lanes, charging tolls?
- Reducing traffic from Penn Avenue and exiting from I-394
- What effects will the HOV lanes have on traffic bottlenecks?
- Crime! Security! I’ve heard of more crime and crime alerts in the last six months than over the last 2-1/2 years.
- Housing cost issues – a lot can’t afford housing. I don’t know what to do about it. Maybe young couples will have to double up.
- Replace full size buses (on Penn Avenue and on Cedar Lake Road) with smaller buses during the evenings and non-rush hours during the day
One service, project, program or thing that BMNA could provide:
- Already, I see much that is provided here that isn’t provided elsewhere, so that’s a tough question.
- Address crime
- In the long term, as streets are rebuilt, bury overhead utilities instead of pruning and trashing our street trees
- Address the school issues
- So many of these issues are larger than what BMNA can address; so BMNA could improve on the system to identify and connecting with new residents. Concentrate on building connections – welcome wagons, get you know you parties. Lacking the involvement of new residents, the strength of the BMNA goes down.
- Continue downtown Bryn Mawr business improvements lighting, sidewalk improvements, plantings and little gardens everywhere – the little things make the neighborhood desirable
What types of
housing programs should BMNA provide?
- Grants to help folks fix up their housing – maybe expand eligibility to garages as well //
- Continued oversight of who receives financial assistance. It’s not necessary to give funds to those that could afford to make improvements but have chosen not to do so.//
- Address code-related deficiencies
- I don’t feel that there is the need to raise the income level limits for housing program eligibility
- Increase the length of time for continued residency before housing loans are forgiven to ensure serious commitment to neighborhood
- I caution against income or mortgage supplements or a lottery for housing funding – don’t go there – because we are not a collapsing neighborhood.
- A larger issue is to address the future tax base of the city. As important as the issues of crime, education, and congestion are; the city is mortgaged. Debt and pension obligations are eating us alive.
- There is growing resistance to raising public financial support until endemic conditions are solved.