Bryn Mawr NRP Phase II Planning

Area 6 Focus Group

Thursday, March 10, 7-8:30 PM

In addition to Judy Remington, facilitator, and Greg Lecker, note taker; attendees include: Dick Heglund. Additional included comments were received by e-mail from Dick Adair and Karin C_______ since the last reported minutes. Other comments were contributed in phone messages by Michael Martens. Area 6 is the area bounded, moving clockwise from the north, by Chestnut Avenue, Sheridan Avenue, Laurel Avenue, Thomas Avenue, I-394, Theodore Wirth Park, Bryn Mawr Elementary School, and Upton Avenue. Formatting note: the number of “/” following a comment indicates the level consensus of respondents – the number of similar comments.

Neighborhood strengths:

- Location

- A bunch of people who are active

- Variety of housing, some of it old

- A city strength – the new 311 system: council persons shouldn’t be dealing with petty issues!

Neighborhood weaknesses:

- A feeling of “let George do it”; and folks who oppose any change; those who will show up for an issue but not to be involved otherwise, varying and dropping levels of volunteerism

- People used to discuss issues constructively. Now people just oppose any change. Do we have the people to take the people in a forward direction?

- A lot of the older folks are dying off; moving away. We used to be a younger group of neighbors on my street.

What issues are important or will be important in the future?

- I wonder about the continued survival of some of the downtown Bryn Mawr businesses

- Where else does one see uncovered food, besides the Bryn Mawr Market – baked goods uncovered!

- Support for sale of individual cigarettes; contributing to new smokers/addiction

- Gas station looks better; but I am suspicious of some of the questionable folks there – repairs that wrecked a vehicle tire

- Don’t know that businesses like the chiropractor and the upholstery business contribute to the neighborhood.

- Don’t know that we need more drycleaning services

- It’s nice that the commercial business district is being spruced up; but are all businesses contributing to the overall improvements of Downtown Bryn Mawr?

- Concern about the meth lab that was discovered at the building at the corner of Cedar Lake Road and Oliver Avenue (spaces under Bryn Mawr Coffee Shop). Concern about this condition impeding the building sale.

- Odd land use conditions and the lack of separation between homes and businesses

- We have parks up the “wazoo” and still people want more parkland!

- Can we interest CPED (formerly MCDA) in housing development, for seniors for example, perhaps at the four lots on Xerxes Avenue or elsewhere. Other people are being selfish – wanting only 2 houses to remain on four lots

- Continued gentrification of Bryn Mawr – because some of the homes are too small and too poorly built

- People are paying inflated home prices and demanding greater and greater services from the City.

- A study was completed that suggested reorganizing the City but campaign promises to reorganize the City have not been kept. Maybe we do need a stronger mayoral system and less alderman/council persons.

- Traffic – Yes, Penn Avenue is busy, inasmuch as it is a freeway exit from I-394; but Penn Avenue is not as busy as I was afraid that it would have become. There are about four to five cars, rather than a whole block’s worth of cars, lined up for a traffic light stop.

- The Bassett Creek Valley development is going to be market driven, not encouraged by City funding.

- There are other development sites around the neighborhood like Qwest and the South Frontage Road land.

- Our shade trees are suffering decline, primarily due to poor choice of trees – for example, Norway Maples that retain leaves too late in the season. I question boulevard gardens that impede exiting from parked cars – maybe there ought to be an 18” free space to allow exiting.

- Crime impacts now that we will be seeing less police presence than we were accustomed to – we don’t have beat cops like we did when I was young. We are very vulnerable. Those with the power are taking the City in the wrong direction

- We have schools that have sprouted up all over the place and now changing demographics are going to affect the schools that do remain. But we as a City (City of Minneapolis vs. Minneapolis Public Schools, a separate agency) don’t run the schools.

- Ongoing street maintenance and infrastructure is important. It’s nice that the water sewer lining and the large Cedar Lake Road storm sewer replacement projects have been completed; but the neighborhood isn’t being kept in the information pipeline.

- The Metro Transit bus service: some want more service; others don’t want buses on their streets. It’s difficult to take the bus to suburban jobs – I tried once. It took 2-1/2 hours to commute to Anoka!

- Keeping the Bryn Mawr housing stock in good repair should be the #1 priority of phase 2. For several reasons, Bryn Mawr is in danger of becoming unaffordable for many of the folks who make this a great place to live--the young, the old, the funky. the non-wealthy. In a previous incarnation I lived in Tyrol Hills in Golden Valley, a bedroom community for doctors, lawyers, professors, business execs. Bryn Mawr is much more fun. I think many homeowners need help with repairs, sagging garages, etc. and the best investment we can think of is to keep the folks without the big checking accounts here.

- Next to housing (the #1 priority of Phase 2), a distant second priority is the wasted opportunity on the Northwest corner of Penn and Cedar Lake Road. What kind of help would convince Paul to do something with this mess?

- I would prefer not to have the only driveway for the Fruen Mill development empty onto Hawthorne. Onto Glenwood would be better, either instead of or in addition to Hawthorne - otherwise the traffic getting out to Penn will be horrendous.

- Watershed management ideas for our low-lying area. One thought is to encourage neighbors to replace the sidewalk boulevards with rain gardens, or to have a rain garden workshop in the neighborhood. I also saw on the internet that the Green Institute had a rain barrel workshop for folks in the Phillips neighborhood, which might be a way we could contribute to the health of Bassett's Creek.

- Anwatin Woods development. Because the land is in Area 7, it's been treated as an Area 7 issue - but if it happens a number of us in Area 6 will be affected, both because we're on the border and because water flows downhill. Just to register it as an Area 6 concern. Hire a consultant to study what needs to be done in the Anwatin Woods area to address the water issues of those residents on Upton Avenue //

- And study what would need to be done during home construction/development in Anwatin Woods to avoid compounding water problems of Upton Avenue homes located north of Bryn Mawr Elementary school

- Grinding out the elm stumps when the dead trees are removed... it seems to be taking the City years, and nothing can be planted in the meanwhile. //

- A more Bryn-Mawr-wide issue... frankly, I wish we had a means of communication that was faster than the Bugle, and more user-friendly and reliable than the email lists. Any chance the BMNA website could have an online bulletin board or e-group for quick dissemination of information?

One service, project, program or thing that BMNA could provide:

- See above comments

What types of housing programs should BMNA provide?

- Help those without the resources to maintain the housing stock in good repair

- Is it fair to fund housing improvements of $5,000 to $10,000 while at the same time property values are appreciating at such a high rate?

- We don’t have the Phase II resources to develop housing

- The Phase I housing program was a nice program but it didn’t benefit me. It’s not fair to disfavor a person just because one has a better pension program that one shouldn’t benefit.

- Send the money back and buy cops. The police could get out and talk with the people more. Nuisance crime is affecting the quality of life.

- We are not a poor neighborhood – the poor can’t afford to move in and the older people are moving out. Don’t know how to distribute the housing program funds in a way that is fair. Even with the low interest rates that we’ve been experiencing, some are not going to be able to purchase a house.

- The problem with rental housing is that the renters don’t care about the neighborhood. Rather, they are just interested in a place to live.

- We can’t exclude buyers who can afford to buy into the neighborhood – that’s social engineering

- A housing assistance program is not needed for $140,000 houses that are now selling for $240,000.

- A housing assistance program is not needed unless applicants are handicapped (physically handicapped or mentally challenged), if they are really disadvantaged