In 2023, we asked the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) to apply for a Bloomberg Philanthropies asphalt art grant for the Olson Memorial Highway & Van White Boulevard intersection. Although the City of Minneapolis expressed support for asphalt art on Olson, because MnDOT owns the right-of-way, MnDOT needed to approve the project. They failed to apply in time.
In November of 2024, along with community partners, we asked the agency to again consider applying for the grant—this time with even more ample time for consideration, as the deadline was January 31, 2025. Once again, the agency left free money on the table, demonstrating their disorganization and indifference to the ongoing safety issues along Olson Memorial Highway.
After careful consideration, we determined that MnDOT was unable to apply for the grant at present. We are currently awaiting guidance from our Central Office staff, who are in the process of developing a technical memo that would inform how MnDOT designs, installs, and maintains aesthetic pavement surface treatments. This memo is also expected to outline the processes we need to have in place to ensure that any aesthetic pavement surface treatment projects we undertake are designed to accommodate all users of the roadway, including pedestrians with disabilities. Once we have this guidance, we will be better positioned to consider such requests on MnDOT roadways. In addition to the technical memo there are several active research efforts with MnDOT and local partner involvement exploring surface treatments. This is an actively evolving topic with great interest.
Translation: We are disorganized, possess no urgency in addressing the safety concerns brought to us by community for years, and it is taking us years to create a guidance document to allow us to access free money to save lives in Near North Minneapolis.
While this is a setback, we will not stop fighting to improve safety in Near North Minneapolis.
Learn More
Learn about the history of Old 6th Avenue in Near North Minneapolis and the campaign to Bring Back 6th.