Twin Cities Boulevard Supporters Swarm MnDOT at Public Meeting

Over one hundred Twin Cities Boulevard campaign supporters attended the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s (MnDOT) public meeting at the Wilder Foundation in Saint Paul on Thursday, November 6. Supporters rallied outside the meeting with speakers and protest signs before entering the building and delivering a community petition with almost 3,000 signatures, asking the agency to restore the at-grade (compatible with a boulevard) option. Community members slowly handed the project team pages and pages of signatures as they made their way through the open house.

Supporter engages Renee Raduenz of MnDOT, who is holding pages of delivered petition signatures.

Some of the supporters with protest signs outside the Wilder Foundation building.

People in high-visibility vests and one in a bike helmet viewing the easels at the meeting.

Mark Lindeberg of MnDOT engaging community members, visibly frustrated.

Crowded room filled with people in high-visibilty vests and helmet

The meeting was open house style, with easels showing the project options.

MnDOT made the official recommendation to remove these options earlier this year, despite immense community pushback and popularity of the innovative option. The Twin Cities Boulevard coalition organized the “Better than 94: Rally to Restore” event in protest.

“We’re asking MnDOT to simply continue considering the at-grade boulevard for the next phase of the Rethinking I-94 process,” says Mateo Frumholtz, a supporter who analyzed the MnDOT community survey responses through a FOIA data request and found the agency had greatly minimized the support for the at-grade options. “People think we are naive for thinking we can get rid of a highway, but it’s even more naive to think we can get by without getting rid of it. This highway symbolizes that literal impasse between today and a more resilient and sustainable future.”

MnDOT hosted these community meetings in advance of their 60-day public comment period. If this rally is any indication, that period will likely be fraught with opposition to advancing the project without first exploring alternatives that do not involve rebuilding the highway.

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