Author: Carly Ellefsen

The City of Minneapolis Public Works Department plans to end our partnership in hosting Open Streets Minneapolis, a hallmark of summer for many Minneapolis residents that Our Streets Minneapolis started in 2011. There was no advance discussion of ending the partnership or the future of the event series.

Open Streets Minneapolis, the highly-anticipated event series that closes city streets to motor vehicle traffic, will be on the West Bank this Sunday, August 20, 2023. Cedar Avenue from Washington Avenue to 6th Street South, as well as part of Riverside Avenue, will be closed to car traffic from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. for Minneapolis residents to enjoy neighborhood businesses and safe biking, walking and rolling.

Our Streets Minneapolis is funding independent studies of a boulevard conversion on I-94 as part of the Twin Cities Boulevard campaign, a vision to replace the 7.5-mile stretch of highway between downtown Minneapolis and downtown Saint Paul with a multi-modal boulevard.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) released the Rethinking I-94 project options to the public today in the Policy Advisory Committee meeting. We have been advocating for a boulevard conversion option, or Twin Cities Boulevard, to address the injustice of the history of the highway and improve the living conditions of the Minnesotans who live along the project corridor. 

Despite broad community support and a clearly identified need, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) did not 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.

Open Streets Minneapolis, the highly-anticipated event series that closes city streets to motor vehicle traffic, will kick off the 2023 season this Saturday, June 10, 2023, in Midtown.

Community organizations in the Near North neighborhood of Minneapolis joined together to ask the City of Minneapolis, Vision Zero, and MnDOT to apply for funding to install an asphalt art pilot project at the intersection of Olson Memorial Highway and Van White Boulevard.

Minneapolis City Council Members Robin Wonsley and Jeremiah Ellison are proposing a resolution to address the historic and ongoing harms of Olson Memorial Highway, a notoriously unsafe highway that destroyed a redlined Black and Jewish community when constructed. The City Council will vote on the resolution Thursday, May 11, 2023.

Councilmembers Robin Wonsley and Jeremiah Ellison authored a historic resolution to address the historic and ongoing harms of Olson Memorial Highway, a notoriously unsafe highway that destroyed a Black and Jewish community when constructed and continues to divide and pollute communities.

Our Streets Minneapolis (OSM), the nonprofit advocacy organization advocating for people-first transportation, announced José Antonio Zayas Cabán has been named executive director. OSM works to make streets places where people can easily and comfortably walk, bike, roll, and use public transit in the Twin Cities.