News

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.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is collecting feedback on its future budget for the state highway network, called the Minnesota State Highway Investment Plan (MnSHIP). This network includes interstates like I-94 and other state highways like Olson Memorial Highway.

Despite a history of community pushback, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) released proposed project options for the Highway 252/I-94 project, all of which either maintain the current highway and its ongoing harms, or expand the highway, increasing concerns of safety, traffic, air pollution, environmental effects, and equity.

Congress for New Urbanism, a national organization that champions walkable urbanism, selected the campaigns to Bring Back 6th and replace the Rethinking I-94 corridor with TwinCitiesBoulevard for the biennial Freeways Without Futures report.

Days before breaking ground, Mayor Jacob Frey and Public Works Director Margaret Anderson-Kelliher dropped a watered-down plan for the Bryant Ave S. reconstruction, undercutting years of community engagement and a previously approved plan that aligns with Minneapolis transportation goals and bicycle and pedestrian safety.

A recently published University of Minnesota Duluth study provides a glimpse of the numerous benefits of urban highway removal. The report estimated that rightsizing just one mile of I-35 in Duluth would cost $50 million but could lead to up to $4.5 billion in economic benefits.

Minnesota State Representative Frank Hornstein and State Senator Scott Dibble may claim to be champions for progressive transportation legislation, but when it comes to the future of I-94, they are blocking progress on a generational opportunity to repair the harms of past racist transportation planning decisions.