Transcripts

SPEAKER 1: It is allowed two things. One, is it's allowed us a farther range of choices-- places to work and places to live. I think that's been one of the benefits of it-- ability to not just have only one place to work and one place to live. The other side of it, it is the way they have been designed and constructed, they've divided up a neighborhoods and sectioned and quartered our cities, in some cases very severely.

It has also facilitated, very easy to escape route for people to quickly abandon the town when it became a little bit difficult to deal with. They could easily slip outside the city and live farther out. And because traffic congestion, and it's easy to drive around in this town, they can live 25 minutes away and live quite far outside of town. So they can really avoid a lot of the issues that they should be paying attention to in the city.

SPEAKER 2: But at the same time, once they're out there, it also makes it easier for those people to get back into town to shop and so on, does it not?

SPEAKER 1: Yeah, that's true. But I think what they're beginning to see in the demography, is they begin to look elsewhere for their shopping needs. They may still come to work here because their job might be in the [INAUDIBLE] Bank or IDS or that, but I think what they tend to do is start spending their dollars in and around where they live, where we always do.

We always try to shop in and around our neighborhood or in and around the areas of neighborhoods that we'd like to be in. So they begin to start shopping in those Burnsville Center or Rosedale or Ridgedale, and then will come downtown more occasionally on special events.

SPEAKER 2: Let me ask you this. Is there any way to repair the damage to the neighborhoods that was done initially with the first interstates that were built?

SPEAKER 1: Well, I think if you look at Minneapolis, I think the Phillips Neighborhood through the NRP process is trying to sit down and look at itself and how to reorganize itself. It's probably the first time it's done it since it got divided.

And they're focusing on the important arterioles of [? Lake and ?] Franklin as a basis for their new structure as they reorient themselves. These roads are more than just roads. They are vital. They are vital community linkages. Yes, they are. But they are also things that they are a part of the physical fabric.

And the issue of moving cars is just part of the issue, the economic, social, and physical impact to the quality of the neighborhoods. We have a really great fabric in both our major cities is the neighborhoods come right into the center of the city. And we've got to hold on to that.

They are not cities in our league, the 25 or so cities which are our size have deteriorated neighborhoods in and around downtown. We don't. We have good strong neighborhoods. And we can't keep cutting away at them with more larger infrastructure just to serve the use of the wealth of downtown.

We have to focus on the commonwealth of the neighborhoods in and around it too, because it's symbiotically related.

SPEAKER 2: Freeway construction around the capital and around Spaghetti junction in Saint Paul seems to be unusually pretty, if nothing else, as these things go. Is that an example of a freeway construction project that is being properly handled?

SPEAKER 1: Yeah. It does acknowledge that the freeway is an important neighbor to the people next door-- the state capital and the city. What's important with that and 35E is a good example. You know where you are. You're a better driver when you drive-through there, especially when it's finished.

But you know where you are, and you take note, and you pay attention to where you are. On 35E, you know you're driving through the neighborhoods of Saint Paul. Those are important things. We live next to them, and the value of your house is based upon what you live next to it.

A sound wall, a great big wooden sound wall and a tree is not something that is a positive move. But a space that you feel comfortable driving in and walking around is something that you feel a little more positive about.

SPEAKER 2: So there is a way to live with interstates if it's done properly?

SPEAKER 1: Yes.

SPEAKER 2: OK.

SPEAKER 1: Yes, because it's related to transportation planning and the notion of living on streets. We live on these streets. And it's like Summit Avenue. That's a great street. It moves a lot of traffic, but it still holds its value. There's a functional balance there that we have to achieve.