City to meet with MDOT next week over 8th St.
Do you have 8th St. fatigue yet? Well, FYI…sitting through a 2 and half hour city commission meeting to make public comment is not the remedy…
Still, last night’s commission meeting was mainly about the bayfront and it was instructive to sit through the long discussion. Watching passionate public input by citizens proclaiming their identity and their position is powerful (more on that discussion on another day).
The Good News
The 8th Street 2010 Redesign is still on the table. Traverse City has secured a meeting with MDOT head Kirk Steudle on February 25th. Mayor Chris Bzdok and city manager Ben Bifoss will join Senator Jason Allen and Representative Wayne Schmidt in representing the city’s argument. The main argument will be that we need to begin implementing the Master Plan, the Grand Vision and 30 years of citizen input today, not in the distant future.
Letters of support and encouragement from the neighborhoods will help the city in the negotiations. Let’s keep it positive, brief and focused on some basics to ensure we’re effective–Read: focus on the $$$$$
An approach to 8th St. in 2010 that focuses on livability and all modes of transportation, is important because:
- It’s the economic development strategy of the future.
- It’s a neighborhood street in dire need of street calming to encourage mixed-use developments–focusing on small, locally owned neighborhood businesses.
- 8th St cannot compete with S. Airport for traffic-based customers.
- It’s been identified as a corridor of significance by the Grand Vision for all modes of transportation.
- Traverse City needs to continue to do all it can to increase home values and tax revenues in all the neighborhoods. Walkable communities are a significant means to this end.
- Local businesses along 8th Street are likely not to accept another road construction project in the coming years to satisfy a retrofit. We have the money now, the city wants to do it right the first time.
- Traverse City remains a model of success in the state. Let’s keep the success going.
The crux of the matter as far as the state is concerned, is that in the current state of the economy, we can’t risk to lose limited capital improvement funds and we can’t risk the opportunity to invest in infrastructure that will improve the economy of the future.
Mayor Bzdok is signing his emails as “Eternally optimistic and grateful“, so let’s support him and keep the positivity flowing.
Send Emails to: MDOT executive director Kirk Steudle, MDOT Regional manager Rise Rasch, Senator Jason Allen, Representative Wayne Schmidt, city manager Ben Bifoss, and Mayor Chris Bzdok.
steudlek@michigan.gov, raschr@michigan.gov, wayneschmidt@house.mi.gov, senjallen@senate.michigan.gov, bbifoss@traversecitymi.gov, chris@envlaw.com
And if you know any of these people, take them out for a beer.
Please consider sharing your letters here under comments.
NOTE: The offer of direct and individual support for the commissioners was publicly reinforced last night. They aren’t used to receiving positive offers of support (people only contact them when a negative arises) so let’s keep offering our assistance. We are a talented community–let’s put it to work.
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