Barlow St. moves towards being a complete street
We’re getting there.
Monday night the city commission voted to move ahead with the 2010 resurfacing projects. The accepted bid actually came in $250,000 or so under the estimates; just enough to pay for the estimated cost to complete the street along Barlow St.
What that complete Barlow St. will look like will be designed this year to be included in the 2011 projects. After Monday night’s meeting, it’s safe to say that it will include sidewalks. The work of an invigorated planning commission and some key public input over the last month has shifted a perceived general indifference by the city commission as a whole. No longer on the table, it appears, are half measures and penny-pinching when it comes to some of our traditionally under-served neighborhoods.
The new infrastructure policy passed in 2009 (PDF) calls for improvements and the completing of streets for all users. Originally, Barlow St. was going to simply be re-paved. By pulling Barlow St. out of the 2010 projects the city will be able to redesign it to be a complete street.
What was very significant Monday night was the public comments by Lynn Morton and two residents of the Community Living Center on Barlow St. These are the residents that the city needs to be considering on all of their public-right-of-way projects. The 30 plus residents at this center depend on walking or public transit as their connection to the community. They deserve safe, comfortable, and convenient access ALL OVER the city, but starting outside their front door is a great start.
We’re moving in the right direction. Apparently, city commissioners are listening. Commissioner Mike Gillman made an encouraging comment to that affect Monday night just before the vote to accept the 2010 projects.
Let’s hold him, the commission and the city staff to it.
Commissioner Gillman: “People come here thinking public comment doesn’t have anything to do with the results of the commission. I came here almost two weeks ago pretty much agnostic as regards to sidewalks on Barlow St. Between the cumulative effect of the input here today and the input last week I’ve become a believer that the next time around we probably have to put sidewalks on Barlow,” he said.
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It is great to see more flexibility and consideration for the design of our public ROW
OK, we haven’t won yet. It’s just the most hope I’ve seen for resolving this issue correctly (i.e., let’s do our street repairs in a forward-thinking mode). The bad part of this is that the project is delayed until next year. The good thing is that it should be at the top of the priority list for next year’s infrastructure. The question I continue to ask is, “If not now, when?”