Street construction in St. Paul is building a concrete island on Fairview Street between Montreal and Randolph Streets. Probably between Edgcumbe Road and Randolph. It’s hard to say. The Fairview project seems to have been in the works since about his 1956, but it has been difficult to grasp what his vision was.
My friends may be working hard in other parts of the city as well. Islands may become the new fad.
The islands appear to have just enough architectural impact to remind motorists that they are unnecessary. Perhaps they are meant to be calming. We seem to be choosing people who, even if they own a car, do so reluctantly and who believe that driving is an uneasy and dangerous activity. So they hustle through perfectly laid out streets and, in an attempt to soothe the mind, induce more crashes, add more bike lanes and islands, and build things that only raise blood pressure.
Perhaps this island is intended to be a sanctuary for pedestrians. Perhaps pedestrians are supposed to cross the road in two stages. You will arrive at the island. hang on. Let’s do the rest.
Meanwhile, drivers who were previously able to cross Fairview and stay on the same street must now turn around, find an opening without an island, do some additional driving, and restart their trip.
No, but they just hate internal combustion engines and have thoroughly demonized them. I recently received an email saying that St. Paul will be hosting a sustainability celebration on November 13th at 6pm at Dual Citizen Brewery on Raymond Avenue. City Councilor Mitra Jalali is the featured guest. Directions to the brewery were provided for those attending by bike, bus, or light rail.
However, it’s not a car. This cold treatment must have been intentional.
I think driving to a sustainability festival is like wearing white socks with a suit. you will stand out. Well, the bike season is coming to an end. And buses and trains use large amounts of fossil fuels. Somehow it is allowed by our collectivist directors. The event will conclude with an “important announcement.” we can only imagine.
Most of the people I know have lived in St. Paul all their lives, maintaining cars, fixing houses, mowing grass, and shoveling snow from sidewalks. And these same people, taxpayers, want the City Council to stay true to the basics of running a city government and stop dreaming of ways to change our lives. For example, they just created new zoning regulations that actually frown on single-family housing in favor of cramming as many people as possible into one city block.
I imagine that if we all started living as renters in triplexes, boarding houses, and apartment buildings, public transportation would become unavoidable and we would succeed in giving up our personal cars.
Needing or wanting a car should not lead to a recommendation. And we learn to live with the island. At this rate, streets will be designed to look like miniature golf courses. To get to the island you have to drive through the windmills.
Joe Soucheray’s email address is jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com. Listen to Soucheray’s “Garage Logic” podcast at garagelogic.com.