The intersection of Hennepin and Lyndale Avenues S. in Minneapolis, known as "the Bottleneck," has so many problems it is hard to keep track.
The Bottleneck is inhospitable to pedestrians and cyclists. This is particularly unfortunate because it severs the two most walkable areas of the city: downtown and Uptown.
The Bottleneck also detracts from one of our region's great cultural institutions, the Walker Art Center, by filling one of the museum's main entrances with the exhaust and cacophony of nine (and a few feet south, 11!) lanes of traffic.
Finally, it is a blown opportunity for a grand gateway into downtown Minneapolis.
The city is currently planning small-scale redesigns of the Bottleneck — the city will present initial proposals at an Aug. 4 public meeting at the Walker. According to the project's Web page, the city is proposing using about $9 million to "improve pedestrian and bicycle crossing[s] … rebuild traffic signal[s]" and reconstruct curbs, striping, and the like.
Small-scale and on-the-cheap fixes are a bad idea. They end up as excuses for inaction later. After a small fix, logic holds that area problems have been solved and that other projects now deserve attention. It is like buying a mediocre vacuum cleaner: Your couch may retain some dog hair after cleaning, but you keep using the vacuum because, well, you just purchased a new vacuum and you want to spend your remaining money on something else (or maybe you don't want to own up to making a bad purchase).
If Minneapolis spends $9 million now on mediocre fixes to the Bottleneck, it is unlikely to further improve the area for a long, long time. Calls to action from concerned community members label this a "once-in-50-year opportunity."
The city should hold off on any significant work on the Bottleneck until it can secure funds to do it right. Yes, the area is in desperate need of some resurfacing, but the city should use this as impetus to secure requisite funding quickly, not as an excuse to do a partial job.
