Promoting bike use in Minneapolis: Boondoggle or health boon?

With hundreds of thousands of dollars in bike facilities pending for north Minneapolis, plus a media campaign to promote them, some outspoken resistance on the City Council is coming from surprising sources.

They are two of the three members representing the North Side -- Council President Barbara Johnson and colleague Diane Hofstede.

They've questioned the usefulness of using $200,000 in federal stimulus dollars for a media campaign intended to get North Siders aware of planned improvements so they start walking and biking more.

Johnson called the proposed campaign "outrageous" when it first reached the council committee on which she and Hofstede sit. "My citizens would object mightily," Johnson said. The North Side needs bike facilities, not PR, she said, adding: "We are so far behind the rest of the city."

But city health officials say they want to target the North Side with a campaign precisely to promote pending projects that can help the North Side catch up. Among them is a proposed bike-walk center, a planned expansion of the Nice Ride bike-sharing program into the area next year, and 5.2 miles of paired bike lanes to be built next year along Fremont and Emerson avenues between downtown and 33rd Av. N.

The bike-walk center, which also has run into skeptical questions from Johnson and Hofstede, would be in recently developed retail space at the Penn and Lowry avenues north intersection. It would sell new and used bikes and accessories as well as coffee and food. It also would offer programs to encourage walking and biking.

The bike center proposal came from the Cultural Wellness Center, a nonprofit that has used cultural strategies to try to improve people's health in lower-income areas. The proposal survived a competitive city process.

City health officials want to use $350,000 in stimulus money to subsidize the center's startup. That set off Johnson, who noted that coffee shop chains have bypassed the North Side and questioned whether federal money should fund competition for owners of four small coffee shops there.

Health officials said the food and coffee sales would help cash flow during slower seasons for biking and walking. Hofstede also was skeptical. "The longer we talk, the more questions I have about a number of issues we've had, especially the viability of this business," she said.

Health officials said funds for the center and the public relations campaign would come out of $2.2 million in federal stimulus funds granted the city through the state. They'll also fund various strategies to fight obesity by promoting better access to healthful food and more physical activity.

Plans call for creating safe walking routes to 10 schools, adding signs to guide bikers and walkers in five neighborhoods and subsidizing the purchase of fruit and vegetables at farmers markets. The North Side leads the city in share of overweight people, according to city data.

The health initiative includes $457,000 in federal money for a media campaign separate from the North Side-specific media proposal. The broader campaign is part of a state-led PR effort that may spend up to $1.3 million. It aims to convince city residents that they live in a "healthy vibrant place" and persuade them to be active to sustain healthy change.

For now, the North Side bike-walk media campaign is headed for Friday's council meeting, the bike-walk center remains stuck in committee, and the proposal for the larger media campaign was sent to the council without committee backing.