Opinion editor's note: The following article was submitted on behalf of several people who live near Cleveland Avenue in St. Paul or Falcon Heights. Their names are listed at the end of the article.
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For all the grumbling about politicians, the truth is that they're likely to contend with more hard choices in one day than most of us will wrestle with in a year. Case in point: The question of how to redesign St. Paul's Cleveland Avenue on the edge of the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus.
Should the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners remake the relatively quiet two-way street to include two bike lanes, a family bike trail, parking bays and a wider roadway? Among the positives: Federal government money will pay about 80% of this ambitious project. Construction workers will be put to work. There will be a kind of bike lane for anyone on two wheels.
So what's the rub? Those construction workers will fell more than 150 trees to make room for all this asphalt. Many of the trees are over 100 years old. One towering oak sprouted from an acorn 200 years ago, back when James Monroe was president, Florida had just been bought from Spain and Johnny Appleseed was planting orchards out east.
When first presented to the community, the trade-off for the new roadway included clearing 56 trees. More calculations within the county's engineering department led to a near-tripling of the original number, though no one was told about the increase until the construction was about to start in late April.