Funders >
Community Partners >

Board Members >
Policy Resolutions >
Images >

2009 Accomplishments >

Contact Us >

VISION

We envision a green urban pathway that: 

Our Midtown Greenway will feature:

Together we will create a Greenway that improves our lives, our neighborhoods, our region, and the planet.

The Coalition

We’re the grassroots nonprofit organization that advocated for the Midtown Greenway trails to be put in by public agencies.  The Midtown Greenway wouldn’t be here without us.  Selected other accomplishments:

• NO BUSWAY.  Kept a limited stop, rapid busway out of the Greenway by proposing electric streetcars instead.

• NEW ACCESS STAIRWAYS AND FRONT DOORS.  Modified plans for about a dozen developments on land adjacent to the Greenway so they enhance the Greenway instead of wall it in.  For example, the stairway behind the Midtown Sheraton Hotel is the result of our advocacy work, and the Midtown Lofts at Bryant Avenue would be separated from the Greenway by a roadway rather than a public walkway if not for us.

• GRACEFUL NEW TRAIL ENTRANCE RAMP.  Along with Midtown Phillips, successfully advocated for a new trail entrance ramp at 10th Avenue connecting the Greenway to Midtown Exchange, Midtown Phillips, Stewart Park, Anderson Schools, Abbott Northwestern Hospital, and Powderhorn Park.

• SUSTAINABLE GARDENS.  Installed and maintain gardens in the Greenway with volunteer power to showcase native plants, on site water management, and ecological sustainability.  Along with public and private partners and many volunteers, we have also helped planted about 2,000 trees in the Greenway during eight annual arbor day events. 

• OUTREACH.  Engaged hundreds of Hispanic immigrants and Native people via our Green Way to Go program for group walks in the Greenway, resulting in many families now using the Greenway regularly on their own.

• SAFETY.  Organize volunteers to sweep up broken glass daily, maintain communications with police and the City about trail and crime issues, advocate for improvements in traffic control devices at the trail’s at-grade crossings with roadways. 

UPCOMING WORK:

• GREENING the Greenway through volunteer engagement caring for existing plantings and fostering the work of other to install new sustainable plantings.

• PUBLIC ART PROJECTS, including working with a benefactor who envisions the Greenway some day rivaling the Walker sculpture garden as an art destination in Minneapolis. 

• NEW PARKS AND PLAZAS on land adjacent to the Greenway, part of a long-term community vision for more trail entrance ramps, greenspaces, public walkways along the street-level edge of the Greenway’s trench segment, and plazas at future trail transit stations.  These open spaces will improve Greenway access, safety, and aesthetics. 

• GUIDING NEW DEVELOPMENTS on land adjacent to the Greenway so that they front the Greenway rather than hide it behind parking lots or loading docks. 

• STREETCARS in the Greenway alongside the trails, to some day provide a cross-town link connecting the Hiawatha Light Rail Transit line with the future Southwest Corridor Light Rail Transit line as an important part of a growing regional rail system. 

• BRIDGING THE MISSISSIPPI, infrastructure plan still unknown such as using the existing freight rail bridge for the trails to cross the River, or building a new bike/ped bridge instead of or in addition to the existing bridge freight rail bridge.

The Coalition has a seat on its board for each of the 17 neighborhoods along the Lake Street/Midtown Greenway Corridor, and four at-large seats. Currently, there are board seats open for Longfellow, Powderhorn Park, and Central.  Contact soren@midtowngreenway.org if you're interested!

We are funded by individuals like you, and foundations and corporate giving programs.  None of the dollars for trail construction or maintenance pass through our hands.