Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Midtown Greenway and where is it?
The Midtown Greenway is located parallel to Lake Street and one block north of Lake Street. It goes under Hennepin Avenue and the Transit Station in Uptown, and behind the Sheraton Hotel at Midtown Exchange (the old Sears building on East Lake St.). East of Hiawatha it runs along 27th Street.
It is down in a 20 foot deep gorge for about half its distance across Minneapolis (roughly between Hennepin and Cedar Avenues). The trails pass underneath bridges carrying city streets overhead so bicyclists may travel nonstop. It is above grade from 31st Avenue to the Mississippi River and west of Uptown. The bikeway has seven-foot-wide lanes for each direction of travel and a separate six-foot wide lane for walking. These trails are lit at night, plowed in the winter, and open 24 hours a day, and 365 days per year. The third and final segment (from Hiawatha Avenue to the River) is expected to open in late 2006.
The Midtown Greenway is much more than a bikeway and walking path. At a 1994 visioning conference, the vision for the Greenway expanded to include: TRANSPORTATION, RECREATION, GREEN SPACE, PUBLIC ART, and spin-off benefits of ECONOMIC / COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, HOUSING REVITALIZATION.
How many people use the Greenway?
Manual Counts (Summer 2007):
2680 per day at Humboldt in June 2007
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2235 per day just east of Hiawatha in June 2007
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1031 per day at West River Road in June 2007
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4485 in one day on the 4th of July 2007!
Detector Loop Counts (November 2006-March 2008) (36.2 KB pdf)
*Please note that error rates for the detector loops have not yet been determined.
Who is responsible for the Midtown Greenway?
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Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority owns the corridor west of Hiawatha, east of Hiawatha they own the southern 35’ of the corridor as far east as the Mississippi River.
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City of Minneapolis maintains the cycling and walking paths.
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The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board does not currently have any ownership or maintenance roles related to the Midtown Greenway.
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Midtown Greenway Coalition is a grassroots group that advocated for the trails to be constructed and we represent community interests related to corridor improvements and community involvement.
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Midtown Community Works (government and corporations) promotes development nearby.
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Trail paid for mostly with Federal and Hennepin County money, with lesser amounts coming from City of Mpls., the State of MN, and selected neighborhoods.
Midtown Greenway Capital Costs & Funding Sources as of Sept. 2007 (26.3 KB pdf)
What’s up with freight trains, busses, trolleys, and LRT through the Midtown Greenway?
The long term plan west of Hiawatha Avenue is for the cycling and walking paths to co-exist alongside mass transit in the corridor. This concept started to change in 1999 when the Hennepin County and the Metropolitan Council commissioned a study to assess the feasibility of a limited-stop rapid busway in the corridor. Since that time, community opposition to the busway idea resulted in more options being explored.
The Midtown Greenway Coalition prefers a rail transit because there wouldn’t have to be a roadway for busses built in the corridor. The trains could run on rails that are imbedded in grass or other live turf, keeping the Greenway green and absorbing rather than reflecting water, sound, and heat. Studies have determined that streetcars are technically and economically feasible for the Midtown Greenway and would meet the demand for a serious mass transit line. Streetcars would be frequent and speedy.
The Coalition advocates for what we call the Network Alignment. This includes a streetcar in the Greenway that connects to the Hiawatha line on the east, and the future SW corridor from downtown to Eden Prairie, on the west.
Through Seward and Longfellow, from Hiawatha Avenue to the Mississippi River, Canadian Pacific still owns the northern portion of the corridor. The cycling and walking paths will co-exist with freight rail through this eastern segment of the Midtown Greenway.
Who is the Midtown Greenway Coalition (the Coalition)?
Grass roots, nonprofit, represents you, mission: We empower communities to develop, improve, protect, and enjoy the Midtown Greenway as a green urban pathway to improve people’s lives.
None of the dollars for trail construction pass through the hands of the Coalition. We raise our own funds for our community involvement and advocacy work. The Midtown Greenway Coalition operates on donations from individuals, businesses, foundations, corporate giving programs, neighborhoods, and others. The board of directors has one representative from each of the 16 neighborhoods along Lake St.
Our main programs areas are:
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Greenspace Planning
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Public Art Projects
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Pursuit of new parks and plazas along the Greenway (overlaps w/ programs listed above)
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Rail transit advocacy for the Greenway
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General information and outreach.
Trail construction completion dates:
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West end I year 2000 (Lakes, Uptown),
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Middle 2005 (Midtown, rough between 35W and Hiawatha),
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East end 2006 (River)
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Bridge over Hiawatha, November 2007
What about crime, how is the Greenway made safe?
The most important safety strategy is for lots of people to use the Greenway for biking, walking, running, etc, and people who live nearby taking ownership and pride through artwork, clean-ups, gardens, patrolling, and group activities in the Greenway. Other crime prevention strategies in effect here: structures and vegetation designed for openness with no hiding places, good lighting, police patrolling in cars and on bikes, call phones, security cameras. All these measures are in place. The cameras in Phase I of the Greenway feed images to a monitor at the Precinct 5 Police Station on 31st and Nicollet. Cameras in Phase II feed images to a monitor at Precinct 3 at East Lake Street and Minnehaha Avenue.
What about the Bridge over the River
Mississippi River xing—because the bridge over the River is structurally unsound there are now three choices:
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Wait for the freight rail to go away and seek to build a new Greenway bridge along its alignment.
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Hope for (advocate for?) the RR to replace the current unsafe bridge with a new RR bridge that would also accommodate the Greenway’s cycling and walking trails.
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Push for a new Greenway bridge alongside the existing RR bridge.
For more information, call the Midtown Greenway Coalition at 612 879-0103. |
