By John McArdle & Colleen Lund
My partner and I have owned and operated ZRS Fossils and Gifts on Lyndale Avenue for 20 years. We have survived the economic collapse of 2008, the covid crises and the riots following the murder of George Floyd. Now a group of vocal, well-funded bicycle zealots are trying to force Hennepin County to make decisions on road construction that will quite likely destroy everything we and our fellow merchants along the Lyndale Avenue South business corridor have accomplished.
Let’s start with a simple but overlooked fact. Cars are not the enemy of the environment. The internal combustion engine is the problem. So why don’t the bike lane lobbyists work to promote more efficient and frequent use of electric vehicles? They have never provided a coherent answer to that question. The US National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization stresses deploying zero-emission vehicles and fuels for cars and commercial trucks, transit vehicles, boats, airplanes and others. It does not mention the elimination of on-street parking in favor of dedicated bike lanes.
Having been academically trained in the hard sciences, I know how to look at and interpret data, identify biases, and recognize when people are “cooking” their study results to make inappropriate conclusions. I have made it a point to read every available publication routinely cited in support of street parking removal to add protected bike lanes, as a benefit to local small businesses. Despite biking lobby mantras to the contrary, in every case the conclusions in those studies are either biased, incomplete, misinterpreted or outright fabricated. There are not “studies after studies after studies” to support small business benefits from conversion of street parking to bike lanes.
For example, Move Minnesota frequently cites Toronto businesses experiencing the benefits of such conversions. They failed to mention, however, that in this case the elimination of parking was seasonal; on-street parking was retained on one side of the street; off-street parking was added; loading/unloading zones were created; local businesses conducted their own survey of the negative impacts that were ignored in the final report; and the authors admitted their own subjective bias by stating the results before the study actually began.
Minneapolis is not remotely similar to cities like New York, Dublin or Amsterdam. They all have dense populations and first-class, extensive public transportation. In those cases owning and using an automobile is extremely expensive and unnecessary.
If dedicated bike lanes were successful at promoting alternative forms of transportation and no threat to local business, why are cities across the US now removing bike lanes and reinstalling on-street parking? Perhaps Hennepin County should pay attention to such decisions in cities like Houston, Toronto, San Mateo, Pasadena, Beverly Hills, Denver, Washington DC, Baltimore, and San Francisco. Do they know something that Minneapolis does not?
There are already two test cases on what will happen to South Lyndale Avenue if the biking organizations who wish to eliminate street parking in lieu of additional dedicated bike lanes get their way. Simply put, between reconstruction and elimination of street parking, both Hennepin and Bryant Avenue retail corridors have been economically eviscerated, with the former having remarkably high vacancy rates for small businesses and the latter leaving many homeowners unable to park next to their residences.
Guse Hardware on Bryant – a 20- year-old business, has seen sales drop 20% due to the reconstruction. The Uptown Association and its members cite the removal of parking as directly responsible for the exodus of long-time merchants, as well as numerous small businesses. Just drive down Hennepin Avenue and count the empty store fronts.
The Minneapolis City Council and Department of Public Works aggressively ignored the concerns and suggestions of the businesses on Hennepin Avenue and the residents on Bryant Avenue. Perhaps the final coup de grâce was the lethargic pace of physical street construction. Hopefully, Hennepin County will learn from the grave mistakes made by Minneapolis and not kill another, currently vibrant retail corridor.
The bike organizations who clearly lobby for street parking removal and openly focus on making driving to local small businesses more difficult apparently intend to destroy every major retail corridor in Minneapolis via their hidden agenda to create 15-minute cities. Google the details – you may be surprised.
Although they couch their discussion in terms of improved safety, there is this hidden agenda. One representative of the Minneapolis Public Works Department stated that roadways and cars should be a secondary concern. Automobiles are a necessary evil, but bikers should have primary consideration. In contrast, several academic studies have shown that dedicated bike lanes are actually more dangerous than open streets. Up to 400% more dangerous.
Street parking is critical for business success. At ZRS, 94% of our more than 7,000 regular customers within our database arrive from distances outside of the Uptown area. These people are not going to ride bikes to make purchases and patronize restaurants. This is particularly true for families, the elderly and disabled people. As someone recently noted, “not everyone is a healthy 25-year-old with a $2,000 bike.”
Everyone is in favor of increased traffic safety and there are multiple ways to accomplish this on Lyndale Avenue – the most recent 4-to-3 lane conversion by Hennepin County was a big success – improving crosswalk visibility with prominent striping, hazard strips and Rectangular Rapid Flashing and HAWK Beacons, additional street lighting (especially at intersections) at sidewalk level, increased police presence, signal monitoring systems, red-light traffic camera monitoring – all would be a productive improvement. But removing street parking would only add to additional traffic problems and safety concerns – excessive intersection backups, illegal parking in traffic lanes creating increased vehicle diversion into opposing traffic, increased accidents, vehicles circling for blocks looking for parking spaces while adding congestion and emitting additional carbon, and overall increase driver frustrations. It doesn’t make sense to focus on the addition of dedicated bike lanes on Lyndale from a safety perspective when this highway already sees heavier traffic than neighboring streets. Lyndale Avenue South is a main county thoroughfare for vehicles enabling the movement of people from near and far seeking goods, food, drink, entertainment and services from our businesses and beyond via the safety, privacy, comfort, security and physical of a vehicle throughout the frigid days of winter as well as the summer heat waves and serious air quality alerts experienced in recent years. We NEED this higher-volume street focused on primarily serving the vast majority of Minnesota’s population who drive – not a dedicated bike lane on every-other street to service a small fraction of local cyclists.
Do we really want to economically destroy the Lyndale Avenue South small business community to provide specialized transportation for less than 10% of the local population? (The US Census estimates that only 5% of Minneapolis residents commute by bicycle.) Concerning Lyndale Avenue, this risk seems especially egregious when one considers that taxpayer dollars only recently paid $28 million for a system of dedicated bike lanes only two short blocks away on Bryant Avenue running parallel to Lyndale. Repeating such an expensive and redundant undertaking on a heavily trafficked county road relied upon by so many Minnesotans defies logic. While we admire, believe in and encourage cycling throughout our neighborhoods for a multitude of reasons, we also believe it is our-of-step and out-of-line to cause purposeful harm to the economic viability of our small businesses along the Lyndale Avenue South corridor. No one would benefit from a proverbial retail ghost town.
If you take away the people who walk or bike to our store, it will have a negligible impact on our business. Take away those who must use cars and we will likely soon be out of business. This is the reality the Lyndale Avenue South Reconstruction Project street parking decisions will have on our presently vibrant business community.
We urge those who share our concern about the future of this Lyndale Avenue business corridor to contact Hennepin County representatives to express to them your opinions on the Reconstruction Project – urging them to retain their current compromise plan to retain critical street parking to support our crucial business community and our supportive customer bases. Here is an accessible link from our Vibrant Lyndale business alliance for you to submit comments and reach multiple officials with a single effort. Please act on this ASAP because Hennepin County will be accepting comments on this project through September ONLY. https://actionnetwork.org/letters/complete-the-form-to-send-a-letter-supporting-vibrant-lyndale?source=direct_link&
Respectfully,
John McArdle & Colleen Lund
Instead of counting the empty storefronts on Hennepin Avenue resulting from the rebuild and loss of parking, count the number of bike racks installed along the new bike lanes. Between Franklin and 25th Street I don’t see a single one. And the bike lanes on the east side of the avenue result in a sidewalk narrower than the older existing one, which means the restaurants that used to rely on outdoor boulevard seating will all disappear. They took a county highway for cars and turned it into a highway for bikes with no plans for any of the bike riders to stop at the local businesses.
When our present councilmember opposes businesses that attract customers form the suburbs this shouldn’t be a surprise.
As a lifelong resident of Minneapolis who moved out of the City many years ago, but work in the city , I too, absolutely agree. The Uptown I frequented, was once a unique and thriving . A Neighborhood of restaurants, bars, theaters and specialty shops in the city has disappeared. This occurred before Covid and George Floyd, I attribute much of this to unrelenting street reconstruction, elimination of parking and adding rarely used bike lanes. I stopped going to Uptown when I could no longer “pop into a store” for an item or had to navigate a parking ramp alone at night-as a woman. Most importantly, the congestion. No way would I consider meeting friends for a happy hour or dinner during rush hour, or any hour for that matter.
A small contingent of men lobbing for bike lanes are destroying our city. Studies supposedly reporting high percentages of use do not support my daily observations. This takes place all times of the day in every part of the city. Based on what? I am not anti men, but the lanes when used, are for the most part used by white males. Where is the demographic study by race, gender, parents, age, and disability, possibly adding small business owner. When voicing my opposition or observations I am told “good riddance, we don’t need you,” or, “then stay out of our city”. Well, that’s exactly what I’m doing.
Good write up. I absolutely agree