Gather around, students and
colleagues. I am going to tell you a story about a magnificent avenue called
University, and its less acknowledged disgruntled twin, 4th Street.
Once upon a time, these two thoroughfares
happily ran side by side. 4th Street housed one of Twin City RapidTransit’s most used streetcar lines, and University Avenue SE carried the
masters and learners alike by vehicle. Between Oak Street and 15th
Ave SE, 4th Street hosted many buildings along its blocks, including
several blocks of homes. University Avenue followed suit by holding the
architecturally magnificent Fraternity Row homes. Both were equally appreciated
and used, from both a vehicle and a pedestrian standpoint.
Quickly, however, the tides turned
as Minneapolis evolved and turned a cheek to its past. As the transportation
wars of the post-WWII era ensued, streetcar lines were ripped out of 4th
Street, and to meet the increasing vehicle demand of the metropolitan area,
each of the streets were redesigned to run one way. The two twins, once close
partners, were now mortal enemies running counter to one another. Vehicles now
had more lanes and more space to accommodate their ever increasing speed, but
at the expense of a pedestrian and bicycle-friendly feeling around the U of MN
campus.
As part of the declaration,
Dinkytown and Fraternity Row were allowed to stay relatively the same, even as
the One Way streets were put into effect. In order to make way for the vehicle
quantity explosion, many of the houses and buildings along 4th
Street SE were razed in favor of parking lots. Due to Fraternity Row’s impressive
stature and historic designation, however, much of the land along University
Avenue was spared.
And so, for years, 4th
Street tried to be like its twin brother. Wide sidewalks and generous bike
lanes were created, and bus shelters were placed generously along the
eight-block corridor. New hockey arenas named Mariucci and Ridder were even
built, as well as a lovely tennis center named Baseline. However, the vast
stretches of parking lots, the large slate of tennis courts with a necessary
lack of large vegetation sources, and the lack of public plazas as main entries to the
venues truly made 4th Street seem barren. The venues were and still
are appreciated, but since these buildings are only used on a sporadic timescale,
the street life on 4th was artificial.
Which would you rather walk down? |
To this day, University Avenue,
even with the same amount of traffic lanes as 4th Street, attracts
more pedestrians and hosts a much more relaxing feeling for the large amount of
walkers. 4th Street does indeed have pedestrians, but is set up like
Marquette Avenue downtown, where commuters using busses only have to wait for a
short amount of time near good shelters. The barren feeling of 4th Street does not give
the commuters or common pedestrians alike good walking vibes. Although it will
improve the streetscape when it is complete, the construction of the 17th Ave Residence Hall has put a burden on bikers especially, as the bike lane has
been barricaded since May, and only relocated surface parking to the old
Klaeber Court site.
Another building bites the dust to, ironically, make way more surface parking. |
Even with the rerouting of bicycles, MNDaily reported that
the Dinkytown entry intersection of 15th Ave has been reported as
having a large number of bicycling-related accidents over the past decade.
According to the report, University had more bicycle-related accidents, but 4th
Street, being half as long, had a higher concentration of accidents within its
corridor.
So, my friends, what is the
ultimate fate of 4th Street? Will it ever become amicable with
University once again, and turn its cheek on its tainted past? Hopefully, the
good heart of the street will open up to pedestrians and bikes once again.
Hopefully, the vast parking lots will eventually be replaced by what the 2009
Campus Master Plan called “future development”, as is currently being illustrated
by the new residence hall construction. Hopefully, if there is parking to accommodate
stadium traffic, it is built in the form of garages with street-friendly
facades (my personal hometown example). Hopefully in the distant future, the
Minneapolis Streetcar study will not just be a gleaming idea and enhance the tunnel
vision-like avenue it is now. And hopefully, greenery and large trees will
sustain in the area, reducing sound and radiation pollution along the asphalt.
If 4th Street SE can
change back to its pleasant city-friendly past and move away from its
vehicle-oriented present, the two parallel streets can be equivalent on all
sides, and they can live happily ever after.