At the August Downtown Council's monthly happy hour someone asked if I owned a car. Some years ago after moving to downtown from the suburbs I gave up my car in an attempt to go car-less. I gave my aging Toyota away to an organization on Como Avenue that teaches auto skills to youth. I thought that sounded like a good idea. After my donation I took the bus back to downtown. At first I did all my errands in downtown, but eventually I expanded my walking range up to Grand Avenue walking all the way to the Grandview for an occasional movie and Mississippi Market for groceries. I occasionally rented a car when I really needed one. During that time I lost 10 lbs from all the walking I did. Taking the bus to the Mall of America, downtown Minneapolis and the airport.....all easy, but getting around to other places in and outside of the Twin Cities can be difficult. My experiment without a car lasted less than a year before I bought another one. While I like having access to my car, I use it less and walking is still a huge part of my lifestyle of living in an urban environment. About a month ago on an evening walk, I spotted the light rail crew bringing in one of the first rails to be placed on 4th street. It seemed like a low-tech operation. The rail was slowly dragged on rollers set up in the street. I was surprised how the block long piece of metal curved to make the bend around Kellogg Avenue. Now when you walk down 4th Street, tracks are in various stages of being embedded into the newly prepared street. Closer to downtown the space left after the demolition of the buildings at Cedar and 5th Street, you can see the metal posts that have been driven into the ground showing the curving path that the train will take from Cedar Avenue to 4th Street. The work to reconnect the skyway at Cedar and 5th is in progress too. That link is scheduled to be back in place by November.....an important section to getting to the library before the winter weather gets serious. I don't know how I will use the light rail system in the future. Next year downtown should have a green bike station courtesy of Nice Ride MN....maybe I will bike to the U of M and return via the light rail. All these new options make going car-less ever more possible in the future.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Tracks Arrive in Downtown
At the August Downtown Council's monthly happy hour someone asked if I owned a car. Some years ago after moving to downtown from the suburbs I gave up my car in an attempt to go car-less. I gave my aging Toyota away to an organization on Como Avenue that teaches auto skills to youth. I thought that sounded like a good idea. After my donation I took the bus back to downtown. At first I did all my errands in downtown, but eventually I expanded my walking range up to Grand Avenue walking all the way to the Grandview for an occasional movie and Mississippi Market for groceries. I occasionally rented a car when I really needed one. During that time I lost 10 lbs from all the walking I did. Taking the bus to the Mall of America, downtown Minneapolis and the airport.....all easy, but getting around to other places in and outside of the Twin Cities can be difficult. My experiment without a car lasted less than a year before I bought another one. While I like having access to my car, I use it less and walking is still a huge part of my lifestyle of living in an urban environment. About a month ago on an evening walk, I spotted the light rail crew bringing in one of the first rails to be placed on 4th street. It seemed like a low-tech operation. The rail was slowly dragged on rollers set up in the street. I was surprised how the block long piece of metal curved to make the bend around Kellogg Avenue. Now when you walk down 4th Street, tracks are in various stages of being embedded into the newly prepared street. Closer to downtown the space left after the demolition of the buildings at Cedar and 5th Street, you can see the metal posts that have been driven into the ground showing the curving path that the train will take from Cedar Avenue to 4th Street. The work to reconnect the skyway at Cedar and 5th is in progress too. That link is scheduled to be back in place by November.....an important section to getting to the library before the winter weather gets serious. I don't know how I will use the light rail system in the future. Next year downtown should have a green bike station courtesy of Nice Ride MN....maybe I will bike to the U of M and return via the light rail. All these new options make going car-less ever more possible in the future.
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