I have been following many South Metro cities and their failed attempts at creating walkable downtowns to try and drag their residents from the comfort of their cozy homes to the sterile and boring shops that have been created to try and stimulate tax revenue and weight loss. We started with Burnsville, Apple Valley and Lakeville, now Rosemount is getting into the act of building hike/bike infrastructure to help get their residents in shape while heading to their empty downtown stores.
First we had Burnsville and their stupid Heart of the City development project which has spawned the “I hate nearly everything Mayor Kautz does” campaign of Jerry Willenburg. The original goals of that project have failed numerous times including being inexpensive to the taxpayers, bringing some sort of worth to the city, and making Mayor Kautz a hero loved by everyone in Burnsville and the rest of the country. Then came along the failed Founders Circle project in Apple Valley which has created what appears to be the remnants of nuclear holocaust right there at the corner of Galaxie and 153rd. We also have Lakeville’s multitude of “downtown” projects which create nothing even close to a sense of community for its residents.
Now we have Rosemount, which should have taken a close look at the failures which surround them and thought twice about diving into a project which has had absolutely no success anywhere nearby. Instead they went a step further and took buildings over by eminent domain and then lead the press as well as local officials around on a tour of the area to check and see how their walkable downtown would progress in line with their plan to make Rosemount residents less fat.
I’m fucking tired of this bullshit idea that we should have bike trails, sidewalks and other hokey nonsense to create a warm and cuddly environment to entice people to walk. Listen up city administrations, people aren’t going to give up their cars to walk downtown just because there are cutesy little trails leading them right to their favorite restaurant dishing up trans fats, 1000+ calorie entrees, and gobs of alcohol. People are going to exercise because they want to do it not because the city unnecessarily evicted tenants and razed buildings to rebuild tax friendly, empty storefronts which makes even more room available for big box stores and other retail establishments. While Rosemount is a lot different than Apple Valley when it comes to vacated land, I find that there’s nothing more disturbing than walking around our “walkable downtown” and noticing that the area is economically depressed as all hell. Yay for tumbleweeds, street signs on vacant streets, and ‘For Lease’ signs.
Rosemount still has the option of ignoring the Met Council’s funding and allowing people to make their own exercise decisions. I really suggest that they learn from the numerous mistakes of the other South Metro suburbs in their failed attempts at creating walkable downtowns and come up with some other idea instead.
What is it with the South Metro? Why can’t cities have their own identities? Is the desire to get rid of fat people that big of a priority? If so, I suggest that Rosemount requires that all restaurants offer the option of running on treadmills instead of booth or table seating. These treadmills would be set to burn the exact number of calories they are about to ingest rather than building bigger and better trails so that people have the option of walking there and back — which the majority will not end up doing anyway.
Anyone else up for my treadmill idea or at the very least asking that Rosemount not fall prey to the same mistakes that Burnsville, Lakeville, and Apple Valley have made recently?
Related posts:
Lazy Lightning Store
Month's Top 5 Commenters
BPAC Financials Archive
Dakota Criminal Complaints
Loading ...
October 6th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
I just dropped off my husband’s car at Precision Tune in Burnsville, then ran and walked the 3.5 miles home (I live north of Crystal Lake). I’m getting ready to jump in the shower, and after that I will hop in my car and drive to Byerly’s. While walking to a restaurant (or retailer) sound like a fabulous idea, it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, because nobody wants to see or smell people who have been walking for miles, and it’s not really practical to carry home four bags of groceries on my back, either. These city projects are a waste. Our cities already have what they need to aid people in their fitness goals: sidewalks. In fact, instead of building Heart of the City, I’d like to see that money used for putting more sidewalks in more places.
October 6th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Apparently Rosemount is working to make it easier to cross CR-42 and get to the slew of businesses that stand on the other side of the road from a large number of residences. According to an editorial posted in the Rosemount Town Pages here they are planning on adding more routes to get to the places that people need to go but I really wonder when this will all occur and if it’s really something that people care about.
Like you said, carrying groceries from Cub to your home, pedestrian bridge across CR-42 or not, it would suck and most people just won’t do it.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
When I lived in St. Paul, I lived on Cathedral Hill and would frequently walk up to Walgreens to pick up some groceries, and walk home with it, or to the co-op on the corner. If the projects these cities were funding and attempting were actually viable, they’d be great. But it took many years to build up my former st. paul neighborhood to what it was, you can’t just throw a bunch of stuff up, pray for lessee’s and call it a downtown.
If there was a co-op or valley natural or something in the vast wasteland of 153rd/Galaxie, I’d pop in coupla times a week to pick up some superior apples.