Category: Longfellow

Tonight’s run started at the Seward Coop where Carly dropped me off before picking up some groceries. (Note: If you’ve never been to the Seward Coop before, it can be quite a shock to find yourself surrounded by fresh organic foods from local sources with ingredients you can pronounce. Bring a foodie friend with you for your first experience so they can explain how it all works.)

I went West on S 9th St past Seward Towers West – home to many new immigrants to the United States, including former residents of Sudan and Somalia:

When I reached the messy corner of Franklin, Minnehaha and Cedar, I headed South on Cedar then tucked a block West to Snelling Ave (runs between Minnehaha and Hiawatha) where I saw this passive aggressive sign in a relatively low congestion area:

And this cool older building at 2115 Snelling:

Then I passed the largest Oriental grocery store in the Midwest, United Noodles. It’s hidden away and definitely worth checking out. It would take a year to try their ramen selection.

Followed by Minneapolis’ premier seafood shop, Coastal Seafoods:

I crossed the Midtown Greenway, where people commute by bike year round:

At the North end of the retail block that includes Target and Cub, I passed 1st Cup Cafe and Hiawatha Pizza. 1st Cup Cafe has awesome sambusas and Hiawatha’s pizza by the slice is great if you’re into big thin greasy slices of pizza like I am:

South of Lake Street on Snelling Ave, I passed Big Bell Ice Cream’s headquarters:

And a gang tag across the street. It’s rare to see stuff like this to the East of Hiawatha but it does occasionally crop up in the first couple blocks:

At 34th St E, I tucked a block West onto Dight Ave, which is generally lined with grain mills between Dight and Hiawahta to the West and a combination of small warehouses and single family homes to the East. Residential and commercial bump up hard against each other here. Rep. Phyllis Kahn suggested back in 2005 that Dight Ave should be renamed since the Dight it’s named after hasn’t been judged well by history. Kahn describes him as “a eugenicist and admirer of Hitler.”

A redevelopment plan for the Purina Mill site near 38th St East has been in the works since at least 2005 that included the drafting of a community benefits agreement that I believe was approved a year ago. I haven’t heard any new developments lately. Anyone have some info on the status of that project?

There are at least two lofts for sale at the 42nd Street Lofts. I’ve toured these before. They have a pretty cool feel and the big window on the first floor is actually a glass garage door that can open up.

Snelling Ave S at 46th was the turnaround. That area has a relatively new apartment and will likely see quite a few more changes, being a block from the LRT, lots of convenient retail, and Minnehaha Falls.

I passed Fire Station 21 on the way back, which fortunately has never had to visit the Kohler household.

J.W.S. Inc. Welding is better at welding than fixing windows:

At 34th St E, I headed East for home and passed Longfellow Park:

And the empty lot where Hovde Automotive used to be before it blew up:

The corner of 34th St and 42nd Ave is home to Keller Automotive, who does a brisk business in keeping Rainbow Taxi on the road:

Could someone please figure out a way to open at brew pub where the Pizza, Pie, and I used to be?

Riverstone Salon Spa looked warm and inviting compared to the snow I was running in:

I stopped in and said hi to the guys at 612 Authentic who were busy at work on an awesome new project.

Lots of sights on this one. Here’s the map:

Or, in digital form:

The Other Mike and I took on two Longfellow Community Avenues last night: 44th and 43rd from near their Northern ends to their Southern stop at Minnehaha Park.

We started by heading North on 44th, crossing Lake Street past the East Lake Dairy Queen (which is open):

Two blocks later, we hit Dorman Ave, went left, and circled back on 43rd where we passed The Craftsman at Lake St:

American Rug Laundry represented at Lake St too:

At 43rd Ave S and 38th St E, we noticed a sign for an upcoming meeting regarding future plans for the Howe Community School.

Howe has been closed for a few years now. At one time, plans were in the works to use the building for artist’s quarters and a day care among other things but that fell through. If you have information about the latest plans, drop a comment or send me an email.

At that point, we crossed into LoFo: an unofficial definition for “Lower Longfellow” – the blocks below 38th St E. Above that, unofficially, is Lake-8 (Lake to 38th) and parts of Longfellow North of Lake are uncharted.

A few blocks later we passed through an icy Hiawatha School and Park:

After reaching Minnehaha Park, we headed back up 44th, into the Cooper Neighborhood, and passed the closed Cooper Community School a block before the end of our run:

As you can probably tell, it started to snow before we finished our run. That was probably better than the drizzle we were dealing with earlier on.

I haven’t heard any recent news about plans for reuse of this elementary school. Any scoops?

Anyone who’s used the trails along West River Parkway in Minneapolis over the past few years would probably agree that they’re overdue for an overhaul. Good news: It’s happening. The plan is to rebuild them starting in June 2009. Design plans are coming together right now.

(Pink marks the proposed bituminous path. Blue marks the proposed concrete path.)

Carly and I had a chance to attend a meeting about the design plans for the reconstruction at Brackett Park tonight. The turn-out was impressive. We clearly live in a very active community that takes its trails seriously. They played a very significant role in choosing a Minneapolis neighborhood to move to back in 2004 for us and they play a daily role in our lives today.

The section of trail getting attention runs from Franklin Ave on the North to Minnehaha Falls.

Here’s what we learned tonight:

1. Bike Trails will be widened from 8 to 10 feet.

2. Run/Walk trails will be 8′ with a concrete surface (more on this below)

3. When combined due to available bluff space, they’ll try to maintain a 12′ wide surface

4. Lighting will be improved. This is part of a city-wide plan to upgrade lighting. You can see examples of this on East River Parkway to the South of Franklin.

5. The amount of impervious area will increase due to path widening. However, they plan to grade as much of the path to drain toward the street rather than river which is supposed to help improve water quality from run-off. There will also be a few drainage designed green spaces.

6. The path should be more durable than the current version. As I understand it, this is because they know more about building long-lasting trails than they used to.

7. They plan to separate the trails further apart than they are today when possible. However, room is tight between the road and the drop into the gorge.

8. Around 6 trees will be removed. However, additional green spaces will be created in other areas.

9. There are design proposals to close one of the two entryways to parking lots along the parkway, such as at 36th Street & Becketwood. This should allow for increased green space and a smoother surface with less congestion for trail users. The explanation of the changes across from Becketwood received applause:

That design shows a closing of the South driveway, adding a trail to the road, and moving the crosswalk further North to the straightway. Right now, the crosswalk is on the curve, which is a very dangerous spot for the slow moving pedestrians from the senior home who are trying to safely access the parkway across the street.

10. They estimate it will take 3-4 months to rebuild the trail. It will be disruptive. They hope to keep some areas open during construction but don’t have a plan in place on how to reroute trail traffic during reconstruction.

The biggest noticeable change for most people would be the parking lot redesigns, such as this proposal to remove a few spots down near Lock & Dam #1:

Concerns about running on concrete, which leads to combined path issues. Park Board’s standard is concrete for pedestrian path.

Concrete Running Path?
UPDATE: The plan has been modified based on feedback. Both paths will be asphalt.

Running in attendance were more than a little surprised to hear that the proposed surface for the running/walking trail is concrete. Runners commonly avoid running on hard surfaces as a way to protect their bodies from injuries, and concrete is the hardest surface they’ll encounter.

Using concrete for the running path sounds like a disaster waiting to happen since many runners will avoid running on that path in favor of the softer, asphalt, bike path. This will lead to congestion, accidents, unhappy bikers & runners.

The question of safety of concrete as a running surface was raised at the meeting. The presenter (John Deitrich?) said that they looked into this and they didn’t find a difference in surfaces. Regardless of the science, if runners won’t run on it, there will be trail use issues caused by the surface differences.

However, it looks like there really are physical health issues caused by running on concrete. A nice round-up of studies can be found on Google Answers that includes this breakdown of running surfaces by a podiatrist:

Google Answers: RUNNING AND JOINT HEALTH — ASPHALT vs. CONCRETE?

Dr. John Pagliano (the podiatrist quoted in the Men’s Fitness article above), who also coauthored a scholarly article on Illiotibial Band Syndrome) comes down against concrete, saying that “if you switch to softer surfaces, you can cut your injury risk by 50%.” In this particular article, the magazine rates ten running surfaces (1 being worst/10 being best)–I realize your question is specific to street running, but I’m including all of the surfaces here in case it’s of interest:
Asphalt: 6
Cinders: 7.5
Concrete: 1
Dirt: 8
Grass: 9.5
Sand: 4
Snow: 2.5
Track (referring to synthetically made tracks): 7
Treadmill: 6.5
Wood Chips: 9

If you’re passionate about running, your fellow runners, or bikers who compete for trail space with runners, please take action to get this issue straightened out. This decision will be with us for the next couple decades so the time to act is now. Here’s who to talk to:

Nick Eoloff
Project Manager
612-230-6465
neoloff@minneapolisparks.org

Janell Wojtowicz
Communication Specialist
612-230-6414
jwojtowicz@minneapolisparks.org

Sandy Colvin-Roy – City Council Member Representing the Area
Phone (612) 673-2212
Fax (612) 673-3940
Email form on website.

Scott Vreeland – Park Board Member Representing the Area
612-721-7892
svreeland@minneapolisparks.org