A Highway in Highland? SCAN to Discuss Compromise on Church St

The Highland Neighborhood Association and South Central Association of Neighbors meet this week to discuss different developments.

The Highland Neighborhood Association meets Thursday at 6:30pm at Highland Elementary School, 530 Highland Ave NE.

They'll be getting an update on the Rivercrossing draft Environmental Impact Statement.

This recent piece by David Sirota seems just as relevant here:

Interstate 70 in Colorado, one of the nation's best-known arteries, is the latest thoroughfare to incite an archetypal fight. Running at capacity as it cuts through Denver, this gateway to the Rocky Mountains is about to be expanded over the objections of residents whose low-income neighborhoods will be sliced apart.

No doubt, the road will win -- as roads almost always do in these battles. Indeed, the story of I-70 summarizes the 60-year tale of urban development in modern America: Instead of beefing up public transit, cities build neighborhood-destroying highways, cars fill up those highways, cities then build more highways to alleviate traffic, and then yet more cars flood the roads, creating even more traffic.

But what happens when America suddenly tones down its love affair with the automobile? At that point, could we still justify destroying neighborhoods to make room for bigger roads? Could we still pretend that more roads are truly necessary? Could we still overlook the fact that road construction creates fewer jobs than public transit projects? In short, could we still ignore all the contradictions and problems that accompany our road fetish?

Could we ditch the neighborhood destruction and invest in stuff that actually helps us?

SCAN

The South Central Association of Neighbors meets on Wednesday from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the South Salem High School Library at 1910 Church Street SE.

They'll be talking about the Hospital's proposed parking lot at the Blind School property. Latest word is that the new proposal will not have a curb cut and driveway on Church Street and instead will have a curb cut and driveway on Mission Street. This will keep Church Street quieter and greener and help facilitate it as a low-traffic greenway for walking and biking. (For background and previous notes see here.)

(This represents the previous proposal, which had curb cuts and driveways on Winter and Church; the latest has them on Mission and Winter.)