HomeMy WebLinkAbout1/14/2021 Item PC, Schmidt
Wilbanks, Megan
From:Richard Schmidt <
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Council Priorities
Dear Council,
I ask that you elevate two items to your top priority list for the coming years.
1. Make your top priority the preservation of more greenbelt open space. This has for decades been the top request
of your constituents in every poll conducted. (The opt-in "surveys" of late aren't polls; they are selective input not
representative of broader community priorities.)
Jan Marx speaks eloquently on this issue. Please follow her lead.
I would also like to critique a false belief among some at city hall that our work building the greenbelt is complete. The
designated greenbelt is 54,000 acres. Of that, 33,000 acres, or 61%, has no permanent protection! So our work is far from
done. The longer the city puts completing the job on the back burner, the more unlikely it becomes that the dream of a
protected greenbelt will ever become reality.
2. Make rebuilding unsafe and crumbling neighborhood sidewalks and improving disability access on those
neighborhood sidewalks a top priority item. I wrote to you about these deficiencies in commenting on the Active
Transportation Plan.
This must include:
• A major sidewalk safety repair/rebuild program especially in older neighborhoods, where sidewalks are in dreadful
condition. (The city has for years focused on installing pretty sidewalks downtown while neighborhood sidewalks have
been purposefully neglected. That is not intended as an inflammatory statement, it is a fact with documentary proof.)
Sidewalks in poor condition are a disability issue as well as a safety issue.
• A major effort to complete ADA curb cuts in older neighborhoods where they are still lacking. The ADA is now in its
31st year, and there are still, for example, corners within a block of The Village without curb cuts. This is inexcusable.
Much of Anholm has no curb cuts, also inexcusable after 30+ years.
I request that this become a major immediate project budgeted at about $5 million per year until completed city-
wide. (FYI, the previous city manager stated $100,000 repairs 850 feet of sidewalk, and that cost has probably risen
since then. Since repairs, rebuilds and ramps are all needed, funding must be adequate.)
Thank you.
Richard Schmidt
1