HomeMy WebLinkAbout6/1/2021 Item 6a, Otto (2)
Wilbanks, Megan
From:Garrett Otto <
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:21-23 Financial Plan
This message is from an External Source. Use caution when deciding to open attachments, click links, or respond.
Dear Mayor and Council,
I wanted to share a moment that made me smile yesterday evening. I was washing dishes when I noticed a few young
girls on rollerblades in front of my house. They set up a phone on the gutter to record themselves dancing and skating
by. It made me happy to see a neighborhood street being used for fun and reminded me of my childhood days when I
spent countless hours out on our street rollerblading, playing street hockey, riding bikes, playing tag, or many other
activities. I hope that we can adjust our neighborhood traffic management policy to be quicker and more responsive to
allow residents to transform our streets back to these low stress, kid friendly spaces again.
I also want to thank many of you for helping promote active transportation infrastructure and safe routes to schools. As
new projects come along there are some great active transportation elements being included.
I have a couple of comments regarding the financial plan. First, the lighting proposed for the Bob Jones Trail and Railroad
Safety Trail do not feel like active transportation projects and funding may be better served differently this budget.
Placing lighting on the Bob Jones Trail is not likely to increase ridership on that segment of trail because it is currently an
island trail system. There is no low stress protected segment on either end of the trail and the main reason it is not used
1
readily. I recognize that some folks may feel unsafe due to an unhouse population that lives there, but is lighting the
solution for that? Maybe getting unhoused additional resources so they do not have to live down near the creek may be
a better use of the funds? I would think that lighting could help encourage more people to use that segment of trail, but
that may be better done when we have actually connected that trail with protected active transportation infrastructure
on either end of it. Also, there is lighting on the RRST that appears to be in good working order and seems like there may
be more of a climate impact by removing working low energy lighting to install solar lighting that will require batteries
and panels that have their own carbon footprint. It may be worthwhile figuring out the total carbon footprint and
whether it makes more sense to get a few more years of use out of the existing lighting before changing them out.
Additionally, I would like to see funding freed up by the Urban Greening Grant be allocated to implementation of the
ATP. The proposed resolution for staff to come back with a list of ATP Tier 1 projects is a good start. I would have
preferred to see designated funds in the budget, but I am looking forward to seeing what staff comes back with at the
mid-year budget review. For many years we have been told there has not been enough funding to implement active
transportation projects which results in long timeframes to see projects go from concept to implementation. There is a
large need to fund ATP projects and we need financial commitments from federal, state, and local governments. I hope
to see that the state funding frees up our local funding to accomplish more with regards to active transportation. Even if
the funding is not able to be fully used in the fiscal cycle due to workloads, it makes sense to hold onto additional
funding because the ATP has a long list of projects that still need funding and will continue to need funding after this
budget cycle ends.
I appreciate your time, consideration, and commitment to the city.
Regards,
Garrett Otto
2