“When I came into office in 2024 I heard about this project right away. And I’ll be honest, I heard people who had critiques, who were concerned, who didn’t want anything to change. And what was interesting to me is that they weren’t people who live in that neighborhood (east of 6th Avenue East) or that neighborhood (west of 6th Avenue East)—which, friends, is actually one neighborhood that for decades has been divided by a 4-lane road that really made it impossible for our Hillside neighborhood to be connected. The intention of this road was to move as many cars as fast as possible through this neighborhood into the medical district and out of it. It was not meant to serve the people who live adjacent to it. Frankly, it was not meant to serve neighborhoods on either side of it. And largely it was really not meant to serve the city of Duluth as well in any way, shape, or form. Transportation systems are not just about cars. They are about all of the ways that we use our public infrastructure. So yes it’s vehicles, it’s also pedestrians, it’s also cyclists. It cannot be dominated by one form. And when we build for only one form and call it transportation, and then we say that if you use your feet and run or walk, or if you use a bike to get somewhere that’s not transportation, that recreation, we are completely missing the point of our public infrastructure. And we see the results of that which is harmful interactions between vehicles going at full speed and people that are just trying to live life in their neighborhood and move about their community. And the other thing we get when we redesign a road to be better for all those different uses: we get a place that invites people to slow down literally. And it also invites people to slow down figuratively—to stay in a place longer, to spend time in a place longer, to invest in a place. So our transportation systems in Duluth should not be about moving in and out as fast as possible; they should be serving the neighborhoods in which they are present, and they should be about inviting people—whether they’re our residents or our visitors—to spend more time. And friends, I will just say: make a note of what we’re doing here. There will definitely be ways over the course of the next year we can make improvements, but this is the direction we’re moving in; we’re not moving away from. So when you think of things like redoing Central Entrance, think of it looking like this: a place that slows people down, that invites them to spend time. And if that means it takes 5 minutes longer to get somewhere, just factor that in because the return is safety, lives saved, quality of time, and investments in our places—and that is what community should be about.”
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