Alex Burns

🚨Rethinking I-94 mentioned

A yellow and white plumeria flower blooms with a cat in the background

Woke up as a very proud houseplant dad today

Thank you so much Laura!! The feeling is mutual!

A Retrospective on My Time with Our Streets - Our Streets My time at Our Streets originally began as a one-year seed grant focused on building a campaign to activate impacted communities along the Rethinking I-94 project corridor. In the years that followed,...

We are so grateful for Alex's time with us. His work has an immense impact on growing our advocacy.

www.ourstreetsmn.org/2025/06/04/a...

Design Week - Our Streets The Bring Back 6th Chapter of the Minnesota Communities Over Highways Coalition and Toole Design invite residents who live near Olson Memorial Highway to a multi-day design workshop to refine a commun...

Next week is Design Week. If you live near Olson Memorial Highway, don't miss this opportunity to share a meal with fellow community members and shape a collective vision for the corridor's future—one rooted in repair, reconnection, and community ownership.

www.ourstreetsmn.org/event/design...

What a tremendous evening put together by @thewaroncars.bsky.social and @ourstreetsmn.org tonight in Minneapolis. Fantastic panel of Minnesotan leaders discussing how to build campaigns to tear out urban freeways.

Make it a point to listen to the recording when it comes out in the weeks ahead.

YouTube video by Our Streets Nurah Mohammed Testifying in Support of the Highway Justice Act

High school student Nurah Muhammed testified in support of the Highway Justice Act earlier this month, referencing the construction of I-94, and that, "unfortunately, it isn't just history." @mndot.mn.gov

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBvs...

"I am pleased to introduce SF 817. This bill will enhance community engagement and strengthen planning processes to ensure that highway investments are environmentally conscious, fiscally responsible, and reflective of the priorities of local communities." - @omarfatehmn.com

YouTube video by Minnesota Senate Media Services Committee on Transportation - 04/02/25

Listen to the Senate Transportation Committee hearing of the Highway Justice Act (SF 817) at 3pm:

youtu.be/WB4-X3Ky-Gw

I’m so excited about this news!
As a Senator, Omar Fateh has always fiercely advocated for solutions at the scale and time frame that our communities need. He’s built diverse coalitions and passed progressive policies that others gave up on. I have no doubt that he’d do the same as Mayor

Thanks for sharing! Here’s the video of CM Wonsley’s response & more clips from the meeting ⬇️

Rethinking I-94: MnDOT going out of their way to roadblock an advisory body of local elected officials from voting on resolutions.
www.ourstreetsmn.org/2024/11/12/m...

Love this little guy

Ask MnDOT & I-94 Decision Makers to Support the Twin Cities Boulevard Take action to tell Minnesota Department of Transportation leadership and Rethinking I-94 project decision makers to support the Twin Cities Boulevard. Your message will be sent to MnDOT leadership a...

You can take action here by contacting project decision makers to demand that MnDOT stop shutting community members and their elected officials out of the Rethinking I-94 process 🔽
actionnetwork.org/letters/tell...

One final Rethinking I-94 PAC meeting clip:
MnDOT Metro District Engineer Khani Sahebjam spoke about the generational mistake that was made by building I-94 through a city and the work underway now to repair that injustice.
Time will tell if these words are accompanied by action.

YouTube video by Our Streets MPLS Rethinking I 94 PAC Meeting 11 08 24 - Mayor Carter

Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter was at the Rethinking I-94 PAC meeting, and though he did raise some concerns about traffic, he called on MnDOT to continue to study the at-grade boulevard options. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdoo...

YouTube video by Move Minneapolis 2021 Transportation Summit: Freeway to the Future, or Road to Ruin?

A boulevard would INCREASE total trips while reducing car trips.
Engineer Ian Lockwood discussed this during a 2021 presentation via an equation for vibrant cities:
"We want the number of trips of all types to go up, but we want vehicles miles traveled to go down."
youtu.be/51hGZtOBaio?...

YouTube video by Our Streets MPLS Rethinking I 94 PAC Meeting 11 08 24 Commissioner Conley

Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conley said we get what we build for:
“The idea that the at-grade option is going to displace a bunch of trips all throughout the community, I'm not buying that right now.. these trips exist because the highway is the way it is”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIdU...

YouTube video by Our Streets MPLS Rethinking I 94 PAC Meeting 11 08 24 - Representative Sencer Mura

Thankfully many PAC members weren't buying it.
Rep. Samantha Sencer-Mura:
"I understand that we had a day where there was a bunch of events and a lot of people used the highway.. how do we incentive more people to use public transportation for those types of events?"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0dx...

The whole traffic segment felt like a fearmongering tactic to kill momentum for the at-grade boulevard options.
Sloboden wrapped up his presentation by saying "The point of this is to give perspective and a little bit more understanding about the freeway and how important I-94 is to the area."

MnDOT also brought in a Texas-based traffic consultant to talk about "traffic considerations" for Rethinking I-94. Jaimie Sloboden talked a lot about event traffic and made a comparison to Florida and Texas, saying that freeway lanes are needed there for hurricane evacuations. The climate irony 🙃

Council Member Wonsley pushed back on this, and called for community oversight over MnDOT's air quality analysis.

MnDOT Air & Noise Quality Program Supervisor Natalie Ries presented on how MnDOT will evaluate air quality impacts. Despite many community members asking for information about local pollution impacts, Ries said the model they are using doesn't have the capacity to answer that question.

YouTube video by Our Streets MPLS Rethinking I 94 PAC Meeting 11 08 24 - Senator Omar Fateh

Senator Omar Fateh said I-94 is one of the issues he hears about the most. Sen. Fateh called on MnDOT to create bylaws that allow PAC members to vote on their preferred option for Rethinking I-94.
"There should be some sort of democratic accountability here" www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gwn0...

YouTube video by Our Streets MPLS Rethinking I 94 PAC Meeting 11 08 24 - CM Wonsley

This didn't sit well with many PAC members. Minneapolis W2 CM Robin Wonsley, @robinformpls.com questioned why MnDOT is preventing Rethinking I-94 PAC members from making formal recommendations.
"How did we land in a place where we are just a symbolic advisory board as elected officials?"

MnDOT Commissioner Nancy Daubenberger opened the meeting by explaining the role of the PAC, which is composed of elected officials that represent the project corridor. Despite direction to "guide policy & funding decisions", MnDOT claimed that PAC members don't have authority to pass resolutions.

Public Comment Removal, Biased Traffic and Air Quality Information Raise Concern Amongst Elected Officials The meeting covered many issues, including discussion around community access to public comment during PAC meetings and the ability of elected officials to influence the Rethinking I-94 project proces...

Last Friday, MnDOT held a meeting of the Rethinking I-94 Policy Advisory Committee (PAC).
The meeting included fiery discussion from elected officials. We've created a recap & linked the full recording here: www.ourstreetsmn.org/2024/11/12/m...
I want to highlight some noteworthy clips🧵

How to Reconnect Neighborhoods (and How Not to) — Streetsblog USA To achieve reconnect communities torn apart by highways, we must scrutinize past attempts at solutions and learn from past errors.

“While putting a highway underground can seem an intuitive solution to reconnect the communities above… the reality is that such projects often become, at best, a form of “greenwashing” and, at worst, Trojan horses for further highway expansion.”

It was a late Monday night but I caught the northern lights at Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge 🌌