Anyone living close to 51st Street - and, due to Franklin's sprawled out non-planned growth, that's a substantial amount of people - cannot be pleased at the prospect of a street widening into their backyards; they'll be at Tuesday's Common Council meeting in force. Ironically, the meeting will be that massive object lesson in misguided sprawl, the Franklin Law Enforcement Center. (These sorts of meetings are the only events that come anywhere close to filling the stadium-like parking available there, so bring your camera to mark the occasion.)
I'm told that there will be people there who object to the idea of indiscriminate widening who do NOT live near 51st, which is much more persuasive as it removes the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) factor.
The item as it appears on the agenda is rather broad: "Submittal of road reconstruction projects for second stage of Federal Stimulus Funding." This is the time, however, to make it known that Franklin needs its current broken (i.e. disconnected, hostile-to-nonvehicles) road network FIXED and OVERHAULED before doing something so short-sighted as ruining another section of the city with an urban throughway.
Deadline for Stage 2 Stimulus applications is December 2009 - - plenty of time to do this right rather than repeat our previous mistakes.
Protest expected against expanding 51st Street - www.franklinnow.com.
I for one am outraged by the proposal of a 51st street expansion. As a resident I think Franklin is becoming so undesirable. I moved to Franklin for it's school system and because it offered a country feel in a city setting. Now we're becoming nothing but highways and big business. If I wanted to live in a business district I would have just rented myself an office. I don't know why anyone would even consider taking up residence in Franklin. It's no longer a family friendly community. Shame on our elected officials who seem to care more about their own agendas and little about the tax payers who voted them in and actually expected that they would work on our behalf. So if your looking for a great place to live and raise a family I suggest you check Delafield. I hear it has a lot to offer. In closing, I hope after you read this that you will feel outraged to. Let's take back our communities. Someone has to. Call your local alderman today and let him, or her, know that you don't want anymore road expansions.
Posted by: Franklin Resident | March 15, 2009 at 12:01 AM