Reconnect Disconnect

By Jeremy Morrison…
Today’s meeting at Pensacola City Hall was billed as a Complete Streets Workshop, but the primary issue on everyone’s mind was much more specific. After a broad presentation by noted Complete Streets-guru Dan Burden, the floor was opened up for comment from the public, who cut straight to the chase.

“You’re dying to open up Government Street, right?” one lady asked.

“That’s one of the considerations here,” Burden answered.

The reply drew laughs from the gallery. The progressive philosophy of Complete Streets planning aside—which advocates bikable and walkable communities—the reconnection of East Government Street was, in fact, the only concern on the table for most attendees.

In March, Mayor Ashton Hayward proposed the reopening of Government Street, which would serve to flow the currently closed off street onto Ninth Avenue and Bayview Parkway. After a decidedly opposed contingent—comprised mostly of residents living on or near the street—made their concerns know with presence and petition, the Pensacola City Council refused to take up the issue until efforts were made to gather public comment on the matter.

After a May 2 meeting on the Government Street reconnect was cancelled, the city announced a series of four meetings this month. While today’s initial meeting was billed as a Complete Streets workshop, the following meetings are billed as Restoring the Street Grid.

According to Derek Cosson, the city’s public information officer, today’s meeting was not meant to pertain specifically to the Government Street opening, but rather to “set the stage for the discussion.”

“Today’s meeting is not to speak about the reconnection of East Government Street or concerns,” Cosson said. “It’s just sort of to lay the groundwork … this is more about ‘why do we do so.’”

The next three meetings, according to the PIO, will be more directly related to opening the street. Cosson clarified that the four-meeting series does officially constitute the public input sessions requested by the city council.

“From the point of view of the mayor’s office?” he said. “Yeah.”

The series of meetings is being hosted by the city and the West Florida Regional Planning Council. For the initial gathering, Burden—executive director of the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute and named by Time Magazine as “one of the six most important civic innovators in the world”—was brought in to educate the public about the Complete Streets concept. The expert is somewhat familiar to the area, having attended a fledgling University of West Florida during the 1960s.

“I didn’t have a car,” Burden told the crowd. “I would just ride my bike everywhere.”

Prior to Burden’s presentation, Pensacola City Councilman Brian Spencer—who made the initial motion in March to seek public input—said he thought the meeting would be focusing on the East Government-reconnect.

“He will focus on East Government and its role as one of the East-West corridors,” Spencer said while waiting for the meeting to begin, adding that Burden could also speak to matters relevant to the city’s broader Complete Streets aspirations. “I bet he will, let’s just wait and see.”

After reviewing a number of areal photographs and maps centering on the Government Street issue—ranging from the late 1700s to the present—the audience was treated to a presentation that espoused implementing Complete Street-methods throughout the city’s historical district. Burden presented a collage of Eutopian-esque streets: tree lined, pedestrian-friendly landscapes ideal for “free-range children.”

“The street is never complete,” Burden said near the end of his presentation.

The audience appeared intrigued as to the overall Complete Streets concept, but somewhat confused about the subject of the meeting. They weren’t sure what the examples or foreign idyllic urban settings had to do with reconnecting Government Street.

“Life is great,” said one man, “but we don’t live in Wisconsin, we don’t live in Portland. We live in Pensacola.”

All but a few questions from the public pertained to the reconnect.

“What’s broke?” asked former city councilwoman Diane Mack, requesting specific data, such as traffic statistics. “Not philosophy, not what happens in North Carolina or California. Not in generalities.”

The biggest concern expressed seemed to be the impact opening the street might have on the flow of traffic onto the currently dead-end street.

“Our concern is dumping traffic off of Ninth Avenue and onto Government Street,” said Joe Bernard, an Intendencia Street resident.

Other people were opposed to the tone of the meeting, contending the conversation was assuming the eventual reconnect of East Government Street regardless of public opinion—“If it’s a done deal, don’t waste our time.”

There were a few people present, mostly business interests, that voiced their support of the reconnection effort. Attorney Bob Kerrigan, who has offices near the blocked off street, said that while he understood residents’ concerns of traffic impacts—noting that “I don’t blame them” and that in their shoes he “would not be that wild about it”—he preferred the street open in order to allow better access; the attorney noted that he and others have jumped the curb in order to get directly onto Ninth Avenue—“because it’s ridiculous to block that street off.”

“You know, when you think about it, how may ‘Government’ streets in the country are blocked?” the attorney asked. “There’s just something missing.”

Alan Gray, the regional planner for the WFRPC, showed the audience aerial images of the area in question. He pointed out the worn paths—created by drivers and walkers preferring to cut off the cutoff—forging their own reconnect to Ninth Avenue.

“We call these goat paths,” Gray said. “Game trails, goat paths, whatever.”

The planner noted that such organic initiative is taken into account when considering possible changes. He also told the public in attendance that today’s meeting was but the first of a series, meant to “establish the path forward.”

“Today was a ‘bring-you-in, throw-a-bunch-of-information-at-you,’” he said.

The following workshops, Gray explained, would be more specific and encompass the “heavy lifting.” Attendees will be split into workgroups assigned with dissecting specific aspects of both the overall Complete Street concept, as well as the East Government reconnect.

“Those meeting I sort of want to get down to the brass tacks,” he said. “The meat.”

The next workshops are scheduled for July 12, 19 and 26 at city hall.