Reconnect Disconnect, Part Two

After informing members of the public of “our come to peace moment last meeting,” the regional  planner explained that the city of Pensacola’s second public input session concerning the historic district’s street grid would be based on the premise that the area “had some issues.” He readied the crowd for a heavy round of brainstorming, during which they would “get the vision of this community wrapped into a few words” and “let the good stuff rise to the top.”

“I’m at a point where I’m totally open to having a eureka-moment with you guys,” said Alan Gray, regional planner with the West Florida Regional Planning Council.

After Mayor Ashton Hayward encountered vocal community pushback over his intention to reconnect East Government Street to Ninth Avenue—currently a dead end—the Pensacola City Council requested formal public input on the matter. To that end, the city hired the WFRPC and scheduled a series of meetings to explore a broader ‘Complete Streets’ concept for the entire historic district.

“I think you want to look at us as no-dog-in-the-fight,” Gray explained last night after a woman asked him why he was there. “We were hired to listen to you guys and congeal the ideas.”

As was the case the previous meeting, the public was honed in on the East Government-reconnect. Gray admitted it was “obviously the elephant in the room,” but encouraged people to think about overall design concepts for the entire historic district.

Last week, the council brought in Dan Burden, executive director of the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute, to educate people on progressive planning concepts. During the second meeting people were divided into three groups, where they brainstormed about district’s possibilities.

“I want us to be thinking about things that aren’t even possible,” Gray encouraged them.

Each group was focused in a particular direction. As listed on the evening’s agenda, the groups focused on ‘Impact to Traffic Automobile,’ ‘Livability/Walkability’ and ‘Design.’

The meeting agenda featured words like ‘calming’ and ‘mini-circles’ and ‘connectivity.’ The words ‘East Government Street’ were noticeably absent.

Split into groups, people logged their ideas on large sheets of paper. They talked about sidewalks and crosswalks and underground utilities. They discussed road widths, street lamps, speed limits and landscaping.

But everyone also wanted to discuss the “elephant.” Especially in the ‘Impact to Traffic Automobile’ group.

“That’s my problem,” said one man, arguing against the Government Street-reconnect, “dumping Ninth Avenue traffic into the historic district.”

The group was overwhelmingly opposed to the reconnect. A few people at the table who supported the notion pushed for continuing the discussion under the assumption that the city would, in fact, be reconnecting East Government.

“That’s what we’re doing?” asked a WFRPC lady, wondering what to write next on the group’s brainstorming list. “Spending all our time talking about that because that’s going to be the big issue?”

“That is the only issue!” complained one man in the group.

Eventually, the Automobile group decided to take a vote on the East Government reconnect. The tally was 10-3, decidedly opposed.

The meeting wrapped with the three groups sharing what they had discussed. Gray encouraged the groups—labeled as ‘task forces’ 1, 2 and 3—to continue the conversations during the next meeting.

The next ‘Restoring the Street Grid’ meeting is scheduled for July 19, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Pensacola City Hall.