Minneapolis Groups Look To Past To Envision Future Of Olson Memorial Highway

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Community groups are trying to make major changes to a stretch of highway in north Minneapolis.

Olson Memorial Highway was once 6th Avenue -- a street with heavy foot traffic and a thriving economy. But that all changed when the highway was put in.

"There was a thriving Black and Jewish corridor that existed on old 6th Avenue North," said Nichole Buehler of the Harrison Neighborhood Association.

Starting at Lyndale Avenue, going about a mile west, lies a stretch of highway with a bumpy history.

"Then in 1936, what is now known as the Minnesota Department of Transportation made the decision to deliberately target that neighborhood to construct Olson Highway," said Buehler. "And we've been dealing with, you know, the harmful effects of that decision ever since then."

Our Streets Minneapolis and the Harrison Neighborhood Association have a mission to bring back 6th Avenue. They held a block party and pop-up museum Sunday, displaying what once was here.

"Everything really close together," said Jade Ryerson, a grad student at the University of Minnesota that tackled the research for the pop-up museum. "There were synagogues, churches. It was just like this really amazing place where you could like literally go in any direction and find so many things to do on this street."

The road as it currently stands is described as dangerous and a divider of the community. Those seeking change are presenting a long-term move from highway to a smaller, walkable boulevard.

"When you reduce the size of the highway, because this highway is highly underused, it's made redundant by [Interstate] 394 – we know that something that's called traffic evaporation happens," said Jose Zaya Caban, with Our Streets Minneapolis. "Any freeway-to-boulevard conversion that we've looked at as an organization has always led to people using either different routes or they just start using other modes of transportation."

In response, MnDOT and the City of Minneapolis have committed to start working on safety improvements as early as this July.

"We feel like the agency is responding and we're gonna continue to try to hold them accountable," said Zaya Caban.

In terms of a "first phase" of this proposal, these groups would like to lower the speed limit, re-stripe the lanes, and add pedestrian safety improvements.

"This is what was here before, it can be that way again," said Ryerson.