There was a lot of steam coming out of my ears after last weeks meeting of the Keene City Council’s Municipal Services, Facilities & Infrastructure (MSFI) Committee, on which I sit, in which most of the good and useful things were stripped from our city’s planned downtown infrastructure project.
I’ve been on the losing end of votes before, but this one hurt. The project, under the plan adopted by the MSFI Committee, will spend $14+ million to dig up and disrupt our downtown for three years, replace a bunch of pipes, and then cover everything up and leave basically everything exactly the same as it was before.
The proposed expanded greenspace and pedestrian access to our Central Square? Dropped from the plan.
A new traffic pattern that keeps cars from stacking up on Main Street? Nope! Under this plan we may continue to appreciate the sounds and fumes of automobiles at any of Keene’s parking-adjacent outdoor dining opportunities.
Protected lanes for bicycle and scooter users? Oh no, we can’t possibly allow that. We might have the alleged widest paved main street in the world, but it’s just not wide enough to cover four lanes of traffic, three to four rows of angled car parking, AND protected bike lanes.
We mustn’t inconvenience drivers at all, you see. Its more important for drivers from Swanzey to have a heavily subsidized place to park in the center median of Main Street than it is for bicycle riders living in Keene to be able to transit the center of their community safely.
What’s really rubbish about this whole thing is that, if MSFI’s plan is what the City Council eventually adopts – excluding whole emerging categories of inclusive, low cost, environmentally friendly transportation – it’s going to cost Keene taxpayers a whole a bundle of money.
Today, we live in an era – perhaps an era that won’t last much longer – when there is a great deal of development money on the table that is available to pay for projects that support non-automotive forms of transportation.
In particular, RAISE grants, available through the Department of Transportation, exist to “communities build transportation projects that have significant local or regional impact and improve safety and equity.” If Keene were to attract a RAISE grant, that could easily be expected to cover $8 million or $10 million of the eventual price tag – and possibly more.
The city of Berlin, NH got $19.5 million from a RAISE Grant, which it is spending on a pedestrian-focused plan that includes heated sidewalks. Take a look at the complete list of 2022 RAISE grant recipients, and the common theme in the 166 grant awards to municipalities across the country is that these are creative, innovative projects that benefit more than just automobile drivers.
In comparison to these projects, I think the project that was originally proposed – and recommended last year by a committee that spent six months looking at the issues – stacks up nicely and would make a good case for attracting some of the $1.5 billion that has been set aside to fund these grants.
RAISE stands for Rebuilding America’s Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity, and ideas like protected bike lanes, better walkability, and expanded greenspace fit well into the goals and purpose of the grant. There is significant money on the table, and we are in a position to get it.
By contrast, I am confident that the plan outlined by the MSFI committee would attract zero dollars, leaving Keene taxpayers on the hook for the vast majority of that $14 million bill.
Fortunately, the MSFI Committee does not have the final word. While the gutted version of the plan that passed through MSFI is currently what’s on the table, the City Council voted on Thursday to delay the final vote until after we have a chance to listen to a presentation by Jeff Speck, a renowned expert on walkability, who has been invited by the Keene Downtown Group to speak at on June 12.
I sure hope Mr. Speck has some novel and convincing ideas, because its going to take the votes of 8 City Councilors to get the downtown project back on track. If you live in Keene – support having a downtown that’s built around the needs of people, rather than the needs of automobiles, and if you would rather not have the city be on the hook for the full price of a $14 million project – now is a good time to make sure you City Councilors know how you feel.