Monday, March 11, 2013

Spring & Beharrell: Yes, it's something, but it needs to be part of something much more.

The Courier-Journal's Grace Schneider provides an overview of "beautification" work now commencing on East Spring Street, where the street enters New Albany by Silver Creek. The reporter's key paragraphs are here:

Although no changes are planned for the configuration of the intersection, New Albany officials have said they wanted to find a way to recast an unattractive entrance while slowing westbound motorists crossing the Clark-Floyd county line.

The road transitions from a divided four-lane highway to an urban street.

If you ask me (and remember, you're fully entitled to my opinion), too much of this project's conceptual basis constitutes dancing the jig to Clean and Green's Band-Aid-strength beautification tune rather than achieving what really is needed: (A) The slowing of traffic in a lamentable high speed danger zone, as mentioned above, and (B) reconnecting the split halves of Beharrell Avenue as part of a comprehensive rethink of Spring Street between Beharrell and Silver (think: street calming and landscaping and walkability), which would itself meet the aim of slowing traffic while ALSO making a start in restoring a neighborhood sliced in two for decades.


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