On April 12, 2025, Move Minnesota‘s Livable Lyndale campaign hosted a rally on the median of Lyndale Avenue and 27th Street. Here is a collection of testimonials from people who attended.
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Transcript
[00:00:00] Joel: Hi, my name’s Joel, and I’m really excited to have Lyndale be reconstructed. Wider sidewalks [and] a bikeway would be really cool. Maybe some bus lanes, some better bus stops. I’d love it all. I don’t own a car. I would really love to come back here and have it be nice and safe and accessible. It would be great! It would be absolutely wonderful.
[00:00:44] Andrew: Hey, I’m Andrew. I live about two blocks away from Lyndale, and I love this place. I love so many of the businesses around here. I love stopping by World Street Kitchen for a little dinner, but right now [Lyndale is] not a good place to bike. I find myself going to other places.
I find myself getting stuck on the bus, in traffic waiting. Right now what we need is a redesigned Lyndale that will be better for bikers, better for people taking the bus, better for people who are walking. It’s going to change the game, so support Livable Lyndale. Yeah!
[00:01:20] Holly: My name is Holly, and I live in Minnesota, which is here.
And I love biking to Lyndale. But it’s a little bit crazy. And I want bikes on Lyndale very much. And last year I tried to do it and a lot of people listened, or maybe a few; and everybody should love Lyndale.
[00:01:52] Amy: So my name’s Amy Fitzgerald, and I’ve lived really close to Lyndale for the past decade. I don’t have a car, so I walk a lot of places and I bus pretty much everywhere else, and it would be really nice to feel safer doing those things on Lyndale. It would be really nice to feel safe biking on Lyndale. I haven’t biked in years because I haven’t felt comfortable doing it. My boyfriend hates picking me up and dropping me off because he has to come down Lyndale and/or drive with people who are avoiding Lyndale, and it’s just a mess. So, it would be really wonderful to have this street be more welcoming for everyone who’s trying to use it, in all the ways.
[00:02:40] Kyler: Hello, my name is Kyler. I live right around the corner from Lyndale Avenue and I do not have a car. I live 100% without a car. I can’t afford one, but even if I could afford one, I don’t want one. Buses and biking and walking are exclusively the way that I get around. I believe that Minneapolis is for people, and I know more people in Minneapolis who don’t drive than people in Minneapolis who do, especially in my neighborhood.
Buses and bike lanes are for everyone. Minneapolis is for everyone, and it would be a huge disappointment to remove those from the street. The ability for everyone to move around the way that we choose is a very important topic to me. I am in favor of Lyndale Avenue for people over cars. Woo!
[00:03:34] Callie: Hi, I’m Callie, and I’m supporting Livable Lyndale. I really support it because I’ve tried to bike here many times and I can’t bike on the sidewalk ’cause there’s too many people. There’s also the cars — that’s too dangerous, and so I have to bike on the side streets, which is hard ’cause I can’t see all the businesses or get to them as easily, especially if I’m making multiple trips.
I also take the bus here, and it can often be really slow and get stuck in traffic. And I’d like to be able to go faster. I think that bikes and buses should be just way more convenient to take than they are.
[00:04:10] Joshua: Alright, here we go. Hi, my name is Josh Howe. I’m a South Minneapolis resident and I love Lyndale.
I love this area. I’ve been coming here since I was a teenager in the ’90s. One thing I don’t like about Lyndale is how unsafe I feel as a pedestrian here. And I would love to see more bike lanes and bus lanes because they are proven to have a traffic-calming effect, which makes life better for everyone, including people who are in cars.
Not only that, it’s good for business. Businesses tend to make a lot more money when you add bus lanes and bike lanes. It’s going to be better for everyone. So please do the right thing. Put bike lanes and bus lanes on Lyndale. Thank you.
[00:04:49] Nick: Hey, my name is Nick Hutchinson. I am a resident of the Whittier neighborhood right here. I’ve lived here for 15-plus years. And growing up, my mom had a business in the neighborhood, so I’ve been here for a long, long time. I remember when Lyndale Avenue was two lanes going each way. I mean, it wasn’t that long ago, but that went back for decades and it was a disaster. It was so dangerous.
Crossing the street anywhere was next to impossible. And ever since they’ve done this lane conversion, it’s been a lot nicer. But it could be a lot nicer still. And, you know, climate change is real, folks. I hate to break it to you, but it is happening — and it’s a big problem.
And what is going to stop that from being as big of a problem is getting away from having everybody drive everywhere all the time. And for a local neighborhood like this, with so many stores and so many people living around here: I mean, there’s something like 40,000 people who live within a mile or so of this area.
That’s so many people who want to go to all these businesses and for whom this is their local business. It’s been shown again and again that when you take out parking and put in bike lanes, that it is actually good for business. All the businesses around here, well, not all of them, but some of them want to, want to say that that’s gonna be a big problem, when in fact it’s completely the opposite.
Studies over decades show that bike lanes are good for business. You can look it up; and I recommend that you do. [honking] Hey, hey, Joey! Hey, hang on. We’re gonna do this. Hey. Yeah. Alright. There you go. So, that being said, this is a really great neighborhood. It has been for as long as I’ve been around here and putting in some bike lanes and bus lanes is only gonna make it better. There you go.
[00:07:05] Erik: My name’s Erik. I really like bike stuff, but that’s not why I’m here today. I grew up in an area that was really similar in a lot of ways to what this street is and being able to get to the destinations, to the comic book shop, to see friends to hang out at the movie theater was so important to my childhood.
And when I think about the Minneapolis that we’re trying to build, that’s what I think of. You know, a lot of business owners have been coming out against some of these proposed changes. It’s been really disheartening, ’cause some of those are my favorite businesses to go to.
And I don’t want to have to wonder when I go and get ice cream, if that ice cream owner cares about my safety and getting there or not, which is kind of a ridiculous problem to talk about, but I think that’s where we’re at. I would invite any of those business owners who are uncertain about this or have questions, or even if they’re absolutely opposed to this, to come talk to the people who wanna see these changes, who want to go spend money at their businesses and who want to be able to build a corridor here that does work — for all ages, for families — to get around on. Thanks.
[00:08:15] Kevin: So, Kevin Yau. I come to Lyndale Avenue area, the Uptown area, pretty often to go to businesses, to visit friends and so forth. And I find the current design of this street very dangerous, even though I’ve been told that it was supposed to be improved from a two-lane northbound/two-lane southbound design. Even right now, every time I come here, I don’t feel safe. When I drive down there, I don’t feel safe as a driver. When I’m pedestrian walking on the street, I don’t feel safe as a pedestrian. Oh, let alone being a cyclist, you know?
So we really need a design that would work for everybody. Not only the businesses would benefit from it, but also the people who live in Uptown would benefit from it. We want to make it a place where people actually want to live and actually want to come here and spend their dollars, in the nearby businesses.
[00:09:14] Kyle: my name is Kyle Jones, and I want bike lanes on Lyndale because I don’t visit a lot of these businesses currently because getting there on my bike is nearly impossible. I go to all kinds of places on Eat Street, places on Hennepin. But when I want to go to Twin Town Guitars or somewhere else on Lyndale, I have to take Bryant. And the problem there is now I’m not on the street with the businesses, so I never get to window shop any of the businesses along this corridor. So every time I actually do come here on the bus, for example, I see, oh, here’s Tender Lovin Chix. Here’s businesses that I had no idea existed because I’m not biking on this street specifically.
So that’s why I want bike lanes here, so I can actually utilize all of the great businesses that are along this corridor.