Dear City Council,
Im writing to ask you to reschedule discussing the Middle Avenue plans at the upcoming meeting until after you hear from residents of Middle and get comments on the design. I worry that, without any new developments in the discussion and no attempts to hear from residents to influence the plans, this is a setup to repeat the lack of decision that happened last City Council meeting.
It seems like Council is trying to avoid hearing from those this will affect adversely - I suspect this is because we have legitimate concerns that could require re-examining the plans and redesigning a lot of elements. All the outreach that was promised has not happened; I have been asking to meet for months, have made phone calls and spoken in person to the previous mayor, and nobody has followed up on these requests despite my repeated attempts. As always, I am asking that the residents of Middle who will be affected by the plans get to have a say in the design, in a way that is more substantial than making comments in a City Council meeting.
Please do not stop short and only pay lip service to our involvement without actually hearing concerns and seeing the area in person. All of the current options presented still dont take into account the needs of the streets residents. Id discuss this in greater detail in this theoretical outreach meeting, but feel its worth saying that none of the current options are workable.
Again, I suggest postponing this item from the meeting aVenda until after you meet with us about the design. I would be happy to work with all of you, with Mayor Wolosin and members of the planning committee on both outreach and coming to an agreement and a design that suits everyone involved.
Sincerely,
Neil on Middle
