Dear City Council and Staff,
Thank you for investing the time and energy to create multiple designs for the development of bike lanes on Middle Ave.
I recognize the process of approving a design for bike lanes has not been smooth or timely. Through meetings and conversations, I have witnessed the passion of folks on both sides of the fence; those who want bike lanes/no parking and those who want bike lanes/with parking.
I am pleased that within the three designs, two provide options for the community to retain parking along Middle Ave while still providing a safe biking passage for our cyclists. I believe in and support a design that considers the needs and uses of all residents and users of Middle Ave. We are walkers, bikers, drivers, residents, friends, parkgoers, apartment dwellers, children, elderly, church attendees, able-bodied, and people with health conditions or impairments. We are a complex community, which must be considered as we select a design.
“Compromise is not a sign of the collapse of one’s moral conscience. It is a sign of its strength, for there is nothing more necessary to a moral conscience than the recognition that other people have one, too.”
–Adam Gopnik, American writer and essayist
Please approve Option 2 or 3 to create bike lanes for our cyclists while retaining parking on Middle Ave. Please practice empathy and compromise.
Thank you,
Ashley Callahan
Middle Ave resident
Mother of school-age daily bikers
