If you list St. Paul’s 100 most pressing needs, bikes come in at 101 – Twin Cities

The five candidates for mayor of St. Paul might very well have winnowed themselves down to three this past week during a candidate forum at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church on Snelling Avenue in Highland Park. The candidates were asked where they stood on the proposed bicycle trail along Summit Avenue. Three had the right response.

Two flunked.

The incumbent, Melvin Carter, seeking a third term, said he was fully on board with not only the bicycle trail, but that he was in favor of a complete reconstruction of Summit Avenue — above and below ground — once again pointing out that Summit has not received significant attention since the William Howard Taft administration. Taft was president from 1909 to 1913 and it might be argued that he certainly championed automobiles. Not many bicycles were built for guys who weighed 340 pounds.

Carter also believes cars cost too much and apparently bicycles are essential to the city’s future. You’ve served two terms, Mayor. You flunk.

A candidate named Adam Dullinger also flunked. Dullinger even lamented that he had to drive a car to the forum because Snelling is unsafe for cyclists. Dullinger, an engineer, was passionate about building the bike lanes on Summit, passionate about building bike infrastructure everywhere.

Unfortunately, all the absurd bicycle talk in this town tells us exactly where we are, adrift. Bicycles ignore the real tangible problems that afflict us. Bikes are fun and good exercise. Some people can use them to commute. Great. But if you listed the 100 most pressing needs of this city, accommodating bicycles would come in at 101. Mom isn’t taking her kids to the store on a bicycle in July, much less January. Name one American city in decline that rescued its commerce, stabilized housing, filled downtown buildings and mitigated crime because every family had a Schwinn in the garage. You can’t.

Let’s revisit bicycle paths after we fix this town and can afford such non-essential luxury, speaking of which that Summit Avenue trail is brought to you by unelected bureaucrats spending your money, more of which will be taken by another property-tax increase.

That brings us to the three candidates who didn’t necessarily flunk, some of whom even flirted with adulthood. State Rep. Kaohly Her said she wasn’t ready to abandon the project, but was skeptical.

“The question (Summit bike trail) being asked is flawed because you’re asking me to make a decision on planning from a group of people who handled it very poorly,” Her said. She then played the rich man, poor man game by wondering if the money couldn’t be better used serving the needs of Black and brown people, but she vowed to reevaluate the proposal. Here’s a bulletin, Her: we all drive on lousy streets, all of us.

Yan Chen, a biophysicist, said of the Summit bike trail, “it’s the wrong priority for the wrong time.” She called for the city to refocus spending on core needs. She sounded like somebody who knows what the problems really are and they aren’t bicycles.

Mike Hilborn, who owns a power washing and snow plowing company, believes, like Chen, that a bike trail on Summit is a non-starter. Hilborn said if a street needs work, it’s Grand Avenue, not Summit, and that Summit Avenue already has bike lanes in both directions.