On a hazy, smoggy weekend in July, more than a thousand people gathered on a street in St. Paul to dance, eat, sit, and get reacquainted with people they grew up with.
This gathering didn’t happen on just any street. It happened on Concordia Avenue, immediately to the south of Interstate 94, in the Rondo neighborhood. Concordia Avenue used to be called Rondo Avenue. And before I-94 was built in the 1960s—slicing through the neighborhood—it was the heart of Black St. Paul.
“When they divided [the neighborhood] with the freeway, it affected all of us,” said lifelong Rondo resident Michael Charles as he took a break from barbequing at his booth during the Taste of Rondo block party. The music and celebratory mood helped drown out the noise generated by the freeway behind him. “It dispersed a lot of families because [MnDOT brought] a freeway through. People moved away to different states [saying] ‘I can’t live here because they want to come through and ruin our neighborhood.’”
That freeway, which cleaved through other neighborhoods in Minneapolis and St. Paul, may soon be a thing of the past. In a nod to transportation advocacy organization Our Streets Minneapolis, which spent the last several years advocating for converting Interstate 94 into a surface-level boulevard, the Minnesota Department of Transportation may indeed follow through with the group’s demands.
The Our Streets proposal would turn I-94 from Hiawatha Avenue in Minneapolis to Marion Street near the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul into a boulevard. MnDOT may opt to keep I-94 as is, widen it, narrow it, or convert it into a boulevard. Those are just some of the options being considered.
However, it’s hard for Charles and other Rondo descendants, such as Leo Sharpe, to imagine Interstate 94 going away. “The exits are close to my house, my grandma’s house, and many of my friends’ houses,” said Sharpe on Metro Transit’s Route 94 bus one Wednesday morning. “If I’m in Woodbury or Minneapolis, I can quickly get on the freeway without having to deal with the traffic lights.”
Whatever MnDOT decides, it says I-94 between Hiawatha Avenue and Marion Street is on its last legs. Built in stages in the early 1960s, it carries around 125,000 vehicles per day through St. Paul and around 140,000 vehicles per day between Prospect Park and Loring Park. MnDOT says it’s also more dangerous compared to freeways like it in the Twin Cities. Data obtained from MnDOT shows that between 2014 and 2022, the corridor between Loring Park and Downtown St. Paul has about three crashes per day on average.
10 roadway options to choose from
On July 17, MnDOT released a list of 10 alternatives they could choose in rebuilding Interstate 94. Two of the options, which the agency is required to study by the federal government, would leave I-94 as-is. A third option would rebuild I-94 with continuous shoulders from downtown Minneapolis to downtown St. Paul, so buses can use them to get around traffic congestion regardless of where they are stuck. A fourth option would convert two of the freeway’s existing eight lanes into toll lanes, similar to those on I-35W today.
MnDOT could also rebuild I-94 as a narrower freeway, with two lanes in each direction. One option calls for an additional third lane that is tolled. The streets that are immediately parallel to I-94 today—St. Anthony and Concordia Avenues—could become two-way streets.
Another two alternatives involve completely removing I-94 and replacing it with a two-lane surface boulevard and bus-only lanes on either the side or the center of the new roadway. If MnDOT follows through with this plan, at seven miles it would be the longest such conversion in the nation. All of the options that consider a slimmed-down version of the freeway, or a boulevard conversion, would accommodate people who bike and walk. The agency will decide what those accommodations would look like later in the process.
Two more alternatives call for widening I-94 by one lane, with the extra lane being a toll lane, or one for general traffic. That option was not well-received by the people who represent St. Paul on MnDOT’s Rethinking I-94 Policy Advisory Committee.
“Why is expansion even on the table if the goal and the project’s master vision is to have equity, climate resiliency, etcetera,” asked St. Paul Councilmember Mitra Jalali, who represents Union Park, at a project policy advisory committee meeting on July 17. “Freeway expansion is actually categorically in opposition to those things, and I’m trying to understand how they even got into the mix.” MnDOT planners said they want to consider all their available options.
All of these options will affect transit service that runs on I-94, including Metro Transit Routes 94, 353, 355 and 363.
Controversy over the boulevard option
Supporters of the boulevard option who spoke at the policy advisory committee meeting point to concerns about climate change, public health, and remedying past wrongs when Black homeowners were redlined into the Rondo neighborhood only to be displaced by the freeway.
“We must decolonize the project corridor by removing I-94. Return the land to the community. Prioritize benefits for those who were harmed the most,” said Our Streets Minneapolis Executive Director Jose Antonio Zayas Cabán at MnDOT’s Rethinking I-94 Policy Advisory Committee meeting.
“Protect the community with strong housing and community development benchmarks And allow community members to connect and rebuild their neighborhoods in the same way that was afforded to White families protected by racial covenants,” he said.
Celeste Robinson, aide to Councilmember Robin Wonsley, as well as Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conley support the freeway-to-boulevard conversion and asked MnDOT to invite an expert to the next policy advisory committee meeting who has done freeway-to-boulevard conversions to talk about the idea. “I want to know the substantial research that was done around these very popular alternatives that we’re hearing from our constituents that they are interested in a slowdown and not an expansion of this freeway,” said Conley at the PAC meeting.
Back at the Taste of Rondo block party, mother and daughter Jada and Latrese Johnson, both Rondo residents, are interested in the boulevard idea for its potential to bring more people into Rondo and restore it to what it was like before the freeway came in. “It seems like there’s a possibility for more people to enter the area,” said Jada through Latrese as they conversed in sign language. “It would take a cultural divestment from using cars as transportation. I know Americans love driving,” added Latrese.
Indeed, those who oppose the boulevard option are concerned about disruptions to traffic, even though studies found that travel patterns adjusted for changes in road capacity.
Rena Moran, the Ramsey County Commissioner who represents the Rondo community, does not want MnDOT to convert Interstate 94 into anything else other than a freeway. “I kinda like it the way it is. If I get on the highway, I want to get to where I want to get as quickly as possible,” said Moran, adding she wants MnDOT to rebuild the freeway as it is and upgrade it to current standards.
Keith Baker, Reconnect Rondo’s executive director, wants MnDOT to rebuild the freeway based on what local communities want. “One size does not fit all,” said Baker. “And while we all have the same climate change, economic development, and housing aspirations, it’s important that we look at things in the context of communities along the corridor.”
A boulevard conversion could jeopardize Reconnect Rondo’s vision for a land bridge. Should I-94 be converted into a boulevard, Reconnect Rondo would not be able to build a land bridge above I-94, where the group plans to build a neighborhood of homes, businesses, offices and open space. Although it’s possible a boulevard option could free up land MnDOT no longer needs for a roadway for Reconnect Rondo to implement their vision, MnDOT won’t know how much land will be available until at least 2027, when they finalize how they want to rebuild.
Charles, the barbecue chef, prefers the freeway be rebuilt with a land bridge. “I think they should leave the freeway and build over the top of the freeway,” said Charles. “I understand building over the freeway, and having the cars go underneath, and having the families come together. The freeway’s here. If they remove the freeway, it removes the connection from here to Minneapolis. [The freeway is] what connects the Twin Cities now.”
On the other hand, Michael Adams, a Brooklyn Park resident who grew up in Rondo, is skeptical about the land bridge idea. “Well, are they going to have all electric cars by [the time I-94 is rebuilt and the bridge is built]?” asked Adams. “You drive cars underneath the place humans are, the fumes have to go somewhere. And most fumes go up. [Living above the freeway] would be worse than [being exposed to] radon. The carbon monoxide exhaust would be like living in a garage with a car on.”
MnDOT does not know the cost of any of the choices. To inform what option they end up choosing in rebuilding I-94, MnDOT is collecting surveys through the fall from people about what they think about the alternatives MnDOT is considering.
They also plan to conduct community outreach and will present their choices along with Reconnect Rondo’s update on the land bridge proposal at a meeting on August 17, from 5:30 to 8:30 pm, at the Wilder Foundation’s headquarters, 451 N. Lexington Pkwy. at University. Representative Sencer-Mura, who sits on the Minnesota House Transportation Committee, also wants MnDOT to present the project before the committee during a field hearing to happen sometime this fall.
They hope to have several choices to evaluate as part of federally required environmental studies sometime next year.
To take MnDOT’s survey on the options they can choose to rebuild I-94, visit bit.ly/rethinkI94survey.
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