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We are trapped. Right now, the 4000+ residents of Hazelwood have no safe way to walk or bike out of the neighborhood. 4000 city residents are stuck in place - unable to travel safely from their homes to their jobs, friends, schools, doctors except by vehicle.
Please join us for a morning commute walk and ride protest - Monday at 8AM, we'll make our own safe path in and out of the neighborhood.
Irvine St, a state road over which the city does not have planning rights, has a single crumbling sidewalk, weedchocked, mud-strewn, and impossible to navigate for anyone who isn’t able-bodied. Though the road is signed for 25mph, traffic routinely moves at highway speeds down the mile-long straightaway.
Parallel to Irvine St, the Hazelwood Green site, the former millsite and a future section of the neighborhood, contains *two* viable bicycle paths, but remains locked, gated, and posted NO TRESSPASSING. Residents have been ejected from the site while trying to walk and bike through, with threats that the police will be called.
Residents have been told that delay is negotiations with CSX, the rail line which owns land in Hazelwood, Hazelwood Green, and Greenfield. These negotiations, about rights of way which have existed since mill days (underneath the tracks at Blair St, a level crossing at 2nd Ave) , have dragged on for months, while residents continue to risk their lives on Irvine St daily.
The current state of affairs is unacceptable - we demand PEDESTRIAN ACCESS TO HAZELWOOD.
We will not wait for a PATH - we will make our own.
Join us for a morning commute walk and ride this coming Monday morning at 8AM. Be sure to bring some High-Viz gear. Our safety rests in our visibility.
We will meet at Hazelwood and Second (Jozsa Corner), attempt to walk through the Hazelwood Green site, and if told we cannot, instead walk down Irvine St, taking the entirety of the easternmost lane, to Greenfield Avenue, under the rail tracks, and up into the Three Rivers Heritage Trail Parking Lot.
We will not use the sidewalk until it is repaired to ADA-compliant standards.
From there, we will march back the way we came, attempting again to enter the Hazelwood Green Site, and, if we are rebuffed, walking back under the bridge and down Irvine, taking the Westernmost (and only south-bound) lane, which has no sidewalk at all. Upon returning the the neighborhood, we will disburse, and meet again the following Monday.
We will be making these commutes each Monday morning, until one of the following conditions obtains:
1) SHARE THE GREEN
Allow the public to use the former 2nd Ave, currently a construction access road within the site, as a right-of-way through the Hazelwood Green Site.
1a) At present, simply leaving the gates unlocked and talking down the no-trespassing signs from the outer fence would suffice.
1b) That said, for public safety, barriers could be erected to divide the former 2nd Ave - pedestrians and bicyclists could use the piece of the roadway that abuts the railroad fencing, along the easternmost edge of the site, while construction traffic uses the western 30ft of roadbed.
2) FINISH THE TRAIL
Open up Blair St’s bike-pedestrian facilities to the public. The roadway is 95% complete - why can’t CSX and Hazelwood Green come to a resolution?
3) IMPROVE IRVINE ST
Significantly improving Irvine Street’s bike and pedestrian access. Convert the easternmost lane to a seperated two-way bicycle lane, and compel property-owners to repair the sidewalks.
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MARCH WITH US! Irvine Street is a dangerous road, and we need as many marches as we can to create a visible, safe commute.
Elected leaders, foundation stakeholders, railroad owners, property owners, members of the press, we invite you to join us on our morning commute - we’ll see you Monday!
