Just a few days ago, the least diverse city council in America unanimously passed a plan to add 163 miles of new protected bike lanes in St. Paul over the next 15 years. There currently are 65 miles of bikeways. The new 163 miles does not mean all new pavement, for that would be injurious to the Earth they are trying to save, but many of the new miles will be off-street, while other miles will be protected by concrete barriers.

Long-range plans call for the demolition of the Cathedral of St. Paul for a centralized “meet your neighbor bicycle staging and storage facility” for those without a lockable location, the closing of all north-south streets between Kellogg Boulevard and Interstate 94, the elimination of all parking lots inside the city limits, city-operated electric “chase” vehicles to patrol all 228 miles of bicycle-exclusive lanes for repairs and breakdowns, new district councils to be known as “wheel-ins” and tax subsidies for families purchasing more than two bicycles.

Summit Avenue, once thought to be historic and mindful of more halcyon days and worth saving, will become bicycle only. Bicycle bridges will be built over Lexington, Hamline, Fairview and Cleveland avenues, with Mississippi River Boulevard becoming “wheel free” by 2039. Walking only.

All of this is happening despite there being no evidence of a hue and cry whatsoever. We apparently are governed by a powerful unelected bicycle coalition who have found on the council willing partners. Anika Bowie, who did not live where she said she did when she filed to run last August and who now represents Ward 1, is particularly enthusiastic about the new plans. By switching to bicycle-only, she won’t be faced with the parking and traffic tickets she has accrued since 2021.

Curiously, it feels like many of us are not represented by this ambitious vision. For example, Cheniqua Johnson, who won the Ward 7 seat, where Jane Prince prevailed until her retirement, said she was “taken aback” by the number of responses she got from her constituents after more than a year of outreach by city staff on the St. Paul Bicycle Plan.

Three.

Johnson represents the Dayton’s Bluff, Battle Creek, Mounds Park, Highwood, Conway and Eastview neighborhoods, multiple thousands of people. And three people weighed in?

I emailed Johnson asking her to please call me. I had one question. I got a return email from “team Cheniqua” offering to connect me with Jimmy Shoemaker, St. Paul’s staff go-to for the bicycle plan. I didn’t necessarily want his answer.

Simple question. Doesn’t it seem likely, council member Johnson, that three responses after a year of proselytizing indicates that 163 miles of new bike lanes is the least of your constituents’ problems?

Might it be the least of the city’s problems? Of course, it is. We have pillaged streetlights, vacant tall buildings, shuttered small businesses, unsafe public transportation, car thefts, shootings, high prices for groceries and gas, unsustainable property taxes, jobs, baby needs a new pair of shoes.

Johnson said she was likely to vote for the bicycle plan because many low-income residents don’t have cars.

Apparently, it didn’t occur to her and her sisters on the council that three responses didn’t mean anything in the way of upending the grandiose plans. Didn’t even give them pause. Nor that not having a car or a family’s economic health wasn’t going to be fixed by a new bike lane.

Joe Soucheray can be reached at jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com. Soucheray’s “Garage Logic” podcast can be heard at garagelogic.com.

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