1mo ago

Jared Polis vows to chain himself to Colorado Capitol plaza to stop $28 million pedestrian bridge that he proposed

coloradosun.com

17 comments

Not a single person would ever walk on that thing. It looks at least twice as long as the direct path.
- Alternative solution, block off the road to get ready for construction. Then realize it's nice not having that road there, and get rid of it. Money saved and it's nicer.
  
  That was my proposed alternative I encouraged my friends to call about. I don't know how it wasn't obvious that if your goal was to increase pedestrian safety and encourage visiting your park in the middle of downtown (which was the public justification in the survey) that the best way to do that would be to get rid of the 2 highways trisecting your park. Grass them over to both remove traffic and increase park space, install meandering leisure paths through a history walk, and have local Coloradoan artists produce for a dedicated Coloradoan history sculpture park.
  Oh, and if you really, really want members of the public to use your public park get rid of the helicopter parent rangers that yell at you for touching the oldest tree in Denver or for falling asleep, get rid of the signs that forbid standing still or loitering (at a fucking park of all places), and don't close off the grass areas periodically.
  You could even go so far as to install more trash cans or make the bathrooms available 24/7.
  It's not that the public didn't care about your fake liberty bell, it's that your park is kinda a hostile environment with shitty infrastructure.
- It was supposed to have info panels on it and the reason it’s so goofy is because that area is designated at a National Landmark so it was designed to comply with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for preservation.
  I don’t mind the sentiment of linking the state with the city but yes, that bridge is a waste of money and only detracts from the space.
The bridge was the governor’s idea to celebrate the state’s 150th anniversary. But it was panned by lawmakers, historic preservationists and, apparently, the public.
The bridge would have been paid for by private donations, though the state shelled out $1.5 million in planning costs.
- Who the fuck is privately donating $28.5 million to the state to build a walkway in front of tne capitol? I don't really have an opinion on the bridge itself but I really want to know who's throwing money at this.
That's not a pedestrian bridge. A pedestrian bridge is designed to efficiently get pedestrians from one place to another.
That's a monument or memorial. It's potential a cultural art center or other city resource to make the space interesting/informative/engaging. Calling it a pedestrian bridge isn't doing it justice.
That said, I'm in strong favor of pedestrian resources and cities building interesting architecture to make the city itself interesting & beautiful, but this one's ugly as fuck and shouldn't be built.
I am failing to comprehend what is going on here. He wants to stop a bridge, that was his idea? Am I reading that right?
- Yes, because no one else wants it, including: lawmakers, preservationists, and the public. It was a design by committee project that the public had no real say in what it would be or look like. No one liked it when it was finally unveiled.
- The article that is linked in the post explains it pretty well.
Just build tiny houses, Polis! That boondogle would have just been inadequate shelter for the homeless anyway.
Build affordable housing!
He has courage I give him that

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