Other street closures not like Second Avenue

Mayor Ron Corbett has indicated that the closure of First Street SE for the new federal courthouse and the planned closure of Third Street SE for a new events center have not caused traffic problems. This is an unfair comparison since neither of those streets is a major cross-city arterial that is heavily used.

Closing even two blocks of Second Avenue (for a proposed medical mall) would result in greater traffic on First Avenue, a street already experiencing traffic congestion. Changing streets to two-way traffic after decades of being one-way travel will cause confusion for many drivers and increase the accident rate. Note that Eighth Avenue, another cross-city arterial, was not closed for the new federal courthouse.

Our downtown district is successfully using skywalks. A skywalk across Second Avenue would allow traffic to continue using the street and allow access to services across the street.

Elva L. Green

Cedar Rapids