More money needed on road repair, says Minneapolis mayoral candidate

Cam Winton
Minneapolis mayoral candidate Cam Winton stood in a pothole to emphasize his concerns about the condition of the city's roads. The section of 38th St. where the pothole is located, at the intersection of Zenith Ave. in Linden Hills, is scheduled to be repaved this fall.
MPR Photo/Curtis Gilbert

City streets have been neglected and are suffering because too much is spent on bike lanes and public art, says Cam Winton, running for Minneapolis mayor.

Winton said Minneapolis should redirect that money to road repair.

Potholes are an inevitable part of spring, Winton acknowledges, but needlessly problematic.

"The quality of our city's roads cannot be justified just by saying, 'oh, it's pothole season,'" Winton said. "We have a broader problem in that we have not spent enough money on maintaining the quality of our city's roads."

Winton suggests additional road funding could come from savings achieved by merging some city departments with Hennepin County.

Data show the pavement condition in Minneapolis has declining since at least the mid-1990s, but in the last three years the overall quality of the city's streets has actually been improving.

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