March 8 meeting, 974 West 7th, 651-298-5599. Web: fortroadfederation.org; e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Annual Meeting
April 19, 7 p.m. at the Summit Brewery, 910 Montreal Circle. This is the meeting where the Federation reports to the community at large on its accomplishments for the previous year and learns what the community as a whole feels are the important issues for the upcoming year. If you want to know what is happening in the West End, or just meet your neighbors, this is a very important event.

Posted December 5, 2009

The November meeting was held on the 9th.  The next monthly meeting is set for 7 p.m., December 14 at 974 West 7th St. For more information, call (651) 298-5599, visit www.fortroadfederation.org or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

West 7th & Montreal Intersection
Dennis Rosemark, aide to Council Member Harris, spoke about some initial studies on accidents at the intersection of West Seventh, Montreal, and Lexington. The largest category is “sideswipe” accidents between people turning left one way or the other. This is due in part to the large number of turns from Montreal to Seventh, but also due to the poor alignment of turn lanes that does not allow a good view of cars turning from the other directions.

The initial proposal is to eliminate parking on the south side of Montreal, south of Seventh to create a left turn lane from westbound Montreal to westbound Seventh. The Board agreed that this was reasonable, but encouraged further study. The volume of cars from the I-35E off ramp trying to make their way to Shepard was raised, with the best solution being to move the off ramp to Shepard for traffic in the first place. This and other solutions will be examined by Public Works and presented at the next meeting.

During this discussion, Alexandria “Alex” Mardell was struck by a car directly across West Seventh from the Federation office. She later died from her injuries. Her death at the young age of 20 is a terrible reminder of how dangerous a busy street like Seventh can be at times. Our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family. A street-side memorial to Alex can be seen at the corner of West Seventh and Daly.

Problem Property Committee
Dave Bredemus presented the results of a meeting held between residents dealing with problem properties on Colborne and Michigan with Police, Fire, and Code Enforcement agents of the City. One of the issues raised was that not all police calls to some of the properties were being logged because they were not registered as official “problem properties,” a situation that has been corrected.

Since this time, the tenants that were responsible for some fairly extreme incidents over the summer have moved on, although all charges related to what was called a “small riot” were dropped as the “victim” did not want to prosecute. Some neighbors are going to try to have charges reinstated, naming the neighborhood as the “victim.”

Because some of the buildings are empty, concern was raised that this puts the landlords in a bad position with no money coming in, so an effort is being made to help them fill their units with tenants who will be responsible.

Schmidt Brewery Water
There have been some delays in bringing the filters online, but we expect to have the full revamped water system up and operating by Thanksgiving. This is a self-service system with the cleanest well water around, the proceeds going to benefit the Federation and the West Seventh Community Center.