I am sorry that I started this thread and then went out of town for a week,
which is why I have not responded until now.
I did not mean to turn this into another dialogue on the value of light
rail. In fact, I am somewhat ambivalent on the subject for many of the
conflicting reasons that have already been discussed on this list.
However, no one has come up with even an unreasonable argument, much less a
compelling one, for why light rail must go down 5th St. Tim Erickson did
pass along a summary from Dayna Kennedy, the Communications Manager for the
Metro Transit/Hiawatha line, but it addresses the situation from the time
of the lawsuit, who should pay and not the reason that LR is sited on 5th
St.
Again, why was it so necessary to even incur the expenses to move the
utilities from 5th St.? I agree that utilities do get a benefit from
locating lines under city streets and also agree that they should pay for
most moves. However, since there apparently was a plan MANY years ago to
put all utilities under 5th St., it seems to me that the city long ago
abdicated their right to change the rules on the surface of that street
without an extremely good reason. With so many choices of streets in
downtown, I still can't see why 5th St. had to be chosen.
Nancy Alcorn
Prospect Park
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