Minnesota Taxpayers League President David Strom had a remarkable statement this morning: "Transit just isn't that important to the smooth functioning of the Twin Cities transportation system"...."there just doesn't seem to be much difference in traffic when buses are running and when buses are not. The bus strike shows decisively that proponents of transit are simply not telling the truth when they say that transit ridership reduces congestion."
This ignores a couple things that happened in Minneapolis, at least. First, scores of city employees and business people took extra steps in planning, coordinating car pools, etc. to make those first days a little smoother. This included the city spending additional money to put new traffic control officers on duty, something that is clearly not sustainable long term. Second, and more important, the past two days have seen hundreds of people go through real suffering. I talked to one man who works maintenance downtown who day rode his bike from Hopkins the second day...in the snow. We have been getting many other calls from people going through other real challenges because the buses aren't running, and it's important right now to tell those stories. Toward that end I could use your help. Could people, either on list or direct to me, tell stories they have heard about what people have had to go through with the buses not running.....My goal is to have enough of these that I can get them into the media when they are trying to determine whether Strom is right or not. Much of the discussion has centered about those coming in and out of downtown, which is important, but I am especially interested in those whose experience and stories may fall through the cracks in other parts of town. On a related topic, there was a very good letter in the paper this morning by John Akre that leaders of Minneapolis and St. Paul need to help the Metropolitan Council develop a broader consensus for transit in the region. I told John this morning that he's right and there is at least the beginning of some good news on this front: I was at the Met Council Monday for a meeting of Chair Bell, representatives of metropolitan chambers of commerce (including Twin West, Minneapolis and St. Paul) and several mayors (including me and the Mayors of Bloomington and Minnetonka). The goal was for the chambers and the Mayors to work together on moving a multimodel transportation system. This is good news to have the business community helping aggressively on this, which I believe is what is needed to oppose those in the Legislature who have been so anti transit. There are a couple other business/government coalitions that are growing around this, too. Mayor Kelly and I successfully got The Itasca Group, a coalition of ceos of corporations, to take on transit as one of their key initiatives. I also spoke to Charlie Weaver, head of the Business Partnership, yesterday and he, too, seems to be willing to play a role in moving transit issues forward. Another coalition that has been moved forward by Rep. Frank Hornstein and Sen. Scott Dibble is a group of mayors along 35W...We are collectively pushing the idea of bus rapid transit on 35. Also CM Schiff is working on streetcar options and CM Zimmerman is working on PRT It's important for Minneapolis officials keep pushing transit forward....but I'm especially hopeful that these business-government partnerships are what is needed to get around the flat earth society that doesn't see the gridlock that is growing around them. Anyway, that's a long way of asking for help in getting the stories of people who are had to make sacrifices during the bus strike. R.T.Rybak REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
