Permit parking is to Light Rail Transit what sound barriers are to highways.
Blocks impacted by LRT commuter parking should be allowed free permit parking.
When a highway is built, it is assumed (at least by those advocating the highway) that the metro population as a whole will benefit. But even if the highway is a net surplus, it is also accepted that a subset of the population, namely those living closest to the highway, will have their quality of life harmed from the highway, namely by the noise.
And it is also accepted that when a highway is built, there is a responsibility to ameliorate the most harmful side-effects of the highway on the immediate neighbors by building sound barriers.
Can you imagine if, at the end of the construction of the highway, construction companies and the government said "whoops, we're running out of money, things are tight, and there will be no sound barriers."
or "you can have sound barriers, but only if you pay $10 a square foot. Those who don't cough up the money won't get the sound barriers"
There would be a huge outcry. People would say that that a great wrong was being done to those living next to the new highway.
The same is true for Light Rail Transit. LRT was built with the idea that as a whole people living in the metro area will benefit. Even so, many living closest to the stops are suffering from the harmful side-effects of LRT by having commuters and partyers park on their streets.
Just as government had the responsibility to put in sound barriers - at no charge to the neighbors - for those living closest to the highway, government also has the responsibility to provide - at no charge to the neighbors - permit parking for impacted blocks.
If we could afford the $800 million for the LRT, we also have an obligation to cough up a few extra dollars to help neighbors impacted by the parking. And remember that most of the people living next to the LRT stops moved in long before there were any plans for building LRT. They never chose to become neighbors to an LRT stop.
I lived a 1/4 mile from an El stop in Chicago, and parking was mahem on blocks with no permit parking. I got involved because I was concerned Minneapolis neighbors could suffer the same problems.
I remember hearing the theories that there would be no problems and we needed no park-and-rides because people would take buses. I'd love to know what cities they were basing this on, because the parking problems I have seen in Chicago and Boston certainly suggested we would have problems here.
Those saying this will go away after the line opens to Mall of America are wrong. At least at 46th St., the commuters are coming from the east, not the south. I doubt St. Paul commuters will be parking at the Mall of America.
Longfellow Community Council has a meeting coming up for 46th St. neighbors to find out what residents like about LRT and what would make LRT a better neighbor.
Tuesday night I was biking to different block parties in Hiawatha to publicize the meeting and to find out what neighbors had to say.
First, in fact most neighbors (at least to date) said they had not yet had big parking problems from LRT. (the Hiawatha neighborhood is east of Hiawatha Ave., and at 46th st. the LRT stop is west of Hiawatha Ave) They reserved most of their parking complaints for weekend visitors to e.g. the Sons of Norway event at Minnehaha Falls.
Then in the same breath they both oohed and aahed about how they liked riding the train, and complained about all the traffic problems.
Everybody knows about the tie-ups at the intersections.
Neighbors said that these problems were spreading into the neighborhood.
Some said they saw increased traffic on Minnehaha parkway and sidestreets as people tried to avoid Hiawatha and 46th. Some were talking about putting in speed bumps to control the increased traffic.
Others complained how traffic on 46th St. was backed up to the river at rush hour, and they could not make left-hand turns onto 46th.
And some also said that they had seen emergency vehicles get tied up in all the traffic delays, and had seen police cruisers zoom over the parkway bridge to avoid 46th and Hiawatha.
Two people also confessed that one of their favorite activities is to set up lawnchairs in their front yard and watch drivers get tangled up in the rotary at Minnehaha Ave. and the parkway.
Jay Clark Cooper
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