Michelle: This one's easy. For about two decades rail supporters tried to get a line built along University Avenue between Minneapolis and St. Paul. For many of the reasons suggested here, it was the most logical first line to be built--connecting the two biggest cities in the Metro area. Unfortunately, opposition along Univ. Ave in St. Paul (fueled in part by the legitimate fear that businesses would be irreparably harmed while the road was torn up for several years) largely "derailed" those plans. So Hennepin County Commiss. Peter McLaughlin came up with the "brilliant" idea that we could build a line along the old railroad right of way paralleling Hiawatha, either because that land was already owned by the county/state, or could be acquired less expensively than, say, building a line along 94.
So, the Hiawatha Line is really nothing more than a "demonstration" project to get light rail off the ground in the Twin Cities, the hope being that when all that development happens, opposition will cave in other areas and eventually lines will be built where they might actually be needed. No one in politics will concede this point, of course, for the same reason that nobody among transit proponents is willing to acknowledge the incontrovertible fact that light rail as it is now planned for the Twin Cities will have nothing more than an infintesimal impact on traffic reduction and pollution in the area. Several years ago I attended a program on light rail hosted by, of all organizations, the Taxpayers League. I was as skeptical as anyone that the facts presented would not be legitimate. But I listened intently as an expert from Harvard, after first acknowledging that he had nothing in common politically with the audience (except me, perhaps, given that the m.c. was Jason Lewis and the special guests were then-Rep. Carol Molnau, Phil Krinkie, not-yet-elected Rep. Eric Lipman, etc.), began to describe how light rail numbers were manipulated by municipalities around the country, how proponents of light rail would make all sorts of ambitious promises for what light rail would do to alleviate traffic, etc., but when the numbers didn't add up, precious transit dollars would be shifted from buses to rail, in hopes of forcing people to use rail. There was an especially egregious example of this in L.A., where poor neighborhoods that had high bus ridership saw routes eliminated and people had to walk miles to the nearest rail stop. (This may have been since corrected; I don't know.) There was also the explanation of the "pent-up" demand concept, i.e., that a certain percentage of drivers avoid the freeways because of traffic congestion, but that when light rail comes to a city, the perception is that there will be less traffic on the freeways, so these same people begin using the highways, which may actually result in an increase in traffic on the freeways rather than a reduction. Sure, it sounds crazy to me as well, but the traffic numbers appear to back it up. What's funny is that the local media's biggest proponent of light rail, Steve Berg of the Star Trib, was at the event, never questioned the findings, but never reported on them, either. Instead, he regularly writes his pro-Hiawatha line editorials favoring light rail, sprinkled with anecdotal "success stories" in much the same way he continually serves as the Strib's point person on stadia, routinely telling us how much better our quality of life is because of the Twins and Vikings. What actually got me interested in light rail to begin with was the eery parallel between the phony arguments used by stadium proponents and the similar arguments put forth by Hiawatha Line proponents. Once you debunk the claimed benefits (jobs and wonderful economic benefits when it comes to stadia; less pollution and reduced congestion when it comes to light rail), then you hear all about the wonderful development benefits, and if those seem suspect because of all the tax breaks that seem to end up being part of the process, there's the ultimate do you want to be another "cold Omaha" argument. Hey, if you've read this far, don't get me wrong. I'm all for outdoor baseball (in a carefully designed, architecturally constrained, fan-friendly venue) and smart rail options (PRT or trolley or some creative mix that moves people, not just money). But we'll get neither in this town, because the average citizen doesn't have time to care about ballpark architecture (or why it should matter) and the well-meaning environmental and transit groups don't want to use up their precious political capital fighting traditional, progressive allies like Peter McLaughlin and Marty Sabo (who pushed the project through at the Federal level) in favor of a better system that might have taken longer to win public support. So now we have the Strib telling us how absolutely wonderful it is, less than a month into it, when the data is as meaningless as the attendance boost that new stadia provide. The real question is: what will ridership numbers be five or ten years from now? My guess, not so hot. But then, I think the Mall of America is the biggest economic drain on the local vitality of the core cities and suburbs, and reinforcing that hugely subsidized behemoth and its crappy jobs and profits that leave the state with taxpayer financed transit on the scale of the Hiawatha line ludicrous. But that's a topic for another post I guess. Tom Goldstein Mac-Groveland ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michelle Hoffman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2004 5:17 PM Subject: Re: [StPaul] Last Batch Results - Light Rail on University Ave. Yes I would like to see light rail on University. I know very little about transit issues but have never been able to figure out the Hiawatha Route. I understand it's been in the works a long time but still don't understand why there. In my unexperienced opinion, a lot more working people who need mass transit would be able to benefit on University but I am also aware that it would be quite the project! Michelle Hoffman West Side _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
