[Winona Online Democracy]
A historical viewpoint about the tracks that run through the city of Winona
creating traffic problems. I don't know the year they were built, but I
would venture a guess that it was in the 1800's. The story that I heard was
that the Milwaukee Road wanted to come through Winona on a route to Chicago,
but the city council (then strongly influeced by the Chicago-Northwestern)
refused to grant any right of way through the then confines of Winona. The
Milwaukee then built its tracks outside the city (on its South side) and
solved the problem - - at least for the Milwaukee Railroad. Later the city
expanded beyond its then borders necessitating many crossings in the city.
At lease, that's the way I heard it. Maybe someone else has a better
version of the story. If so, I'll be happy to be corrected.
----- Original Message -----
From: "jjs" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2005 7:59 AM
Subject: [Winona] RE: 10 Million $$ for an Underpass
[Winona Online Democracy]
In my humble opinion, Evert Salo points to a critical matter: "We sorely
need a city-wide plan to expedite traffic, not only intra-city but through
town in an expeditious manner."
Yes. It should have preceded the commitment to the train traffic. But I
imagine that the under/over-passes were "just one of those things we could
not think of" as we slid into helplessness resignation.
$10,000,000 expense to the taxpayers was not a consideration of the
environmental impact study, so I guess it is not an environmental metric,
which is to say we have no choice. Or do we? I am not smart enough to
know, but perhaps this group is not dumber than any single one of us. Or
is it?
If the expense of the underpass were ZERO we would still be paying too
much in terms of the physical degradation of our city, and possibly the
dispiriting of the population due to the negative consequences of the
unit-trains, to say nothing of the train-induced fatalities that have
occurred, with statistics promising that the worst of is yet to come.
Don Salyards once wrote to suggest it was selfish of us to not consider
the benefit of the coal being delivered to the Eastern part of the
country. I remain puzzled by that statement. The train company did not
engineer this arrangement for altruistic reasons. There is something in it
for them. What's in it for us, and why is it so wrong to ask?
The point of this whining: Well, let's have it - can anyone point to study
of the REST OF THE consequences of the trains, overpass, underpass and so
forth so that we (I) can make plans to move away from Ground Zero while we
can afford to?
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