Would like to know your opinion on how we counter articles such as this from our local paper?
The Biggest Losers on the Central Corridor
The author was a state legislator and is now president of the "Taxpayers League of Minnesota". His op/eds are always anti-rail.
One note on University Avenue (the main route through St. Paul, MN) on the new line: this used to be the commercial/auto dealer/entertainment center of St. Paul. In the past 40 years, all of the auto dealers have left, WalMart and other national chains moved in (using significant tax breaks from the city) but all struggle. Target has built a "Super Target", but it is nearly inaccessible. The rest of the street has many small ethnic and local shops, but is no where near its hayday of 50 years ago. St. Paul is struggling every where. Its downtown has one retail store (Macy's), a few law and insurance offices, a couple of museums and not much else. The Amtrak station is moving from an industrial area to downtown St. Paul. So the future of St. Paul looks good, but in the mean time, the folks along the construction will suffer.
Any ideas?
I enthusiastically support light rail, but many of his arguments are valid.
The primary advantage of light rail over bus is that it always runs on time and at scheduled speeds because it has it's own ROW. When you put light rail down the middle of the street you eliminate that advantage because it becomes subject to the very traffic problems it is intended to avoid. Ripping up the streets for the installation of the rails does indeed cause the problems he is describing. Light rail is not suitable for one block at a time transit. It is much better suited to bringing commuters in from the suburbs to the city core. The best system is for light rail to run from the suburbs into the city core with only a few stops, and bus service from the stops to all those one block apart local routes. The light rail ticket should include the use of those local buses at the end points.
I disagree with his claim that the only users will be the people riding the buses now. When our light rail was planned, I was a doubter. I saw the buses running up and down the road that parallels the new light rail line. The buses ran every half hour and were less than half full any time that I saw them. The planners said that the light rail would hold 260 people and run every 15 minutes and double trains every 7 minutes during rush hour. It sounded like a loony plan to me. But, in fact, the light rail was moving more than 16,000 people a day by the time it was a year old. One parking ramp at the I-485 transit stop was built to hold 1,100 cars. Additional ground level parking lots had to be built because that deck was full by 8:00 AM. That stop is also fed by 3 bus routes.
A shot from that 1120 car parking deck.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
http://www.lightrailnow.org/news/n_cha_2008-08a.htm
Phoebe Vet:
Thanks for the response. I will have to respond to Mr. Krinke with the info from Charlotte. It contains some real data and not mere speculation. Unfortunately, with the ethnic shift of stores along University Avenue in St. Paul, the various merchant's organizations are claiming classism or racism and here we go again.
To be blunt, there are several places that light rail would work in the Twin Cities. The Central Corridor is not among them. Twin City politicans have entangled light rail in their political webs. This project is being crammed down our throats. Someone sees this light rail project as a plan for urban utopia where University Avenue will be expensive apartments and condos and high end shops. This kind of planning was tried in the 1960's as urban renewal with very mixed results. Hennepin County tried something similair in North Minneapolis in the late 90's when they took out houses built in the late 1940's by eminent domain. The plan was to build upscale housing and a park and make a lot of money for the real estate developers. Along came the recession and many of these houses are empty or forclosed.
Station 8 of the St Paul Fire Department is located at University and St Albans in St Paul; directly on the Central Corridor route. Station 8 is the station that will respond to a fire at the Minnesota state capitol. The light rail project will prevent St Paul fire trucks from turning left on University which is the way they would turn if there was a fire there. Real smart planning!!
Just a couple of observations from afar - where I'm lucky enough to NOT have to worry about your local politics.
First, ALL construction of anything more significant than a backyard garage causes chaos in the immediate area.
Second, while the fire station is impacted, the trucks can be moved to a location where they CAN respond. I have seen this at several air bases during ramp construction/maintenance, and my daughter (a firefighter-paramedic) assures me that it's a common practice during street maintenance in Nashville, TN.
Third, putting transport routes parallel to, but removed from, the major business/activity thoroughfare makes them a lot less useful. That leads to low ridership and operating losses. The Las Vegas Monorail, which is located several hundred yards east of the Strip, is a classic example. The monorail trains run with lots of empty seats. On the Strip itself, the local transit authority has had to go to double-deck busses.
Chuck
Chuck:
There is a beautiful rail corridor just north of the University Avenue area. The Great Northern line thru St. Paul is about 10 blocks to the north. But as you say, if you move the transit too far from the center of commerce, it will not be used. That was the primary argument for going right down the middle of the city's major street.
The Fire Station argument is bogus as well. (Plus one could argue that putting out a fire at the State Capitol is not really necessary--they didn't get a thing done in the last session except putting Gay Marriage on the ballot--clearly a waste of the taxpayer's dollars).
And I do sympathize with the merchants. We tried to cross University Avenue last week and it took 10 minutes at the major intersection in town. (One thing that takes time is that they have to tear out all of the old trolley rails embedded in the street from 60 years ago).
Just so you know, the planners of Central Corridor have figured out how the St Paul Fire Department will cross University Avenue.The cost for doing this is huge, of course. Politicans don't mind building $500 toilet seats for the right people.
Let it be known that Phil Krinkie and the Taxpayers League is a "far right Republican" group who have, for many years, been a problem for moderate thinkers in Minnesota. They have ideas that are not supported by the majority of the public.
Asking about how to counter articles sounds like getting into politics.
In today's political climate, a certain amount of political bias is a legitimate part of discussions like this one. I agree, however, that it is a slippery slope and we must be careful it does not just turn into a political food fight.
When it comes to foresight....the general publics ability to see the future is 20/400. The Far Right types view the future through the rear view mirror.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Interestingly, the Legislature has little say in highway construction and reconstruction. The $1B spent every year in Minnesota on road construction is considered routine. We continue to widen bottlenecks of traffic only to have the bottleneck move down the road.
However, if light rail is to be constructed (at roughly $200M/year) it has to jump through every hoop that they can invent. It is amazing that any of this gets done given the hurdles that the state, feds, and local governments create.
Oh and a $1B stadium for incredibly rich people is considered a "Job Creator" where a light rail is a "Small Business Destroyer". Ironically, the stadium produces lots of minimum wage jobs and the light rail some nice middle class jobs.
The Central Corridor project has up front costs of @$1 billion. It's annual operating costs are in the region of of $40 million. I'm not sure where that $200m / year is coming from.
I'm not sure why you bring up the stadium. Phil Krinkie clearly opposes it : http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/05/19/krinkie/
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