Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

[grant1simons2]

It may be publicly funded but how many homeless people are paying taxes to fund that? I'm not saying that they have no right to any publicly funded objects but really.. How many citizens downtown do you think are going to agree that we should let people sleep on our benches outside in the elements instead of being indoors in a bed with food and a f-Ing roof

[grant1simons2]

Is there a bench in Minneapolis with spikes? Or are you just saying that because a few cities have done it. And if you're going to go off and say "I'm a strong independent person and I don't need a government," well then why are you in the city!? Where the GOVERNMENT is alive and well

[FISHMANPET]

Many homeless people are mentally ill and don't want to go to a shelter for whatever reason. "Solving" homelessnes is way harder than just making sure there's enough beds for everybody to sleep in, it's non-trivial to get people to actually use those beds.

[talindsay]

Many homeless people are mentally ill and don't want to go to a shelter for whatever reason. "Solving" homelessnes is way harder than just making sure there's enough beds for everybody to sleep in, it's non-trivial to get people to actually use those beds.

Exactly.

[talindsay]

Is there a bench in Minneapolis with spikes? Or are you just saying that because a few cities have done it. And if you're going to go off and say "I'm a strong independent person and I don't need a government," well then why are you in the city!? Where the GOVERNMENT is alive and well

Not a bench, bridges. Transitory people of all sorts seek shelter under bridges during storms, at night, in the winter, etc. To prevent people from doing this, many bridges are now constructed with boulders, uneven surfaces, and in some cases metal spikes to make them inhospitable.

I tend to figure it's not my place to tell people how to live their lives. Many people with a lot of backgrounds live in a city, it's a big part of what makes them more interesting than the monotonous sameness of the ticky-tack suburb I grew up in. In general I think it's better to be generous and try to meet people where they are than to tell them that since they don't conform they need to do what we want.

And now we've veered away from transit, apologies.

[VAStationDude]

http://www.metrotransit.org/downtown-st ... provements

The 5th and Minnesota improvements are underway.

[MSPtoMKE]

If you happen to pick up a new copy of the Metro Transit system map, you'll notice that there are some significant changes. It still uses the same style cartography, but it has been simplified a bit and bus routes are grouped only by Frequent Local Buses, All Day Local Buses, All Day Express Buses, and Rush Hour Buses. Oddly, the cutoff for Frequent service is every 20 minutes, although with many of the improved bus routes in St. Paul running every 20 minutes, I guess I can see why they would want to highlight some of those, and using every 15 minutes leads to a pretty skeletal network. Overall, it is definitely cleaner looking, no more jumbles of different colors coming together in a mess of lines where there is dense coverage. They also have a more detailed Southern Suburbs inset on the reverse, and the Downtown Maps follow the same route groupings as the main map. I like the idea of frequency mapping, but if the core part of a route runs every 20 minutes or better, the whole line is colored as "Frequent", no matter how infrequent some of the branches are. They have also eliminated the frequency chart from the reverse side. Frustratingly, the map is not available on the Metro Transit website, as has been the case since the new website was rolled out. Hopefully they will put it online, the interactive map is not very good at giving an overview of service.

[David Greene]

How many citizens downtown do you think are going to agree that we should let people sleep on our benches outside in the elements instead of being indoors in a bed with food and a f-Ing roof

You're assuming all homeless people *want* a bed and a roof.

[David Greene]

Choosing not to make specific accommodations for the homeless is bad enough, but choosing to take away accommodations just because the homeless may use them - or worse yet, sticking metal spikes under places like bridges to make them impossible as places of shelter - is mean spirited and inhumane.

Hear, hear!

[grant1simons2]

Most homeless that I've talked to have. I ask them about their story and they tell me "All we need is more opportunities. All the shelters get packed. And we feel forgotten. All the churches are really helpful and we love the care they give." Doing a lot of volunteer work in soup kitchens and handing out food I've learned a lot.

[David Greene]

I ask them about their story and they tell me "All we need is more opportunities. All the shelters get packed. And we feel forgotten.

Certainly many (probably most) homeless people want shelter. But that "forgotten" piece is important. There is a non-trivial number of homeless people who prefer the ability to move around freely and not feel tied to or dependent on any person or organization.

We do have shelters downtown and they do get full. I'd certainly welcome more, but I'm not going to go kick people out of parks or prevent them from sleeping under bridges.

There but for the grace of God go I. I've come closer than I care to admit to losing my house. I know plenty of people who have, through absolutely no fault of their own.

[grant1simons2]

What's hard about this is as much as I respect people choice to live outside and not be taken care of by a higher voice and what not, I dont want us to end up similar to Seattle's situation where there are people in tents on the side of the main highway to downtown. A lot of them are empty and ready for wanderers. A lot of garbage is produced near these "campsites" and it makes the city look a little more dirty than it should. Its a hard choice for me and even right now I'm finding myself arguing with myself on the issue. So right now im going to admit I'm really split on this issue

[dragne_SDI]

Complete change of subject by a relatively novice member: Whatever happened with the proposed St. Paul funicular project connecting Downtown to Cathedral Hill? I know it didn't manage to win funding from the Forever St. Paul Challenge last year, but is the idea still moving forward at all or is there any chance that it could come to fruition eventually? I can't help but think of how great of an idea it is, especially after climbing the staircase up to Summit Ave. last week .

[mulad]

I've been thinking about the southern end of route 83 since I recently moved into that area. What do people think about shifting the route to run down one of the streets just east of I-35E? Chatsworth would be the shortest detour (heck, a northbound run would be about 300 ft shorter than the highway, though would probably take a bit longer time-wise), though that wouldn't mesh quite right with existing route 54 stops along West 7th. Going down Milton (maybe with a short northbound hop via Eleanor) or Victoria would allow the existing West 7th & Otto stop to be included.

[seanrichardryan]

U S Bench, http://www.startribune.com/local/minnea ... 82131.html

[Southside]

Southwest Transit is running a double-decker bus today. What's the story behind this? Is it going to be a regular route bus from now on?

[LRV Op Dude]

Southwest Transit is running a double-decker bus today. What's the story behind this? Is it going to be a regular route bus from now on?

Double-decker buses hit the road in Minnesota

[Silophant]

Yep.

The article was kinda unclear. It made it seem that SW transit bought two, and was using both for the fair, but will only be using one for commuter routes? Is the other one just going to sit unused until next year's fair?

[grant1simons2]

I don't know but it wouldn't surprise me at all.

[IllogicalJake]

Yep.

The article was kinda unclear. It made it seem that SW transit bought two, and was using both for the fair, but will only be using one for commuter routes? Is the other one just going to sit unused until next year's fair?

My impression is that they just haven't determined where it'll be used yet, not that it'll go unused.