Green Line Extension - Southwest LRT

[grant1simons2]

A business model?

Are we talking about him worrying about having to lose an entire complex because he claims he wouldn't be able to run the apartments with the line so close? or the lady he brought

Edit: I've made a mistake, I thought we were talking about Stewart Nolan who was at last nights meeting

http://www.stuartco.com/ these are actually nice apartments

[Anondson]

The apartment developer's larger point is that his apartments will be negatively affected by the close presence of the line with little benefit. The woman he brought was the CFO? She mentioned that the Smetana area is dense with apartments and Minnetonka's enclave of affordable housing, his developments are big part of the area, and she suggested there should be a walk-up station to serve these thousands of residents. Residents who will be impacted by the line they can't use, but a walk up station at smetana would bring more users access and help mitigate the impact the destruction to the wilderness the construction will cause.

I kind of agree a walk up Smetana station is a good call. Far more benefit than Mitchell.

[grant1simons2]

Both Mitchell and the Smetana would be used. New apartments are going up near Mitchell and it's right next to the Eaton building, City Hall, Water Treatment Plant, and multiple existing town homes and apartments. I agree Smetana would be great, and yes I got very screwed up to whom we were discussing, that man had some good points even though I don't think the rail will destroy nature

[mattaudio]

But the question isn't whether something will be used, or to what extent... the question is if something will add value in a productive manner, and if it will have a return on investment. I can't imagine a scenario where a Mitchell station has a return on investment that places it above other transit investment possibilities.

[grant1simons2]

This is true. The further I thought about it, the more stupid I think it is to have Mitchell and Southwest since they're so close. It's literally a 1 minute drive between the two. I digress

[Tcmetro]

Yesterday's CMC presentation has been posted. Still awaiting Minneapolis' municipal consent hearing. That one will likely be the most entertaining.

http://metrocouncil.org/getdoc/369b889a ... ation.aspx

[MSPumpkins]

This is true. The further I thought about it, the more stupid I think it is to have Mitchell and Southwest since they're so close. It's literally a 1 minute drive between the two. I digress

Move the station and Park & Ride to Wallace. That way people coming from 212 can avoid getting on 5 all together. If it was an issue of saving cost, I don't think anyone would be too upset with it being left out as long as it was promised to be built later, if needed. Similar to the flyover ramp on from 494 E to 169 N. Sometimes I wish we would build things in smaller phases so we could at least see some sort of progress.

[Silophant]

This is true. The further I thought about it, the more stupid I think it is to have Mitchell and Southwest since they're so close. It's literally a 1 minute drive between the two. I digress

Par for the course, I'm afraid. Mitchell and SW stations will be about 4,000 feet apart. Bloomington has three stations (28th Ave, Bloomington Central, and American Boulevard) in less space than that, to say nothing of Hennepin and Nicollet having separate stations a block apart.

[Mdcastle]

Is there enough parking at Southwest, or if not can more be built there?

[MSPumpkins]

^ Wasn't it in the plans somewhere to build another garage? Now I'm not sure. I would think they would need to though. I grew up in Eden Prairie and my parents still live there. A couple times I stayed at their house during the school year and would take the bus from SW station to campus and that garage was always crazy busy. I wouldn't think it could handle a whole lot more capacity. Maybe that's the point of the station at Mitchell? (Or Wallace!)

[Tcmetro]

I believe they wanted to add something like 900 spaces to SW Station and terminate the line there, but the new plan is to keep the extension to Mitchell Road, with a 500 space parking lot, and demolish the SW Station building and replace it with a 400 space parking expansion.

[Anondson]

SWLRT community outreach placed this poster at The Depot this week.

SWLRT Outreach at Depot by xeoth, on Flickr

Highlighting the affects in the vicinity, like the LRT bridge over Excelsior, the Blake station and the proposed new road through the megablock with a Right-In-Right-Out on Blake Avenue through to a stoplight on Pierce. Of most note to The Depot is the rendering showing how close the LRT trains will come to the bike trails currently in use.

Tight squeeze to fit the trail/LRT/freight, but The Depot and the bike trails will be intact.

[Mdcastle]

Better build a tunnel so you don't have to look at a train on a rail corridor.

[HoratioRincewind]

Every day I grow more and more amazed at the ineptitude of the leaders of the city of Minneapolis. I would be hard pressed to find any Mayor nationwide who gathered all the goodwill they took office with, stacked it up neatly and lit that shit on fire any faster than Betsy Hodges has.

Deadlines loom for $1.68 billion Southwest light-rail project

As deadlines loom for the $1.68 billion Southwest Corridor light-rail project, concern is growing that Minneapolis hasn’t scheduled a public hearing needed to move it forward....

“I’m not sure why one hasn’t been scheduled,” said spokeswoman Kate Brickman....

Under state law, the cities could take a tougher stance, rejecting the Southwest plan and amending it with necessary conditions. But that strategy could trigger a new round of discussions and votes that could further delay or torpedo the project....

Another possible source of a deal involves the desire of some Minneapolis city officials to build streetcar lines.

“Mayor Hodges has always talked about streetcars as one of her big initiatives,” Brickman, the mayor’s communications director, said this week. “We have heard rumors of the Met Council wanting to use streetcars as a bargaining chip.” The Met Council declined to comment on the assertion.

Brickman declined to comment on whether Hodges has made streetcars a condition of the city supporting Southwest, citing the ongoing mediation sessions between Met Council members, city officials and retired federal Chief Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan. “Our guiding principle is respect for the confidentiality of mediation,” she said.

That article, from this morning, was followed this afternoon by the exchange summed up in the lede of this article: Hodges disputes account of light rail talks.

It's obvious some of the staff in Minneapolis think they can play 3D chess, but this process has been so butchered by the city I'd want an in person demonstration they could make it through a game of Connect 4 with a toddler before I believed it.

[David Greene]

That article, from this morning, was followed this afternoon by the exchange summed up in the lede of this article: Hodges disputes account of light rail talks.

It's obvious some of the staff in Minneapolis think they can play 3D chess, but this process has been so butchered by the city I'd want an in person demonstration they could make it through a game of Connect 4 with a toddler before I believed it.

I give the Mayor a thumbs up on this one. From that blog post, it's clear Pat Doyle was looking for a juicy story and he was going to tell his version no matter what Brickman said. She clearly denied anything about streetcars several times but Pat went with it anyway. If any mistake was made by city staff, it was in talking to Pat Doyle, who has been either incompetent or a conniving weasel in all of his reporting on SWLRT. I'm not sure which it is.

[Silophant]

^This.

What, you think the Minneapolis government should just roll over and accept the current plan, which completely screws Minneapolis over, without even attempting to extract concessions from the Met Council to try to lessen the impact of this mistake?

[HoratioRincewind]

So Martin Sabo is going to be holding a press conference addressing the SWLRT. You can't be for sure what he's going to say, but I think this is probably a good preview of his comments.

[mattaudio]

Does he live in Kenwood? Or does he just want better transit?

[MNdible]

Not sure where Martin lives, but my sense is that Julie Sabo is one of the Kenilworth neighbors.

[Viktor Vaughn]

Well she makes some great points, even if her motives are less than pure.