Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)
Posted: September 12th, 2014, 11:36 am
I am new here so hopefully I don't start out making enemies. The biggest issue facing transit here is that we need to get more funding as a metropolitan area and you won't get buy in from everyone unless you improve both freeways and transit.
There seems to be a significant amount of misrepresentation directed towards Brooklyn Park and its terminus for the Blue Line extension all over this board.
First, Brooklyn Park and Center are more diverse than Minneapolis and St Paul. The claim I read about a fear of thugs from the northside is ridiculous and just makes this poster seem unfamiliar with BP and BC. Those “thugs” are already out here lol.
Second, stop talking about cornfields. The cornfield across from North Hennepin Community College (not Hennepin Tech as others have mis-stated) has already been decided as the site for the new BP Library. The Cornfield across from Target is the site for a Park and Ride and likely a Metro Transit Maintenance facility. Ironically this alignment passes through some of BP’s most dense areas south of Brooklyn Blvd while north of 85th you have the last remaining portion of the city that is undeveloped. Based on the results of the Green Line I would expect (and am advocating to my council representatives) more dense land use around this. There have been preliminary plans for upscale apartments in the area to house Target employees. BP also has a high concentration of some of the most affordable apartments in the metro not far from Starlight Center that are served by buses that can connect them with the new line as well as within walking distance along West Broadway. Another poster mention Joy Marsh Stephens who is running for mayor and I would agree her platform and goals toward equity and celebrating our city’s diversity are the most likely to leverage this line for good development. Also, with her receiving the DFL nomination I have a feeling our current mayor Lunde will be on his way out and rightfully so.
Third this routing seems to work best considering what it connects. The Green Line is nice but it takes 45 minutes to get from Minneapolis to Union Station which is slower than the bus it replaced. They should have just used a modern street car on this line since they didn’t give the line a dedicated right of way. Finding stretches to pick up speed make sense. Running through the heart of the northside doesn’t make sense as you have community resistance (memories of 94 and 35 cutting through communities) as well as no easy way to give the line good right of way. I agree that running a street car line from say 36th ave in Robbinsdale to serve North Memorial and then down West Broadway into Minneapolis. Perhaps this could even connect to the SW line. There are jobs at both ends of the Blue Line with this configuration.
Another common them I noticed on this thread is this sense of us versus them. Transit needs dedicated funded. Look at how Denver RTD too k their system to a whole new level. They are building multiple lines at once since their taxpayers voted for a dedicated tax to fund it. You know why? Because their leaders actually called out specific projects and mixed Highway expansions and Transit and voters could see that there was a benefit for everybody. That is what we need here. I support transit and love to use it but also we should have modern highways that can have capacity such as widening I-94 between St Cloud and the metro. It is easier to work together than sit and bicker about poor development choices. The reality is most the suburbs here came of age during auto dependent times. Now it is time to fill in transit and do what we can to encourage the build up of density.
I also don’t understand why some are hating on Park and Ride’s. Transit should serve everybody. BP has one of the P&R’s with the highest ridership metro-wide at Noble Pkwy and 610.
There seems to be a significant amount of misrepresentation directed towards Brooklyn Park and its terminus for the Blue Line extension all over this board.
First, Brooklyn Park and Center are more diverse than Minneapolis and St Paul. The claim I read about a fear of thugs from the northside is ridiculous and just makes this poster seem unfamiliar with BP and BC. Those “thugs” are already out here lol.
Second, stop talking about cornfields. The cornfield across from North Hennepin Community College (not Hennepin Tech as others have mis-stated) has already been decided as the site for the new BP Library. The Cornfield across from Target is the site for a Park and Ride and likely a Metro Transit Maintenance facility. Ironically this alignment passes through some of BP’s most dense areas south of Brooklyn Blvd while north of 85th you have the last remaining portion of the city that is undeveloped. Based on the results of the Green Line I would expect (and am advocating to my council representatives) more dense land use around this. There have been preliminary plans for upscale apartments in the area to house Target employees. BP also has a high concentration of some of the most affordable apartments in the metro not far from Starlight Center that are served by buses that can connect them with the new line as well as within walking distance along West Broadway. Another poster mention Joy Marsh Stephens who is running for mayor and I would agree her platform and goals toward equity and celebrating our city’s diversity are the most likely to leverage this line for good development. Also, with her receiving the DFL nomination I have a feeling our current mayor Lunde will be on his way out and rightfully so.
Third this routing seems to work best considering what it connects. The Green Line is nice but it takes 45 minutes to get from Minneapolis to Union Station which is slower than the bus it replaced. They should have just used a modern street car on this line since they didn’t give the line a dedicated right of way. Finding stretches to pick up speed make sense. Running through the heart of the northside doesn’t make sense as you have community resistance (memories of 94 and 35 cutting through communities) as well as no easy way to give the line good right of way. I agree that running a street car line from say 36th ave in Robbinsdale to serve North Memorial and then down West Broadway into Minneapolis. Perhaps this could even connect to the SW line. There are jobs at both ends of the Blue Line with this configuration.
Another common them I noticed on this thread is this sense of us versus them. Transit needs dedicated funded. Look at how Denver RTD too k their system to a whole new level. They are building multiple lines at once since their taxpayers voted for a dedicated tax to fund it. You know why? Because their leaders actually called out specific projects and mixed Highway expansions and Transit and voters could see that there was a benefit for everybody. That is what we need here. I support transit and love to use it but also we should have modern highways that can have capacity such as widening I-94 between St Cloud and the metro. It is easier to work together than sit and bicker about poor development choices. The reality is most the suburbs here came of age during auto dependent times. Now it is time to fill in transit and do what we can to encourage the build up of density.
I also don’t understand why some are hating on Park and Ride’s. Transit should serve everybody. BP has one of the P&R’s with the highest ridership metro-wide at Noble Pkwy and 610.