Blue Line Extension - Bottineau LRT

[Bakken2016]

In a twist no one could have expected, the gambit to avoid the NIMBYs on Lyndale by routing down 10th and Washington has run into NIMBYs on 10th.

Just submitted a letter to the editor due to their one-sided reporting, they didn't interview a single person that lives near 10th Ave(like me) that supports the project.

[Silophant]

Glad to hear it! Honestly an embarrassing article from Janet Moore, who's usually pretty good. Just transparently bad faith to uncritically repeat arguments that removing car traffic from 10th would make it worse to walk on. My bike commute goes through there and I see people get almost hit by cars as they try to cross 10th at 3rd on a depressingly regular basis.

[Bakken2016]

A few of us in the North Loop are in the early stages of starting a pro Blue Line Extension group as well, more on that soon!

[thespeedmccool]

A few of us in the North Loop are in the early stages of starting a pro Blue Line Extension group as well, more on that soon!

God bless. We need more project-specific transit advocacy in the Cities (that is, not just vaguely "pro-transit," but "pro-BLX" or "pro-Purple Line" or whatever.)

[Tom H.]

"This street is too narrow for light rail!"
"We want to keep our neighborhood walkable!"

Somehow keeping the apparently "too-narrow" street open to unhindered vehicle traffic is more pedestrian-friendly than running like 10-12 LRT trains per hour on a transit mall?

Yeah, this has a lot of "concerned citizens" vibes to it (read: people arguing in bad faith).

[MNdible]

I'm not opposed to the 10th Avenue routing, but I think it needs to be acknowledged that the street does serve a critical purpose in circulation around the area.

[Tcmetro]

Extending 8th Ave between 3rd St and 5th St would be a good way to keep the access between North Loop and Oak Lake Ave.

[Bakken2016]

Extending 8th Ave between 3rd St and 5th St would be a good way to keep the access between North Loop and Oak Lake Ave.

I believe that is in the proposal for the project!


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[MNdible]

The presentation materials I've seen suggest extending 8th Avenue only to 4th Street, and that is just a dashed line on a single map. If they did extend it to 3rd Street (and by extension to Washington using the existing street), that would help somewhat. But even then, you lose the connection through to 2nd Street, and the connection to 7th Street isn't great.

[Bakken2016]

The presentation materials I've seen suggest extending 8th Avenue only to 4th Street, and that is just a dashed line on a single map. If they did extend it to 3rd Street (and by extension to Washington using the existing street), that would help somewhat. But even then, you lose the connection through to 2nd Street, and the connection to 7th Street isn't great.

ahhh, well anyways car drivers can be a bit inconvenienced for the betterment of public transportation.

[twincitizen]

If the wheels were already in motion to remove the 3rd/4th St North Loop viaducts, the 10th Ave segment of LRT could probably be elevated.

[thespeedmccool]

If the wheels were already in motion to remove the 3rd/4th St North Loop viaducts, the 10th Ave segment of LRT could probably be elevated.

Yes, let's add $100 million to the project budget and gobs of needless complexity only to further foment opposition by actually harming the character of 10th Avenue. That will make the Blue Line Extension politically viable.

Planners and transit advocates need to start ignoring NIMBYs, not acquiescing to them at every turn. Maybe if we stop giving them the oxygen, their political flame will burn out.

[Tom H.]

I'm sure a shallow tunnel under 10th will do the trick!

[BoredAgain]

Considering the current road arrangement in the neighborhood, removing cars from 10th WOULD notably change the ability of people in cars to navigate the area.

As we have discussed here before, a NETWORK is important to allow movement, even for cars. If 10th were closed, all of the cross streets would essentially become dead-ends north of 6th or 7th. Some people are still going to drive to get to homes and businesses in the area. Cutting off any ability to navigate reasonably will in fact have an effect, and my guess is that it will be negative.

Not all complaints about rail plans are unreasonable. You don't need to cancel plans, but accommodating existing residents is a thing we can work through.

[Nick]

At this point, I have a medium-length list of places in my head where there was a redevelopment and we missed an opportunity to reconnect the grid. We blew a lot of money on watercolors for unnecessary small area plans in random parts of the city from ~1990 to ~2015, while there were a lot of areas (North Loop, north side of the lake, Mill District, U area) that were rapidly changing and could have used a more proactive approach by buying future right of way or requiring easements to be left.

[twincitizen]

Even more frustrating with 10th Avenue is that it wouldn't have been too difficult to acquire a little more ROW along the N/NW side of the street prior to the couple of developments (1001 and 1010 3rd St N) that went in as recently as 2017-18.

[daveybabymsp]

IMO making car trips less convenient while improving walking, biking, and transit connectivity is exactly what we should be doing in thriving downtown neighborhoods like North Loop


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[twincitizen]

There's a North Loop Community meeting on this tonight:
BLRT North Loop Community Meeting
Wednesday, October 18 | 5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
The Neu Neu
514 N 3rd St #101

And the new alignment through North will be discussed at:
Ward 5 Blue Line Extension Community Discussion
Monday, October 30 | 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Juxtaposition Arts
2007 N Emerson Ave

More engagement opportunities here: https://metrocouncil.org/Transportation ... rials.aspx

[Trademark]

There's a North Loop Community meeting on this tonight:
BLRT North Loop Community Meeting
Wednesday, October 18 | 5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
The Neu Neu
514 N 3rd St #101

And the new alignment through North will be discussed at:
Ward 5 Blue Line Extension Community Discussion
Monday, October 30 | 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Juxtaposition Arts
2007 N Emerson Ave

More engagement opportunities here: https://metrocouncil.org/Transportation ... rials.aspx

I'll be there tonight around 6

[Tom H.]

For anyone who attended - any new information presented?