Of late, I
have been following the struggles of the Southwest Light Rail project, as
the regional government Met Council tries
to quiet NIMBY opposition to its latest mass transit project, which is
meant to take commuters from downtown Minneapolis through the southwestern
suburbs.
In Part
1 I focus on the efforts of state Democrats to quell intra-party opposition
to the train’s routing, using your tax dollars, of course.
Tonight, the Met Council visited the
suburb of St. Louis Park, hoping
to quiet critics of a plan to reroute nearby freight trains to accommodate the
light rail service.
The Star
Tribune declared the locals “skeptical.”
Pat Doyle reports,
A new search for ways to reroute freight train
traffic to make room for the Twin Cities’ biggest light-rail line came under
fire Thursday night by St. Louis Park residents
who opposed earlier plans for moving the freight to their city.
I had hoped to swing by and take in a
bit of the meeting, in person, but I couldn’t even get into the packed parking
lot. My man on the scene filed this
report from inside the building.
We had between 200 and 300 people in attendance, not counting the hockey
game going on elsewhere in the building.
It was an interesting meeting. This
evening’s event was conducted town hall-style, instead of the table talk format
used for Tuesday’s Kenwood (Minneapolis) meeting.
St. Louis Park is united that they do not want the reroute. Quite a few Minneapolis residents also spoke
against the reroute and a few even were for the co-location alternative with an
elevated or relocated bike trail. For
its part, the Met Council has dismissed that alternative even though it is the
least expensive option.
Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment