A Mixed Bag: NIMBYism falls flat in St. Paul, Biden Makes a Promise, Southwest LRT Opposition, and more!

First off, the St. Pauls City Council voted on Wednesday to approve the final design for the Central Corridor, including the maintenance site in the Diamond Products building! w00t! Failure for NIMBYs! Success for urbanism!

Last week Vice-President Joe Biden spoke in St. Cloud in front of a crowd of about 400 people. He promised that he would secure federal funding for the Northstar extention to St. Cloud. Though he didn't give specifics, this is probably indicative of the new administration's dedication to seeing mass transit get properly funded.

Bidding is out for the platform extensions on the Hiawatha LRT, as well as 17 new cars and the new station in Bloomington, so look for this in the future!

Apparently, the Whitter Alliance has passed a resolution in opposition of ALL the newly-proposed 3C sub-alternatives for the Southwest LRT. No vote was passed in opposition or support of either the 3C or 3A routes, presumably because neither had a clear majority. I personally think that a blaisdell route as per the below map is by far superior to any other routes (I created the map below out of a 3C sub-alternative that I created). CARAG, on the other hand, has passed a resolution in favor of the 3C route. On the below map, the route I propose is shown in blue, while the 3C sub-alternative is shown in red. Note: The furthest station west (Lynlake), while appearing red, is in the same location for both routes.


View Larger Map


Today's image is of a car for the Northstar line that was spotted sitting outside Bombradier's Thunder Bay plant. (from Canadian Public Transportation Forums )

Thanks for reading!

St. Paul City Council Passes Resolution to Delay vote on Thune's NIMBY Proposition

The Saint Paul city council unanimously passed a resolution granting Thune two weeks to clarify his arguments and to look into other locations for the maintenance facility.

If the location of the facility is changed, the project completion date will be pushed back about one year.

Any resident of Saint Paul should contact their ward's city council member immediately to voice their opinion on the urgency of this project. Don't let a few NIMBYs make the whole city wait!

The council will vote on relocating the facility on March 18th.

Thanks for reading, and contact your council members!

St. Paul city Council Infested With NIMBYism

Yikes!

An article appeared in yesterday's Pioneer Press about Lowertown residents opposed to the location of the storage and maintenance facility for the Central Corridor's rolling stock: the old Diamond Products building two blocks east of the line's terminus at the Union Depot.

This is in addition to some concerns voiced last week regarding the cuts to the streetscaping budget for University Avenue in order to counteract inflation and the costs of rebuilding the University & Lexington intersection. There is hope that some funding may be diverted from St. Paul's municipal budget to fill the gap, though it will require the approval of the state legistlature.

The big development here is city council member Dave Thune's support of the NIMBYs, setting off alarms in the offices of Peter Bell, the met council chairman (often seen as the driving force behind mass transit in the region) and mayor Chris Coleman.

Thune remained adamant that he represented the views of all of St. Paul, not just a select group of Lowertown residents, though a Pioneer Press poll shows only 15% of readers supporting Thune's proposal to delay the line until a new location for the mainenance facility can be found.

May I remind you that the new mainenance facility will only be for regular mainenance and all major overhauls will be done at the main facility on the Hiawatha Line, that the facility will be entirely indoors, and that the site is currently occupied by a vacant warehouse.

It's really amazing to see a city council member change positions so suddenly on what is really the only hope to revitalize St. Paul's stagnant downtown.

Thanks for reading!