Four months ago I posted a query in this forum asking what was going on for
the
planning of housing and parking for the Hiawatha LRT line.
I did not get one reply in the forum. One nice person did who felt the same
as I,
that something should be done and that we should know about it, did reply to
me privately.
Now we have a 1200 word article in the Pioneer Press detailing what might
happen
at 46th and Hiawatha. And not word from those here who are concerned about
parking lots and Dairy Queens and who will get elected in their own
neighborhoods.
Several postings have mentioned this PPD article from last Sunday, but nary
a comment!
People, wake up! This is more than a neighborhood forum. They are spending
three quarters of a BILLION dollars building a line from downtown to the
airport and nothing is being done to make sure that it works. It may
reshape the city, or it may prove to be the biggest boondoggle ever.
I live about five blocks from the proposed 38th street station. I plan to
take the train once.
Just for fun. Why should I walk 7 or 8 blocks when I can stroll across the
street and
catch the No. 7 at my leisure. Thousands of my neighbors no doubt feel the
same way.
If you want this project to be a success, you will have to start planning
for the housing, parking and shopping facilities which will make it work.
Or maybe you don’t want to plan. I have considered possible alternatives
you probably use to justify your position:
1. It is a make-work project for short term employment. It doesn’t matter
if it works or not.
2. This is just a beginning. We won’t worry about housing and parking until
we finish the University Avenue line, the Southwest Corridor, the St. Cloud
Commuter Line, the Rochester Connection, and the other projects on the
drawing board.
3. It will make us feel good so we can say “we’re just like the big cities.”
4. It is a way to develop the land which was purchased in 1959 and which has
been sitting idle ever since. We can use the land for something else if it
doesn’t work.
5. We don’t want to offend anyone, so rather than impose on the neighborhood
by providing more traffic and noise, we’ll just build the LRT and then hope
that it will go away. Someone else will solve the problem after I’ve
ensured my reputation for history and clairvoyance.
6. Bicycles are the real answer. If we can wait long enough, Global Warming
will provide the climate which will make this a year round cycling
community, free of pollution,
7. I was always against it; so let someone else solve the problem. I want
to be able to say “I told you so.”
8. It’s not my neighborhood. It’s their turn. My neighborhood gets its
project next year.
Well, according to the PPD, planning is finally being done by the “hated
private sector” whose teams of developers have already begun to explore the
possibilities. No one participating in this forum seems to be involved.
They’re involved in important stuff like elections and Dairy Queens and
parking lots. What vision!
For the record, I see there is over a mile of older commercial and
industrial properties on the east side of Hiawatha that are ripe for
redevelopment. They are adjacent to the railroad tracks that should have
been used for the LRT project.
I imagine the developers see those also. Who will determine what it will
look like?
Ray Marshall
Hiawatha
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