Transit for Livable Communities (TLC) and Surface Tranportation Policy Project (STPP)invite you to join other local advocates for transit, walking, and biking to participate in a special workshop...
Moving from the Margins to the Mainstream:Using the Federal Surface Transportation LawTo Meet the Mobility Needs of Your Community
April 11 (10 am to 6 pm) & April 12 (7:30 am to 2:30 pm)
Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota
301 19th Avenue S, Minneapolis, MN
Register Here: www.transact.org/2006workshops/
This workshop will give you the insights and face-to-face opportunities to forge strategic partnerships to help you expand transit, increase pedestrian and bicycle travel, improve safety of all system users, and conform transportation investments to the context of your community.
SAFETEA-LU User’s Guidebook will serve as the core background material for the workshop sessions.
Participants Include:
Anne Canby, President, STPP; and former Commissioner Delaware DOT
Barb Thoman, Program Director, Transit for Livable Communities
Federal Transit / Federal Highway Administration Representatives
Metropolitan Council Staff
Local and Midwest Regional Transit Advocates
Cost: Free
Register for the Workshop:
1) By going to www.transact.org/2006workshops/
Similar workshops are taking place across the country. When registering be sure to select that you want to attend the Twin Cities workshop.
For More Information: Contact Dave Van Hattum at davevh@tlcminnesota.org
Note: If you can only attend one day please attend Tuesday, April 11.
2006-03-27
mpls: Walkable City?
I'm a big big fan of The Rake Magazine, not only because it boasts my favorite local journalist, but beacuse of the way it encourages reluctant suburban enclave dwellers to get out and explore our diverse city. Sure that might mean they target a yuppie audience with writeups of the new BMW 330, but that's the price we pay for living in sprawl-ville.
Anyway, there's a must read article by Jennifer Vogel about whether or not the T.C. is pedestrian friendly. (Easy answer: "No.")
Every time I go to New York, I end up walking miles and miles every day -- simply because it comes so naturally there, where the streets are filled with things (people, shops, funky buildings) to see. Here, not so much. The few times I walk any great distance around my forgotten nook of Saint Paul I end up feeling like a Mongolian goat herder or something.
Sure it's getting better (thanks, streetscaping), but there's still a long way to go. The basic problem: in order to make a city walkable, there needs to be something to walk to. I'm luckier than most, because there's a corner store three doors down from my house, and many many people in the neighborhood walk to it for groceries, homemade brats, or smokes. In the summer, kids ride their bikes there for a candy bar -- it's fun to watch.
But, there's a long way to go before people actually feel like going for a stroll in this town. And every time I see a new condo with a street-level parking ramp my heart sinks. There, but for the grace of God, could have been an interesting storefront. It might seem a tad simplistic, but the city should really really discourage putting concrete walls at eye level -- simply so that people have something to look at when they're walking around the block. And if you're still not convinced, go stand in front of the CVS store at Snelling and University . . .
Anyway, there's a must read article by Jennifer Vogel about whether or not the T.C. is pedestrian friendly. (Easy answer: "No.")
I marched along the sidewalk on Marshall Street Northeast, as cars spit up beads of gravel like BBs. I crossed littered sidewalks, closed sidewalks, unshoveled sidewalks. At the foot of the Broadway Avenue bridge, which has to be one of the most unpleasant in the Twin Cities, I was stopped in my tracks by a driver idling in a crosswalk. Of course, he was looking the other way. The backs of drivers’ heads are now very familiar to me, but in those days, as a new walker, the experience was fresh. “Hey!” I yelled, to no avail. The streets of Minneapolis can be lonely and infuriating for those on foot, but blaming local drivers for not noticing pedestrians is akin to blaming Africans for not knowing all the words for snow.
As I headed into downtown, I found my route blocked by The Landings, an enormous suburban-style condominium development that runs along West River Parkway. I picked my way through a labyrinth of winding sidewalks designed to look private (and maybe they are), parking lots, and all manner of fencing. The few gates that would allow passage were so cleverly disguised that I had to squint to detect them.
Every time I go to New York, I end up walking miles and miles every day -- simply because it comes so naturally there, where the streets are filled with things (people, shops, funky buildings) to see. Here, not so much. The few times I walk any great distance around my forgotten nook of Saint Paul I end up feeling like a Mongolian goat herder or something.
Sure it's getting better (thanks, streetscaping), but there's still a long way to go. The basic problem: in order to make a city walkable, there needs to be something to walk to. I'm luckier than most, because there's a corner store three doors down from my house, and many many people in the neighborhood walk to it for groceries, homemade brats, or smokes. In the summer, kids ride their bikes there for a candy bar -- it's fun to watch.
But, there's a long way to go before people actually feel like going for a stroll in this town. And every time I see a new condo with a street-level parking ramp my heart sinks. There, but for the grace of God, could have been an interesting storefront. It might seem a tad simplistic, but the city should really really discourage putting concrete walls at eye level -- simply so that people have something to look at when they're walking around the block. And if you're still not convinced, go stand in front of the CVS store at Snelling and University . . .
elections: Electoral College Pro and Con
The Strib had an Op-Ed today on the state-by-state Electoral College proposal. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir, but this is important.
Now that Minnesota is a battleground getting lots of attention, it's a lot to ask the Legislature to do the right thing and endorse the new compact. But it really should. So should other states -- both red and blue -- join, for the sake of a better democracy.
What's Minnesota "getting" out of being a swing state? High dollar campaigns? Local media ad buys? High profile appointments for ambitious pols?
Frankly, who cares? The electoral college is an embarrassment, and there's no reason Minnesota shouldn't board the reform train.
If you need more proof, look no further than the Washington Post columnist David Broder's opinion piece arguing against the state-by-state E.C. reform. Here's his main argument:
That's the best you've got, Washington D.C.? That New York voters know what's happening in Iowa, and that the "founders" wanted it this way? The founders never explicitly asked for a two party system, and they certainly wouldn't have argued for a president that didn't get the majority of the nation's vote. And even if they had wanted the E.C., so what? Things have clearly changed, and most of the nation's population lives in large cities. Yet a handful of rural states get greater weight in Washington -- effectively disenfranchising millions of urban Americans.
Given the decrease in public confidence in U.S. elections -- and especially the 2000 debaucle -- civic-minded Democrats and Republicans at the state level should move to reconnect voters with their elected officials. And that even includes the President.
Now that Minnesota is a battleground getting lots of attention, it's a lot to ask the Legislature to do the right thing and endorse the new compact. But it really should. So should other states -- both red and blue -- join, for the sake of a better democracy.
What's Minnesota "getting" out of being a swing state? High dollar campaigns? Local media ad buys? High profile appointments for ambitious pols?
Frankly, who cares? The electoral college is an embarrassment, and there's no reason Minnesota shouldn't board the reform train.
If you need more proof, look no further than the Washington Post columnist David Broder's opinion piece arguing against the state-by-state E.C. reform. Here's his main argument:
That argument is a bit curious. It seems to assume that voters in New York and Texas are somehow excluded from awareness of everything that happens in the campaign -- as if the newspapers and TV stations in their states were not covering it every day.
Meanwhile, it ignores the implications of a direct election plan for two of the fundamental characteristics of the American scheme of government: the federal system and the two-party system.
That's the best you've got, Washington D.C.? That New York voters know what's happening in Iowa, and that the "founders" wanted it this way? The founders never explicitly asked for a two party system, and they certainly wouldn't have argued for a president that didn't get the majority of the nation's vote. And even if they had wanted the E.C., so what? Things have clearly changed, and most of the nation's population lives in large cities. Yet a handful of rural states get greater weight in Washington -- effectively disenfranchising millions of urban Americans.
Given the decrease in public confidence in U.S. elections -- and especially the 2000 debaucle -- civic-minded Democrats and Republicans at the state level should move to reconnect voters with their elected officials. And that even includes the President.
2006-03-23
stp: TIF for New Condos
The PiPress has a story on two new condos going up in or near downtown St. Paul. One is the West Side Flats project, right near (in the thick of) where the "Bridges" thing is being plannned. The other is in the old public safety building, near the freeway side of downtown.
The projects are not without controversy. The debate is whether or not any development that received TIF money ought to include affordable housing.
My opinion is that, unlike Minneapolis, there's no shortage of affordable housing in Saint Paul. Instead, the capitol city badly needs developments like these, to increase density (and excitement levels) in the downtown zone. And, $12 M in TIF isn't that much . . .
The projects are not without controversy. The debate is whether or not any development that received TIF money ought to include affordable housing.
Although the HRA approved the projects, the debate has not ended. Each development would use tax breaks in the form of tax-increment financing, which use anticipated increases in property values to help fund development. Together the projects are expected to receive nearly $12 million in property tax breaks, spread out over many years, to help pay environmental cleanup, new roads and other infrastructure.Would an affordable housing requirement impede needed new housing in the depressed downtown region? Are condo developers getting a free ride with taxpayer dollars, and making it harder for middle-class families?
Yet neither would provide affordable housing, commonly a requirement for tax-increment financing in St. Paul. WestSide Flats homes, for example, would start at $276,000.
My opinion is that, unlike Minneapolis, there's no shortage of affordable housing in Saint Paul. Instead, the capitol city badly needs developments like these, to increase density (and excitement levels) in the downtown zone. And, $12 M in TIF isn't that much . . .
2006-03-22
stp: How Long Has This Been Going On?
I've done some more reading on the LRT situation. First, I want to say that the University Avenue LRT is old news. "How old?" you ask . . . This is from a PiPress editorial from December 1988.
Though, because the new Federal standards rate the University LRT's CEI (Cost Effectiveness Index) at around $24.5, far below the $28 cut-off point for federal funds, it might finally happen.
If, as the Strib suggests, the 2011 ETA is out-of-date . . . when will this thing be opening?
TIME HAS PASSED FOR `GO SLOW' APPROACH ON LIGHT RAIL TRANSITYes, that's an article from 1988 that uses the words "for nearly two decades."
For nearly two decades, obstructionists in the metro area have whined about the supposed lack of comprehensive transportation planning, or they have delayed action by demanding studies of weird "solutions" ranging from Personalized Rapid Transit to Bus Skyways. When such proposals were found to be not cost-effective, the cry went up to do nothing until all the regional agencies were in agreement on a total transportation plan including freeways, metered access,...
Though, because the new Federal standards rate the University LRT's CEI (Cost Effectiveness Index) at around $24.5, far below the $28 cut-off point for federal funds, it might finally happen.
If, as the Strib suggests, the 2011 ETA is out-of-date . . . when will this thing be opening?
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