Met Council Approves Agenda 21 Light Rail

Light Rail is coming if the communists at the Met Council have their way;

The Metropolitan Council approved light rail for the 13-mile Bottineau Transitway between Minneapolis and Brooklyn Park May 8.

The council amended the region’s 2030 Transportation Policy Plan to include light rail transit as the mode of choice for the corridor and selected the locally preferred alternative route along West Broadway Avenue in Brooklyn Park, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad corridor and Olson Memorial Highway.

The Bottineau LPA was recommended to the council by the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority and the communities in which the corridor is located. Initially the Golden Valley City Council did not support the chosen alignment, but when it revisited the issue Dec. 18, 2012, it voted 3-2 to approve the plan.

With Minneapolis and Brooklyn Park at either end, the corridor passes through the cities of Golden Valley, Robbinsdale and Crystal. Bottineau will be an extension of the Hiawatha Line and connect to the Central and Southwest Line and Northstar Commuter Rail at the Interchange at Target Field Station in Minneapolis.

“Bottineau is key to the region’s future development and continued economic success,” Met Council Chair Susan Haigh said in a statement announcing the approval. “As the Metropolitan Council works to build a 21st century transit system, Bottineau LRT will provide residents and employees of the corridor greater access to major destinations in the metro area through links to other major transit corridors.”

It’s more like a 19th century system.

Hennepin County Board Chair Mike Opat called the Transportation Policy Plan amendment a “milestone.”

“We’ve worked hard to get to this day, and I thank the residents, city councils along the route, my colleagues on the Hennepin County Board and the Metropolitan Council for working together to take this important step forward,” he said in a written statement.

Bottineau LRT is projected to provide approximately 27,000 rides a day by 2030. The project is estimated to cost about $1 billion. Funding is expected from the Counties Transit Improvement Board’s transit sales tax in the metro area (30 percent), the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority (10 percent), the State of Minnesota (10 percent), and the Federal Transit Administration (50 percent).

Next steps in the Bottineau Transitway project include completing a Draft Environmental Impact Statement, which evaluates potential environmental and other impacts of the project (planned for publication later this year), and making application to the Federal Transit Administration to enter the “New Starts” project development process.

Ahh the free money!!!

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Ramsey County Hands out Art Grants

Check where your tax dollars are going in Ramsey County!

The Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority will announce public arts grants on Wednesday, April 3, to five local “emerging” artists. The grants, which average $10,000 apiece, will bring Minnesota art and sculpture to the St. Paul Union Depot, the latest effort to breathe a little more life into the transit hub off Kellogg Boulevard.

Breathe life?

The Ramsey County Board on Tuesday also approved a $150,000 public art commission with Atlanta-based artist Ralph Gilbert to create six murals in the depot’s waiting room, each of them examining different aspects of Minnesota history and culture from the past century.

The depot underwent a two-year, $243 million historic rehab that wrapped up in December, when its giant waiting room was reopened to the public for the first time since 1971.

$243 million!

The fanfare has given way to an almost eerie quiet, with some exceptions. The depot currently hosts nine Jefferson Line arrivals and nine departures daily, as well as Metro Transit buses and coach buses to the Mystic and Treasure Island casinos. The Central Corridor Light Rail Transit line, or Green Line, will stop in front of the depot on Fourth Street beginning in 2014.

The absence of two major tenants, however, has been palpable. Greyhound announced last year it had changed its mind about moving into the depot and instead consolidated operations in Minneapolis. Amtrak, which is expected to make two stops at the depot daily with its Empire Builder train, said agreements on track work have taken longer than expected and it will not relocate from its current facility on Transfer Road until later this year, likely in November or December.

Josh Collins, a spokesman for the Regional Rail Authority, said Tuesday marked a key turning point for the planned spur that will connect the Amtrak train from the Union Depot passenger platform to nearby freight tracks. The Ramsey County commissioners signed the last necessary agreement with BNSF Railroad to complete the track connection and signal system.

“That was the last of the construction agreements that had to happen between us and each of the three private railroad companies,” Collins said. “That means everybody’s agreed on the design and how things are going to function. We’ll be looking for construction to start later this spring.”

Collins said the county also is finalizing the details of a lease with 1-on-1 Studios, a bicycle shop that is expected to provide lockers and shower facilities and other amenities friendly to bicyclists when it opens up this summer.

Free public tours will resume at the depot at 11 a.m. Tuesdays every other week, beginning April 16. The tours are free to the general public, schools and nonprofits, but charter tour groups will be charged $6 per person. Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle continues to meet with potential restaurant retail tenants interested in moving into the depot in advance of the Central Corridor, or Green Line, which begins rolling in late 2014.

Collins noted that cultural events are gaining steam. Wednesday marks the last of a series of three weekly board game nights at the depot, which are free.

A St. Paul art crawl will incorporate the depot in late April. The dusk-to-dawn arts festival known as Northern Spark will use the depot as its central gathering location for overnight events on June 8. “The start-up of Union Depot is very much a phased thing,” Collins said. “We find that more and more people everyday are coming in and waiting for their Metro Transit bus.”

The Ramsey County Board also voted on Tuesday to support the legislative agenda of the Counties Transit Improvement Board. The coalition of metro counties is backing Gov. Mark Dayton’s proposal to impose a half-cent sales tax within the metro area to fund new light-rail and bus rapid transit lines.

So “art” is going to freshen up the area?? This is just an endless money pit.

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Where is the Global Warming?

Here is a story on the lack of global warming:

Air temperatures on the earth’s surface have remained flat over the last decade and a half, despite the continued influx of greenhouse gases during the period.

Those flat air temperatures do not match the computer models developed by climate change scientists, which had predicted temperature increases during the period, the Economist reports:

Over the past 15 years air temperatures at the Earth’s surface have been flat while greenhouse-gas emissions have continued to soar. The world added roughly 100 billion tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere between 2000 and 2010. That is about a quarter of all the CO₂ put there by humanity since 1750. And yet, as James Hansen, the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, observes, “the five-year mean global temperature has been flat for a decade.”

Temperatures fluctuate over short periods, but this lack of new warming is a surprise. Ed Hawkins, of the University of Reading, in Britain, points out that surface temperatures since 2005 are already at the low end of the range of projections derived from 20 climate models. If they remain flat, they will fall outside the models’ range within a few years. [...]

The mismatch might mean that—for some unexplained reason—there has been a temporary lag between more carbon dioxide and higher temperatures in 2000-10. Or it might be that the 1990s, when temperatures were rising fast, was the anomalous period. Or, as an increasing body of research is suggesting, it may be that the climate is responding to higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in ways that had not been properly understood before. This possibility, if true, could have profound significance both for climate science and for environmental and social policy.

Some recent models have predicted lower ranges for temperature increases moving forward, according to the Economist.

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Complete Streets Report

Complete Streets are an important part of Agenda 21 since on of their goals is to get us out of our cars and into public transit. There is now an update on “complete streets successes” in Minnesota. Of course it’s called “smart growth”;

http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/documents/cs/resources/cs-in-minnesota.pdf

My favorite part are the tips to manipulate data….

Top Ten Reasons to Oppose Light Rail

Here are the top ten reasons to oppose light rail;

10. Our region does not have the population density for light rail.  According to the UrbanLandInstitute, the minimum density needed for supporting light rail is 14,720 people per square mile.  Based on the 2010 Census, the Twin Cities hasa population density of about 2,600 people per square mile.

9. Light rail does not move people where they want and need to travel.  Census data shows that travel by car has increased over the last 50 years while all other options (transit, walking and carpooling) remained constant.  Also, travel trends are increasingly suburb to suburb, and the “hub and spoke” system of light rail that’s currently proposed doesn’t address that.

8. Transit “development” takes tax dollars from other priorities.  A lot of the housing being built along the Hiawatha line is happening because of government-issued bonds, tax credits, HUD and MetCouncil grants, and financing from city, county and state sources.  Using tax dollars for development instead of private investment means there’s less money available for schools, public safety, parks and road maintenance.

7. Light rail will cost more than what they claim.  The capital costs for rail are huge andusually underestimated in a way “that cannot be explained by error and is best explained by … lying.” Consider that Hiawatha’s costs increased from $470 million to $715 million. The cost estimate for a Bottineau LRT is currently $900 million.  If the same cost overruns happen, it will end up costing almost $1.4 billion.

6. Light rail won’t have as many riders as they claim.  “Forecasters do a poor job of estimating the demand for transportation infrastructure projects. Studies show that “for nine out of ten rail projects, passenger forecasts are overestimated,” on average by 106%.

5. Light rail will increase your property taxes.  Hennepin County is expected to contribute 10% of the cost of the Bottineau light rail line.  The county’s single source of revenue is property taxes.  The portiondedicated to rail projects has tripled since 2009. The county will need to raise property taxes to pay the light rail bonds, which increases the burden for people on fixed incomes.

4. People with lower incomes will disproportionately bear the costs.  There is currently a quarter-cent sales tax in the metro for transit.  Governor Dayton has proposed tripling the transit sales tax AND expanding the sales tax base, exposing many previously exempted goods and services to the transit tax.  Everyone knows that sales taxes are regressive and hit those with lower incomes.

3. Light rail is simply not worth the cost.  In 1999, MNDOT conducted acost-benefit analysis for the Hiawatha line.  It considered the value of intangible benefits such as travel time savings, reduced crash risks and even air quality.  The result was a ratio of 0.42, meaning for every public dollar spent, the entire community receives only 42 cents worth of benefits.  We need options that return more value and benefit to more people instead of losing 58 cents of every public dollar.

2. There is a better option: Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).  In August 2000,MNDOT recommended the “Northwest corridor” to “be given the highest priority for exclusive busway implementation.”  As the Urban Land Institute said, “BRT can offer the look and feel of light rail service at substantially lower cost.”  BRT is more flexible than light rail.  It costs half as much to build.  It is also cheaper to operate.  In 2011, the operating subsidy was $1.39 for Hiawatha riders, but only $0.56 for I-35W BRT passengers.

1. Light rail costs too much, are inflexible, and better options exist.  Perhaps the most insidious thing about light rail is that the costs fall disproportionately on those with fixed and limited incomes.  You will pay for transit whether you ride it or not, so take action to make those costs as low as possible.

Take that David Letterman!!

Our thanks to Norann Dillon for putting this list together.

Beware of the Green Step Program

The Green Step Program is an attempt by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to push sustainable development and Agenda 21 on our cities. Citizens defeated the measure in Crystal, Minnesota and the Andrew Richter Show let us in on what happened. In these clips Andrew Richter, Jason Bradley, and Vicki Lechelt talk about the program.

Clip 1

Clip 2

Clip 3

And……just in case you missed Andrew Richter on the Late Debate With Jack and Ben on Monday, January 7, here is the podcast!

Late Debate Podcast

Green Step Program

Great Article on Southwest Light Rail

Here is a terrific article in the Sun Post newspaper articulating opposition to the waste of money otherwise known as Southwest LRT.

Last fall, TwinWest Chamber of Commerce urged voters to support the Southwest Light Rail line. I didn’t know enough about it, so I looked into it.

I’ve concluded that light rail is a poor choice, and question how it’s advanced this far. Our region and its taxpayers will be better served by a dedicated bus way in the corridor.The capital costs for rail are huge and usually underestimated. Consider that Hiawatha’s costs increased from $470 million to $715 million. Southwest LRT currently has a $1.25 billion price tag.

Hennepin County, through property taxe revenue, is expected to contribute 10 percent of that cost. The portion of your property taxes dedicated to rail projects has already tripled since 2009. Are you willing to pay higher property taxes for a train you may never ride?

Light rail is not worth the cost. In 1999, MnDOT conducted a cost-benefit analysis for the Hiawatha line. It considered the value of intangible benefits such as travel time savings, reduced crash risks and even air quality. The result was a ratio of 0.42, meaning for every public dollar spent, the entire community receives only 42 cents worth of benefits. It’s common sense that a store would go out of business if it sold $1 widgets for 42 cents.

But light rail won’t be allowed to “go out of business.” We currently pay a quarter-cent sales tax in the metro for transit. That tax will be fully committed by 2021, requiring an increase in sales taxes for transit, as Gov. Mark Dayton just proposed. Higher sales taxes are a hit on those with lower incomes, the very people transit is supposed to help most.

Transit options are an important part of transportation planning, but they must make sense. In August 2000, MnDOT recommended “the entire length of the Southwest Corridor be given the highest priority for exclusive bus way implementation.” Bus Rapid Transit can use the same corridor as rail. It’s scale-able to accommodate growth. It can carry multiple routes on one line, such as express and local.

It can be opened in phases. Finally, BRT is cheaper to build and operate, therefore, is more cost-efficient than light rail. Based on MnDOT’s bus way study, a Southwest BRT would cost about $170 million to build, not the $1.25 billion of light rail.

In January 2007, BRT was found to be the most cost-effective option for the corridor. Curiously, the current route was the least cost-effective. In fact, it was so cost-ineffective, it fell below the threshold required by the Federal Transit Administration.

Everyone should be asking his or her elected officials why we ended up with the least cost effective option. Given rail’s sky-high capital costs, tax impact on fixed and lower income households, and inflexibility of service, I urge taxpayers and elected officials to reconsider bus rapid transit for the Southwest Corridor. I want to see true courage and leadership to make the right decision when trusted to spend other people’s money.

BY NORANN DILLON – GUEST COLUMNIST

Thank you Norann!!!! Terrific job!!!

Full Article

Where’s That Legacy Money Going?

Here’s an article on where that voter-approved legacy money is going;

 Grants to build eight new biking and hiking trails across the state have been awarded by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The new projects include trails and a “bog walk” at Sucker Creek Preserve in Detroit Lakes, as well as a paved bicycle path from Camden State Park to Marshall. Other projects are based in Walker, Rochester and St. Louis, Lake, Freeborn, Itasca and Benton counties.

The projects are funded by $7.49 million in legacy grants, which were created when voters approved the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment in 2008. The agency will also acquire almost 300 acres to add to regional parks in the state.

Other grants are:

• City of Walker, $425,000. Construction of a tunnel/underpass under State Highway 200/371 to complete the Shingobee Connection Trail, which connects the Paul Bunyan and Heartland state trails to Walker.

• St. Louis and Lake counties Regional Rail Authority, $512,000. Development of the Mesabi Trail at the eastern edge of Vermilion State Park.

• Lyon County, $1,409,925. Construction of a new paved off-road bicycle and pedestrian trail that will connect Camden State Park to Marshall.

• Freeborn County, $950,000. Acquisition of more than 12 miles of abandoned rail line for a new bicycle and pedestrian thoroughfare that will link to the Blazing Star State Trail in Albert Lea.

• Itasca County, $200,000. Improvement of more than six miles of the Mesabi Trail, parking and signage.

• City of Rochester, $250,000. Development of a multi-use path that connects to Quarry Hill Nature Center and Rochester’s existing trail system.

• County of Benton, $280,000. Creation of a river overlook and other facilities in Bend in the River Regional Park.

• City of Detroit Lakes, $495,000. Acquisition of more than 50 acres and development of a bog walk, trails and other facilities at Sucker Creek Preserve.

So this land is now off limits to public ownership and off tax rolls. Buying up land is a big part of Agenda 21!

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Agenda 21 Roundtable

Here is a good discussion about Agenda 21 from the Andrew Richter Show. Vicki Lechelt is the guest host with Andrew Richter and Jason Bradley as commentators. Check them out;

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3