Oppose the Southwest LRT (please share & make a few phone calls)

[annm4peace]

Please read the 3 well reasoned memos against the SW LRT plan by Julie Sabo, Susu Jeffrey and Neil Trembley.

Also included is info about the failure of the Northstar line (railroad, heavy not Light Rail).
Mass transit must serve the people not simply spend federal dollars. SW LRT is transit without the mass.

People to phone to oppose the SW LRT:
1) Mpls Mayor Betsy Hodges, who opposes the plan and needs support 612-673-2100

2) & 3) For Mpls residents/voters:
your city councilperson http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/
and your Park Board commissioner http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/

Mpls mayor, city council and park board MUST hang together to oppose the $1.7 billion plan. They are being threatened with DFL non-support (read nasty politics) and simultaneously promised cookies for supporting SW LRT. The cookies will however crumble with the planned deforestation (400 trees) and dewatering of Cedar Lake.

4) Hennepin County residents: your county commissioner (all but one voted in favor of SW LRT, many repeating “We have to take leadership and make the hard (read wrong) decisions.” http://www.hennepin.us/your-government/leadership/find-commissioner

5) Met Council (appointed by governor—all pro-SW LRT) http://www.metrocouncil.org/About-Us/Who-We-Are/CouncilMembers.aspx

6) For MN residents, phone Gov. Dayton who may run for reelection and favors SW LRT as a “jobs” (read union) issue 651-201-3400 The governor seems to favor all “development” plans like the Vikings stadium and the LRT due to construction union pressures.

7) Congressman Keith Ellison 612-522-1212 or (DC office) 202-225-4755 U.S. Rep. Ellison is up for reelection and favors the SW LRT for “jobs.”

SOUTHWEST LIGHT RAIL TRANSIT is a FLAWED PLAN

This is a water issue and a parks issue.

UNFAIR to Minneapolis residents
--Tunnels south & east of Cedar Lake threaten recharge
--Cuts through established parkland
--Avoids city populated areas http://www.swlrtcommunityworks.org/map
--Final stop is Target Field, not an office area in the city that drives Minnesota business
--Doubles time from Eden Prairie to downtown from 20-minutes on the express bus to 40-minutes
--$1.67 billion!
--Minneapolis Mayor, City Council and Park Board oppose. Federal money would be withheld if Minneapolis mayor, City Council and Park Board do not grant “Municipal Consent” to the SW LRT proposal.

PLEASE PHONE Gov. Dayton 651-201-3400 & Mayor Hodges 612-673-2100 and say "Reroute the SW LRT"

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. Although I am a bit of a transit nerd--or maybe because of that, I agree

If I had been planning the line, it would have run down one of the Northside main streets (starting at Dowling or Lowry and Lyndale?), to the Greenway (with a bit of a downtown detour to hook up with the other lines), and out through St. Louis Park and Hopkins, bypassing Eden Prairie, which is full of people who live there because they DON'T want to have anything to do with the city. St. Louis Park and Hopkins both have urban-like clusters, so they would be favorable destinations.

The Metro Council doesn't know beans about transit, partly because they have no personal experience with it. The keys to a successful transit system as in Japan, Europe, New York, Portland, etc. are 1) Frequent service, 2) Connections that work so that riders don't have to stand outside for half an hour to transfer, and 3) Reasonable fares.

Not everyone can be Tokyo, but I have a photo taken at a station on the Yamanote Line (the heavy rail commuter line that circles the central city) that shows a lit-up sign announcing trains every three minutes---on a Sunday. Not all lines are this frequent, but one rarely has to wait more than 10 minutes for a Tokyo surface or subway train.

Portland's connections work pretty well. When I lived there, I took a course at a suburban community college that began at 8:30AM on a Saturday. (I was trying to improve my computer skills and knowledge for my business.) I walked two blocks, took the MAX light rail to the stop nearest the college, and boarded the bus that was either waiting right there or coming in five minutes. However, I don't think the Twin Cities transit planners are capable of that type of thinking. They're thinking,"How can we get people downtown to work and back?" when they should be thinking, "How can we make it easy to live without a car anywhere in the city?"