When we reserved space at an Airbnb lodging in Minneapolis for our July visit, we had no idea it was two hundred yards from a light rail station. In fact, the light rail line connecting Minneapolis and St. Paul had commenced only a short time before.
Northern Road Trip, Day 3: Twin Cities, Twins game, twin transit.
As tourists, we loved it. Here's the flip side, and the argument from economic development. I try imagining Kerry Stemler riding mass transit, and all that comes back is a view of pigs flying above the ORBP boondoggle. Couldn't his cronies have profited from the right transit project instead?
How the Twin Cities got transit right: Big projects often divide cities. But Minneapolis' light rail line is creating jobs and driving development in underserved areas, by Steve Hargreaves and Dominic V Aratari (CNN)
... Touting the economic and social benefits of running the line through the neighborhoods' commercial districts helped win over the local communities. Alternate plans called for the line to be built along an interstate to the south or in a freight rail corridor to the north. Travel time along these routes may well have been faster, but likely would have produced fewer overall benefits for the cities.
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