An informational meeting was held on Monday, May 3rd 2010 at the Public Safety Building in Columbia Heights. The meeting regarded a possible streetcar line to be built in Minneapolis on Central Avenue extending into Columbia Heights.
The following stakeholders attended the meeting; the Columbia Heights City Council, Anoka County Commissioner Jim Kordiak, Minneapolis Councilmember Kevin Reich, State Senate 50 candidate Gina Bauman, State House 50A candidate Tim Utz and City Council candidate Donna Schmitt as well as about 15 members of the community. Public interest in the work session was generated by Donna Schmitt’s post which was placed on Sue Jeffers blog earlier in the day on Monday, which led to so much traffic it crashed Ms. Schmitt's site.
The presenter was Peter Wagenius, who is the Policy Director on Mayor Rybak’s staff. The theme of the presentation was structured as a single man’s debate on why streetcars were superior to light rail with only a few (negative) references to the bus system. Peter Wagenius stated multiple times that the city has already made up their mind on the project(s) saying “the city of Minneapolis is determined to build a line”.
The city of Minneapolis has six potential lines that they would like to build. The line which would run north on Central Avenue seemed to be the preferred line due to its natural connection with Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. The end goal of these lines, are to replace buses and their existing routes.
The city expects a huge initial capital expenditure in order to get the system started with the best case scenario of acquiring matching funds from the federal government. They seem to want to implement the streetcars because other cities such as Portland, New Orleans, Dallas and Tucson have received federal funds and the Mayors office wants their fair share. Little was stated as to why these projects were needed for the city of Minneapolis or Columbia Heights outside of the Mayor's office dislike of buses.
Mr. Wagenius stated that taxes would have to be raised in order to pay for the project. Examples of revenue streams they are looking at are, creating Tax Increment Financing Districts (TIF) as well as an increase the taxes on parking fees in Minneapolis. The ultimate goal of the Mayor's office is to make using a car much more expensive with the increased parking taxes so that people are forced to use the Mayor's preferred method of transportation.
When pressed for how much money the project will cost, Mr. Wagenius had no answer on how much the capital expenditure or the maintenance cost would be. The Columbia Heights City Council will discuss if they want to partner with the city of Minneapolis in going forward with the applications for federal funding for the streetcar line.
Comments