Waste of Money?
We have discussed our wonderful Greenway project a few times before on this blog. It is a great thing that is happening to our community, in my opinion. A great way to get around town by bike with no serious worries about other vehicles intruding on your biking/walking/roller blading space. Some news has been brought to my attention recently that makes me worry about the future of this project.
I have recently heard about something that I never knew before and it got me thinking. The secondary purpose of the Greenway is to build a light rail line to Uptown from the Hiawatha line. You can read up on it at the Greenway Land Use page put up by Minneapolis. I have heard two ways of the story. It is owned by the Transit department so they have complete control over what is done. The Land Use page makes it seem like the light rail would be added alongside of the existing bike paths. This would leave the paths intact, but add a level of noise not currently present to the Greenway. Lot’s of people I know like the quiet ride the Greenway provides. The second use is a bit more rash and not entirely out of the question. I have heard that the Transit people has said that when the LRT line is approved, they will yank the nice spacious trails out entirely to make room for the lines. I mean, why not? They own the land, they have been planning for this for years. They have been altering bridges and such to make room for the trains.
The second choice is what makes me irked. Not only would I be sad that the trail system would end, but the money already spent to build them would then be wasted. That is an awful lot of taxpayer’s money that just went up in smoke. I sincerely hope that they keep the trails. I can’t imagine they think no one would get upset over the wasted money. Of course, there have been many cases where no one in office really cares…
The second choice is what makes me irked. Not only would I be sad that the trail system would end, but the money already spent to build them would then be wasted. That is an aweful lot of taxpayer’s money that just went up in smoke. I sincerely hope that they keep the trails. I can’t imagine they think no one would get upset over the wasted money. Of course, there have been many cases where no one in office really cares…
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well, there are train tracks there already. hopefully they won’t get rid of the trails, and the time and ecological benefit the LRT will provide will far outweigh and noise issues. have you been on/stood by the existing LRT? Compared with the rest of traffic, it’s virtually noiseless, and the bells are pleasant sounding. Have you ever tried to drive to the seward from uptown? it’s a pain in the ass, and lake street just gets more congested and polluted by the minute. the improved access between communities will improve the businesses for those communities as well. the twin cities is covered in bike trails. if you’re really in need of some quietude, just look a little harder. i highly doubt they will remove the existing trails, but if they do, it will definitely be a loss for those of us who cycle to work every day. but the ecological benefits gained from the LRT i believe makes up for this. especially with the huge out-of-state influx [read: the people responsible for the condo explosion], we need to account for this population surge somehow. personally, i would give up peace and quiet on my bike ride for more breatheable air. besides, arent most greenway users immersed in their iPods anyway?
Again, the thing that upsets me is if they rip up the trails, that’s a lot of money thrown away. They have spent a lot of the taxpayer’s money building those trails. If they did that and then just ripped them up, that would piss me off.
If they put trains in next to the trails, I’d be okay with that. It works with the Greenway’s development plans for integration with the neighborhoods it passes through, anyway (IMO). Plus, I’m all about expansion of the LRT system.
But yeah, nixing the existing trail in favor of a train line is so not cool. The waste of money is atrocious and the loss of the use of the trail would suck, too.