Star Tribune
Velodrome eyed for Richfield
Almost four years after the wooden cycling track in Blaine closed, pieces could be coming together for a racetrack in Richfield.
Richfield is working with the nonprofit Minnesota Cycling Center to figure out if a largely vacant area near Interstate 494 and Hwy. 77 might be the right place for a bicycle track, or velodrome. If the plan comes together — and that’s a big ‘if,’ since a portion of the land is privately owned, and the project will cost tens of millions of dollars — the Richfield track would be one of just four indoor cycling tracks in the United States and could draw regional, national and international competitions.
Minnesota Cycling Center President Jason Lardy said finding the site feels like a strong start, even if the road ahead will be tough.
“It’s really gratifying to have community support like we’ve seen in Richfield,” Lardy said.
Lardy’s group rose as the Blaine track, which was part of the National Sports Center, fell into disrepair about a decade ago. The track closed at the end of summer 2019, and was torn down in 2020.
Barclay Kruse, former spokesman for the National Sports Center who administered the Blaine track when it opened, said the velodrome was a copy of the one used during the 1992 Olympics — a 250-meter wood track with steeply banked turns.
It was a fast, high-performance outdoor track that hosted Olympic trials that year, Kruse said, but there were challenges. The track was difficult for beginners to ride, while major competitions have come to favor indoor tracks. And after almost three decades of Minnesota winters, the wooden track was worn out.
Former racer Anna Schwinn mourned the loss of the community that grew up around the track. She remembered it as a place where people gathered to “get strong together.”
“That wasn’t just physical speed or strength, or that athletic quality of strength,” she said. “You’re watching people grow up in front of you.”
Making a match
The search for a new velodrome site has taken years, Lardy said. A possible site in northeast Minneapolis fell through before the pandemic, even after the Minnesota Cycling Center received $250,000 from the 2015 state bonding bill to cover preliminary design work.
“We’ve been looking for a location with varying degrees of success, but haven’t found the right location, with the right community support,” Lardy said.
Enter Richfield. The city has been working to become more bike-friendly, steadily building up bike lanes for the last 10 years. The city and the Three Rivers Park District are also working on a “bike playground” for off-road biking, set to open this fall.
And Richfield has been scouting for a major development for city-owned land at the junction of I-494 and Hwy. 77, left over from building a tunnel under the highway. City leaders wanted to see something big that would draw people from outside Richfield while also serving the city, Richfield Housing and Redevelopment Authority Director Melissa Poehlman said. The velodrome proposal seems like it could fit the bill.
The center is going to need support, Lardy said. Building the cycling complex could cost somewhere between $40 million and $50 million, with some funds potentially coming from the Legislature or other public sources.
Richfield may consider some funding for the track, Poehlman said, especially if the complex includes amenities useful to people who aren’t that interested in bikes.
High-level cycling would be part of the program, but Lardy said he also hopes the track will accommodate beginners and children learning to ride and race. The science-of-bikes program the cycling center runs with Minneapolis schools — and is expanding to St. Paul this fall — could also grow with a permanent home. Lardy said he hopes the velodrome will fit courts for other sports, like basketball or pickleball, and space for concerts or other performances.
Richfield owns two of three parcels that could become the velodrome site, with the third owned privately. The next step will be for the council and redevelopment authority to approve resolutions of support for selling the land, and asking for support from the Legislature.
The cycling center will have to start negotiating with the family trust that owns the middle of the three parcels, Lardy said. If unable to secure the site, the Minnesota Cycling Center would have to embark on a major fundraising campaign for design work and construction.
Schwinn, the former racer, is excited about the idea of a track that would be easier to get to than the one in Blaine — and about a place dedicated to bike racing, rather than something that felt barely tolerated by a larger sports complex.
“We can make it what we want it to be, not what we can kind of get away with,” she said.
It’s early, but Lardy said he’s optimistic to have gotten a good reception from Richfield leaders after years of setbacks and uncertainty.
“Now we’ve got to roll up our sleeves,” he said, “and do some really hard work.”
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.
The former president, once a reality TV star known for his showmanship, wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
”How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest over his white dress shirt and red tie. ”This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a ”floating island of garbage.” Trump then seized on a comment Biden made on a late Wednesday call that “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The president tried to clarify the comment afterward, saying he had intended to say Trump’s demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.
On Thursday, after arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for an evening rally, Trump climbed into the garbage truck, carrying on a brief discussion with reporters while looking out the window — similar to what he did earlier this month during a photo opportunity he staged at a Pennsylvania McDonalds.
He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke had set off the firestorm, but Trump did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologize to Puerto Ricans.
”I don’t know anything about the comedian,” Trump said. ”I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him. I heard he made a statement, but it was a statement that he made. He’s a comedian, what can I tell you. I know nothing about him.”
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