Star Tribune
Park board members say Blue Line light rail crossing could endanger cyclists, pedestrians in north Minneapolis
A proposed light-rail station in north Minneapolis means more than 200 trains will cross the treasured Grand Rounds bike and pedestrian trail every day — a prospect that deeply concerns some members of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.
The Lowry Station, located at the Minneapolis-Robbinsdale border, is part of the $3.2 billion Blue Line extension project, which will connect downtown Minneapolis to Brooklyn Park beginning in 2030.
On Wednesday, the Park Board was expected to vote on a letter to the Metropolitan Council expressing concern about the station’s street-level design and questioning whether the regional planning body can legally build a light-rail line through parkland. But the board’s meeting abruptly ended after it was interrupted by striking park workers, and no action was taken.
Some park board members say a safer design could involve a tunnel burrowing under the Wirth/Victory Memorial Parkway Regional Trail portion of the Grand Rounds network, or relocating the station closer to North Memorial Health in Robbinsdale.
The tunnel idea for the Blue Line extension was already considered and rejected. Problems with the tunnel along the Southwest light-rail line in Minneapolis’ Kenilworth Corridor caused that project’s budget to balloon to nearly $3 billion.
“I know it’s expensive, but if we’re spending billions, let’s do it right,” said Park Board member Becka Thompson, who has proposed a resolution to oppose the station plan.
“Stay off parkland,” she said. “I will fight that to the end because you never get that back. If south Minneapolis can have a tunnel, why not the North Side?”
Cheered by some
After the original alignment for the Blue Line extension was scrapped in 2020, the new 13-mile route was cheered by many because it better serves transit-dependent north Minneapolis. Others were heartened that a station would be close to North Memorial, seen as a win for both employees and patients.
The initial plan for the Lowry station featured an aerial bridge for light-rail trains and an elevated station above the West Broadway and Lowry Avenue bridges.
After “strong concerns” were raised by Park Board commissioners and others, Met Council planners discarded the design and started over, according to Nick Thompson, the project’s interim director.
With input from Minneapolis, Robbinsdale, Hennepin County, Park Board, and hospital officials, the council offered seven different designs, including a tunnel, but that was quickly rejected, Thompson said.
The area near the Lowry Station is a tangle of parkland and homes adjacent to at least five streets and parkways. A prime consideration in the redesign was preserving two bridges on West Broadway Avenue which were recently replaced by Hennepin County to the tune of $15.5 million.
“Through a true collaborative process, it became clear that the preferred station design was the at-grade design in the current plans, and that it could be achieved with slight modifications to the bridges,” Thompson said in a statement.
The current plan features the light rail station tucked between both bridges, with trains crossing the Grand Rounds’ Wirth/Victory Memorial trail at street level every 10 minutes between 5 a.m. and midnight — about 210 over a 24-hour period.
When the current plan was presented to a key Blue Line advisory committee meeting in December, Park Board President Meg Forney, who serves on the committee, thanked the council for its efforts and declared the design “very, very exciting.”
Now Forney says she wants the Met Council to come up with a “better solution” that entails “significant changes” to the design. The park board is being asked to comment on a key environmental plan required by the Federal Transit Administration, which is expected to pay about half of the cost of building the Blue Line extension.
Some members say they are worried about the safety of cyclists and pedestrians navigating a train crossing, the first of its kind on the Grand Rounds.
LaTrisha Vetaw, who represents the area on the Minneapolis City Council, said the Lowry Station plan is “an extremely hurtful planning choice to the North Side. I was shocked and couldn’t believe that anyone would propose this.”
“The history and beauty of these parkways and the Grand Rounds have deep meaning to my constituents,” she said at a Park Board meeting earlier this month.
“What you would do if the Met Council and transit planners proposed an at-grade crossing at Minnehaha Parkway, Lake of the Isles Parkway, Bde Maka Ska Parkway or Lake Harriet Parkway, Stinson Boulevard or East or West River roads?” she added. “Would any of you say yes to that? Absolutely not.”
Milton Schoen,commander of the American Legion Post 1 in Minneapolis, worries the station would compromise Victory Memorial Parkway, a four-mile boulevard featuring memorial elm trees and markers dedicated to Hennepin County residents who perished in World War I.
“I’m not opposed to light rail, but we don’t want any degradation to Victory Memorial Parkway,” he said this week.
But Park Board member Tom Olsen said at the same meeting the “reactionary takes are based around fear.”
Light-rail crossings “are not a big deal” for bikers and pedestrians,” he said. “We’re reaching into territories of hyperbole that are not constructive.” While Olsen said he supports the proposed letter, he noted the Blue Line project will serve park constituents who don’t have access to a car.
Thompson said the council looks forward to “working closely with the Park Board, as we have at every step, to design a station that serves all members of the traveling public safely and effectively, whether they are taking the train, walking, biking, rolling or driving.”
The scrutiny comes as the Met Council prepares to seek approval of the project’s preliminary design from the four cities along the route and Hennepin County by mid-October, a state-mandated process called municipal consent. The Park Board does not have a vote.
Been there, done that
The faceoff between the Park Board and the Met Council over the Lowry Station may seem like a curious case of transportation déjà vu.
When the Southwest light-rail route was being considered through the Kenilworth Corridor a decade ago, Park Board members held out for a tunnel under Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles. The option was rejected by the Met Council, which planned on a bridge instead.
The ensuing feud led to then-Gov. Mark Dayton threatening to withhold $3.7 million in state funding for the Park Board, saying its members were “obstructionist.”
An agreement was ultimately reached with the Park Board dropping its opposition to the project with the caveat that it would be more involved in future light-rail planning — including the extension of the Blue Line.
Sgt. Gordon Blackey, once a security guard to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, allegedly admitted to tracking the woman’s movements in her vehicle, according to a criminal complaint.
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Minnesota corrections officials are investigating after an inmate was found dead at the state prison in Moose Lake.
The 37-year-old’s cellmate found the man unresponsive in their room about 10:40 a.m. Tuesday, according to a news release Wednesday from the Corrections Department. Staffers immediately started life-saving efforts, but those efforts failed.
The department’s Office of Special Investigations is looking into the death, with help from the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office. The inmate’s identity was being withheld until notification of family.
Joined by Minnesota affordable housing groups, Democrats Sen. Tina Smith and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez unveiled a bill Wednesday that they say would create more affordable housing across the country.
The “Homes Act” would establish a housing development authority within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that would build and maintain a stock of permanent affordable housing. Smith said housing supply is far behind demand.
“Our proposal would serve renters, and homebuyers alike, providing millions of Americans in rural and urban communities with more options for a quality, affordable place to call home—with the sense of stability, security, comfort and pride that should come with it,” Smith said in a statement.
Her bill would authorize $30 billion in federal spending a year, with 5% of that set aside for tribal communities and at least 10% for rural communities, along with a revolving loan fund. Noah Hobbs, the strategy and policy director of One Roof Community Housing in Duluth, said that rural requirement will especially help in greater Minnesota.
“Oftentimes when bills get made either in St. Paul or D.C., they leave out greater Minnesota or greater America,” he said. “This rural set aside is really huge in helping us do more work than what we’re already doing. So we’re doing about, on average, 20 homes a year, either acquisition rehab or new construction. And so we’re hoping that this will help accelerate that.”
He said he thinks the bill will help not only in Duluth but also in places like Floodwood, Grand Marais, Grand Rapids and smaller municipalities between Duluth and larger cities.
Research from New York University, University of California at Berkley and the Climate and Community Institute estimates that the bill could build and preserve 1.25 million housing units, which would include 876,000 units for low income households, according to a joint memo from Smith and Ocasio-Cortez’ offices on the bill.
The bill would also help local communities address housing needs by helping to finance real estate acquisition or conveying property to public housing authorities, nonprofits, local governments, community land trusts and tenant or resident owned cooperatives, the memo continues.
