Star Tribune
For the first time in years, Metro Transit could lower fares for most buses and trains
“Some of the proposed changes are really trying to address the post-COVID ridership trends and help encourage riders back on the system,” Linnell said.
In addition, eligibility for the Transit Assistance Program (TAP) for low-income passengers would be expanded from one year to two, meaning passengers won’t have to sign up every year. Launched in 2017, TAP features $1 rides for the nearly 4,800 people currently enrolled in the program.
Metro Transit may decrease peak fares during rush hour, the first fare change since 2017. (Janet Moore/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
If the proposal is adopted, annual fare revenue would drop $4.1 million. but ridership is projected to increase by about 926,000rides.
“We anticipate that we’ll still increase our revenue but it won’t increase quite as fast as anticipated,” said Dennis Dworshak, Metro Transit’s senior manager of revenue operations.
However, one member of the Met Council asked why fares weren’t being increased rather than decreased.
“It seems like we’re putting a lot of money into making a nice [transit] system, but it’s worth less and less and less to our customers, and that’s concerning to me,” said Wendy Wulff, who has served on the council since 2009 after being initially appointed by Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty to represent the southern suburbs. (Members of the Met Council are appointed by the current governor.)
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.”
If Revolve Labs, formerly known as Bit49, can start bringing in revenue at the new AI data center, the company should be able to move or decommission the machines at the existing site, St. Onge said.
“The ideal would be to phase out our current site and move everything over to the new site,” St. Onge said at the public hearing.
Several Glencoe residents at Tuesday’s public hearing, which addressed whether to rezone the property Revolve Labs intends to buy, appeared skeptical about the company’s proposal. “Revolve Labs has not proven themselves to be good neighbors,” Gould said to St. Onge at the hearing.
Eddie Gould, 80, confronts a representative from Revolve Labs, a Colorado-based company that runs a crypto-mining facility near his home, at a public hearing Tuesday in Glencoe, Minn. (Jp Lawrence)
But many at the public hearing seemed to welcome the possibility that the company might remove the noisy machines at its current site, which is near the town’s 646,000 square-foot Seneca Foods plant, a Dairy Queen and the corner of a residential neighborhood.
Crypto mining uses huge amounts of computing power, which need to be cooled by banks of fans. Over the past few years, the noise of these fans has led to complaints from residents living near crypto mining facilities across America.
In southwestern Minnesota, similar concerns about noise led to dozens of residents in Windom voicing their opposition in August to a conditional use application by Revolve Labs to build a facility there. The company pulled out of the proposal a month later, citing feedback from the community.
Longtime business owner and photographer Shawn Fagan has been named the next executive director of the Rochester Downtown Alliance (RDA).
Fagan, who had been on the RDA’s staff as a deputy director since the summer, takes over for Kathleen Harrington, who led the organization in an interim capacity for the past year and a half.
“Shawn’s passion for downtown, his collaborative spirit, and his strategic vision for growth make him the perfect choice to lead the RDA forward,” Harrington said in a written statement.
Fagan and his wife, Michelle, have been involved in the downtown since 2003 when they opened a photography studio along South Broadway. They later bought the 151-year-old building and added an event space, Studio 324, that they continue to operate. For their contributions to downtown, the couple received the Sandy Keith Downtown Impact Award recipient in 2021.
The Fagans also own Café Aquí, a coffee shop just outside the city’s special services district.
With his new role, Fagan will be responsible for leading the downtown business community through a period of major anticipation and disruption tied to Mayo Clinic’s $5 billion build-out.
The RDA, which represents more than 300 downtown stakeholders, is best known for putting on popular events like Thursdays Downtown and Social-ICE. The organization is also responsible for managing a public service program that provides cleaning, hospitality and safety services to the 44-block district.
