On Sep 8, 2019, at 11:39 AM, Adam Wysopal wrote:
> Perhaps you can identify the failures of the building boom and what measures
the city could take to fix those problems.
Me:
One complete failure of the building boom, very obvious here in northeast
Minneapolis, is the continued placement of new, large multi-housing
developments (aka apartment complexes, usually with 100 or more units) on rail
Blast Zone sites that were previously industrial or vacant lands adjacent to
mainline rail tracks. And when I say adjacent, I mean "reach out and touch
someone" mere feet from trains (which are diesel, meaning particulate-matter
air pollution) carrying hazardous materials, explosives, flammables,
evacuation-makers, crude oil, chlorine, anhydrous ammonia, propane, ethanol,
etc. 24/7.
One developer proudly proclaimed its pending family-friendly ant hill would
feature a playground for the kids -- facing and just feet away from the BNSF
mainline used multiple times seven days a week.
Knowing what we now know (and haul) in the 21st century -- as opposed to the
19th and 20th centuries when rail facilities and some northeast predominantly
low-density neighborhoods and single-family homes were built, when grain and
livestock were the usual commodities passing by), this is clearly immoral and
unethical and just plain fool-hardy for endangering the health and welfare of
the people who will be living in these cookie-cutter ant hills. Some will be
unsuspecting, some will be in need of affordable housing. What a Sophie's
Choice the city council is giving them!
This was brought up -- and ignored by the city -- more than once during the
2040 comment phase by both individuals and Citizens Acting for Rail Safety-Twin
Cities, a metro-wide group with chapters in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
It's bad enough some of us already live in the Blast Zone, but to build
high-density residential even closer to the tracks is foolish. What's more, we
aren't beefing up our emergency response abilities and infrastructure to handle
an incident here. And the air pollution is ongoing, day in and day out. While
some pish posh this, they simply have blinders on. Or developer dollar signs in
their eyes.
So what to do? Stop building new residential on these sites, especially new
high density! It doesn't take a mathematician to figure out the odds of hurting
more people when you add high-density ant hills near pollution and blast zones
are higher than when you build single family or better yet, nothing until you
address these environmental problems. While railroads are federally pre-empted
from most state and local laws, cities outside Minneapolis have made diligent
attempts and had some successes dealing with these rail issues and pushing
back. But Minneapolis notoriously rolls over and plays dead. As a resident,
it's been embarrassing to see how poorly the city council and staff handle
these rail issues despite passing a Rail Safety Resolution in 2015.
Here's a photo of one of these northeast developments, paid for with many
taxpayer dollars, that the city likes to brag about. I feel sorry for anyone
who winds up living here. We can do better.