information meeting held at the Martin Luther King Center. The stated purpose
of the meeting was to help people learn about the Central Corridor DEIS comment
process.
The meeting began with first Ramsey County Commr. Toni Carter, and then City of
St. Paul staffer Donna Drummond, rambling on about preliminary engineering for
the $billion Central Corridor concrete project.
Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority Director Kathy DeSpegelaire then read the
PowerPoint print-out that was distributed at the meeting (which unfortunately
cannot be located on Ramsey Countys centralcorridor.org website). According to
the PowerPoint Ms. DeSpegelaire read, there are 3 alternatives in the DEIS for
the Central Corridor LRT, BRT, and The Status Quo.
How is it that another ugly, expensive, concrete mess, resulting in an
immediate doubling of the wait-time for users of the 16A bus service, is
described as a "transit improvement," and the third alternative - plant some
trees, stripe a bike lane, fix-up the sidewalks, improve the frequency and
affordability of the existing transit service - is described as the Status Quo?
The Central Corridor concrete project is being planned and designed by the same
folks who planned, designed and built the looney-laned, bottlenecked I-394
fiasco and the 8-lane concrete mess on Lake Street at the Hwy. 55/Hiawatha
crossing. Its the same MNDOT, Met. Council, University of Minnesota Parking,
City and County road construction departments, and other Highway business
interests including Banks, Insurance Cos., Real Estate investors, and large
concrete construction businesses like BRW who are planning another bulldozer of
a business deal on University and Washington Avenues.
Bonus Question: The Central Corridor DEIS lists a Nancy Ronhovde, working for
BRW, Inc., as the person responsible for the environmental justice component of
the document. According to the DEIS, Ms. Ronhovde has 6 years of experience in
the field of environmental justice and a B.S. (Degree Pending) in Urban
Studies. Who is this Nancy Ronhovde and what does she say about the
environmental justice of the proposed concrete project University and
Washington Avenues?
Sheldon Gitis
South St. Anthony Park