Post in What does $70 million buy?

May 13 14:20 UTC

Paul said:

> In addition, I will state that Mr. Pawlenty in concert with the Met
> Council *is not* supportive of transportation, transit, and particularly
> rail transit. That is my firm assessment of history and intuitive
> judgement, as well as public documentation. Mr. Pawlenty, I think hates
> rail transit, and he clearly demonstrates a dim view of cities, and
> particularly Saint Paul. Mr. Pawlenty was quoted recently as stating: "I
> am not necessarily opposed to the project (The Central Corridor)". I have
> no ideal what that statement means; a very poor expression to the public.

I am very pleased that we agree on this.  I think it is very important.

We need transit in Saint Paul.  Buses are cost effective when compared to
cars, but the operational cost of an electric rail line is substantially
lower.  We clearly have to move that direction for the effciency,
cleanliness, and capacity that will be necessary for the next generation
of Saint Paulites.

How do we get there?  I have never though that the Met Council and their
various cronies such as URS are capable (or even interested) in delivering
this effectively.  We all may not like the Federal Cost Effectiveness
Guidelines and how they limit what we can do with Federal money, but they
are a reality.

Our supposed "leadership" on this issue inflated everyone's expectations
to an unrealistic level rather deliberately, knowing that they couldn't
deliver.  Now, representatives of the University are insisting on a
dual-track approach and generally creating mayhem at a critical time for
what's left of the proposal for the Central Corridor.  I happen to believe
that this was done by design; the alternative, that it's pure naivite, is
hard to buy.

Once again, I will restate my core belief:  Cities and Counties are going
to have to find a way to build rail transit themselves with as little
interference from the Met Council as possible.  The Minneapolis Streetcar
Plan is a good example of what needs to happen.  I realize that this will
not build a regional system that incorporates the entire "metro area", but
that's the reality.

We in the city have to do what we can, and damn the rest of them.
Leadership is badly needed on rail transit, and as the Central Corridor
dies a slow, twitching death we can see that no one is actually willing to
step up and save it.  We have to find something smaller that we can
nurture along to show the naysayers how terribly wrong they are.

Pawlenty tried very hard to let this project die of its own weight without
bloodying his own hands.  That didn't happen, which is good; he deserves
the blame.  But it also shows that even he knows how popular rail transit
is, since he's clearly afraid of it even as he tries to have his cronies
kill it off.  Let's use that for the next round.  Let's do something
that's not firmly in his hands in the first place so that he can't wrap
them around the neck of another rail project.