PROXY APOLOGY
Peter Wagenius, Senior Policy Aide to Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges,
apologized at the final Southwest LRT public hearing on June 18âfinal for this
round. The SWLRT budget is approaching $2-billion. It is the largest public
works project ever proposed in Minnesota.
In an effort save the project proponents are slicing stations, suburban
parking, landscaping and public art. The "equity" argument, providing
transportation for predominantly black American Northsiders to suburban jobs,
was abandoned months ago to bussing riders to a downtown LRT stop.
Wagenius focused on reneged promises by the Metropolitan Council and Hennepin
County Commission to remove freight rail co-location with the proposed LRT
trains. The heavy freight rail currently transports ethanol which puts the LRT,
and businesses and residences along the route, in the blast zone.
Wagenius asserted that the LRT plan as it now stands is not the same project
that Minneapolis City Council members approved in August 2014. Council
President Barb Johnson along with members Lisa Goodman and Cam Gordon voted
10-to-3 against municipal consent, then priced at $1.65-billion.
SWLRT is splitting the Democratic Farmer Labor Party into constant growth vs.
quality of life.
Wagenius testified: "Thank you Mr. Chair [Adam Duininck, Metropolitan Council
chair] and thank you Met Council members for your willingness to hold this
[legally required public] hearing.
"I work for Mayor Hodges and she would like to extend her thanks to everybody
hereâthe citizens present for their remarkable politeness and thoughtful
comments in the face of this project's transformation from what it was promised
to be, into a totally different project that it is today.
"I will share this experience with Mayor Hodges as a refreshing tonic compared
to the collective amnesia which permeates the conversation that takes place at
the Corridor Management Committee. At the CMC they were saying it is time, now,
for the burdens of this cost cutting to be shared equitably among the five
cities along the line, as if the burdens of this project have been shared
equitably up to this point.
"At those meetings there was no recognition whatsoever that the burden of
freight fell 100-percent on one city.
"At those meetings there was no recognition that this project was planned to be
and promised to be totally different than it is today with freight relocated
from the corridor. This is beyond dispute. Whether or not St. Louis Park
acknowledges their promise, the fact that Hennepin County promised to reroute
the freight is not disputed.
"Ms. [Jeanette] Colby and Mr. [George] Puzak are absolutely right about the
origin, the root causes of all these challenges. Southwest LRT has been a
project to avoid accountability. Why did the federal government have to force
the project to incorporate [the] freight issue into the project's scope and
budget? Did anyone ever think there was going to be a solution to the freight
problem which was free?âwhich did not cost money?
"How much more has it cost the project and the residents of Minneapolis because
the freight issue wasn't dealt with five, 10, 15, 17 years ago. If neither of
the government agencies [Metropolitan Council and Hennepin County Commission]
responsible for this situation are willing to tell the community, let the City
of Minneapolis do it.
"You are right to be angry and frustrated. You are right. Your politeness in
the face of this is entirely amazing.
"This is the opposite of what you were told this project was going to be. So if
no one else can say itâI'm sorry." (applause)
Transcribed by the author from Robert Carney Jr.'s meeting audiotape at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUMJyXCa3lg&feature=youtu.be