The Green Line Of Death: All Is Proceeding Exactly As Predicted
By Mitch Berg
Two years after it first “rolled” out, the results of the “Green Line” train between the downtowns are, put diplomatically, “mixed”:
As Metro Transit’s $957 million Green Line project marked its second anniversary on June 14, even die-hard transit advocates acknowledge jobs, housing and commercial development have been a mixed bag.
“I think we’re on a great track with housing, and we always knew that housing was an area that would grow first,” said Mary Kay Bailey, director of the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative.
Well, of course they knew that housing was an area that’d grow first; it’s being subsidized by various levels of government.
If you pay people to do something, someone’ll probably do it.
“But I think it’s time to keep our eyes on job growth. … We want to see it improve with more job-focused development. That’s an important piece for us as a city.”
While Minneapolis and St. Paul have increased their job base by 7 percent since 2011, the collaborative found that job growth averaged less than half that along the Green Line corridor, with wide variation from neighborhood to neighborhood. Some segments of the Green Line have yet to regain jobs lost since light rail construction began nearly six years ago.
The article mentions not a word about the crime rate in the neighborhood. I’m not going to blame reporter Frederick Melo for that just yet – he does a generally conscientious job of covering Saint Paul.
But while the city’s various spokespeople will downplay it for all they’re worth, the general sense in the neighborhood is that crime is up, especially south of Thomas Avenue, four short blocks north of University. And one undeniable fact – which, to be honest, may be a fluke; only time will tell – is that many of the city’s murders this year have happened up and down University Avenue. Of course, it’s early to tie that statistically to the train (notwithstanding one victim who literally died alongside the tracks last March) – but when you see smoke, it’s not unreasonable to think there’s a fire down there somewhere.
June 21st, 2016 at 11:53 am
I can’t blame it all on the Green Line, but when my daughter and I spent an afternoon in downtown Minneapolis, it was really shocking how dead the retail sector was there. You would think that all those office workers would make it vibrant, the overall effect was much like walking through East Berlin in 1989.
June 21st, 2016 at 12:01 pm
Some segments of the Green Line have yet to regain jobs lost since light rail construction began nearly six years ago.
And if (not when) they ever get back to the level it was six years ago, GL will be trumpeted as an overwhelming success. Because that is how they roll.
June 21st, 2016 at 1:05 pm
Are they still claiming USBank Stadium has part of new construction attributed to the GL?
June 21st, 2016 at 1:39 pm
And that worthless bunch of jackasses, led by Gov. Mumbles wants another leg? Idiots in the TwinWest Chamber want it, too. They claim that their businesses will grow. Well, if they don’t have to quit first.
June 21st, 2016 at 1:49 pm
They are trying to ***force*** development instead of supplying what is actually needed and demanded by people.
This is why the Soviet Union collapsed.
An everyday commuter on the North Star is subsidized $900 a month.
June 21st, 2016 at 2:55 pm
What’s comforting for those murdered near the light rail line is that they were in close proximity to something ‘European’ when the grim reaper struck.
June 21st, 2016 at 3:26 pm
Stink, not quite true. Most European cities only started building trams/light rail about 20 years back. They were like hen’s teeth in most cities in Europe when I was there in 1989. Exception: East Berlin.
’nuff said?
June 21st, 2016 at 8:39 pm
BB: Dying in proximity to Europe is a conversation starter at most Uptown parties. Even if the illusion is faulty, light rail appeals to the EQ, the European Quotient of most Uptown liberals.
June 22nd, 2016 at 9:13 am
So what we have to do is persuade urban hipsters that a jacked up pickup with a gun rack is European, and we’re home free, right?