What’s your #1 public concern in the Twin Cities metropolitan area? The Metropolitan Council believes it is (no surprise): transportation. Below is a story from yesterday’s Star Tribune reporting on the annual State of the Region address by Met Council chair Peter Bell. Community Development Director Janet Jeremiah and I attended the event. Bell is an excellent speaker. He has a very good grasp of his organization and its accomplishments, and also where it’s heading in the future.
Here’s the story:
Our No. 1 metro worry? Transportation
By MARIA ELENA BACA, Star Tribune
February 4, 2008
In a year that saw the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River, conspicuous construction that has snarled sections of metro roads and constant debate over funding, it may not come as a surprise that transportation emerged as the top concern of metro-area residents.
Released Monday at the Metropolitan Council’s State of the Region event at the Minneapolis Central Library, a recent survey it commissioned found that 37 percent of Twin Cities metro-area residents identified “traffic congestion, road conditions, limited transit options and other transportation challenges” as the region’s top problem.
Finishing a close second, 32 percent of residents listed crime as the most important issue facing the region.
The survey had a 3 percentage point margin of error.
Still, in his State of the Region address, Metropolitan Council Chairman Peter Bell focused on transportation and natural resources while also mentioning development and infrastructure among the council’s priorities.
Bell touted progress on the North Star rail line to link outlying northern suburbs with downtown Minneapolis.
He also touted the expansion of the Hiawatha light rail to the new Twins ball park and construction of the Central Corridor LRT between the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul. In addition, he highlighted bus line developments made possible by a $133 million federal grant.
Bell received enthusiastic applause from the audience of elected officials, municipal employees, residents and other stakeholders when he indicated that the Central Corridor LRT was his “No. 1 priority.”
“Let me be clear on this point,” he said. “We at the council are strongly committed to securing the necessary federal funds to move forward with this project.”
Still, there were skeptics in the audience.
“There was nothing bold in this vision, no plan to fund a real, robust transit system in our region,” said Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis, who said he was offering the “Democratic response” to Republican Bell’s address.
“Without that, it’s just rhetoric. Unfortunately, the Pawlenty administration and the Met Council really have not taken the steps needed to adequately build a transit system in our region. … We have been proposing for years a regional sales tax to fund expansion of transit.”
‘Green’ priorities
Bell also addressed ways regional government is trying to become greener as part of an effort to meet the metro area’s needs in 2039. Part of his immediate goal is to acquire land for what would become seven new regional parks and seven new trails for the metro area.
In all, the Met Council’s goal would be to add more than 17,000 acres of park land and 700 miles of trails by 2030. Currently, the metro area has a 53,000-acre park system.
Bell touted the Metro Transit system’s 19 hybrid electric buses, the first of 169 to be delivered over the next five years, and the drive to increase buses’ use of biodiesel and other renewable alternative fuel sources.
The annual Residents Survey results were based on interviews with more than 1,300 residents who were polled during October, November and December 2007.
Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409
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Transportation is a tough nut to crack in this state. Most of the state’s verified transportation needs are in the seven county metro area, but most of the transportation money flows to areas outside the Twin Cities. State Legislators may agree to increase the state’s gas tax to produce new money for transportation projects, but only if most of the new money can stay in the Twin Cities. And don’t even get me started on the inflexibility of political positions on the split of this money between roads vs. mass transit.
The real transportation problem in our state is the failure of the parties in power to reach a compromise. Maybe this is the year that’ll get done. Maybe.
