Note:  The Minneapolis City Council votes on Friday morning, September 25, 2015.

No Equity: Rather than routing transit to the dense Northside or Uptown areas, Southwest LRT is scheduled to stop at “Hidden Beach” on the east side of Cedar Lake where kids, cops and the Park Board have battled for years. It is an up-scale single family housing neighborhood with little parking.

The Draft EIS predicted no reduction in greenhouse gas emissions with SWLRT until after 2050.

Take Action to protect the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes

Southwest Light Rail Transit (SWLRT) is the most expensive public works project ever proposed in Minnesota at more than $1.77-billion. This price estimate does not include cost-overruns for soil remediation if a half mile tunnel, with solid steel sides 55-feet deep, is cut through the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes between Cedar, Lake of the Isles and Calhoun.

The local practice of routing light rail in public parkland reduces quality of life to an externality—Hiawatha LRT construction shaved Minnehaha Park and reduced Coldwater Springs by 46,000 gal/day; SWLRT threatens the Chain of Lakes; and Bottineau along Wirth Park. Route transit where people live, not through the parks.

This is transit without the mass. SWLRT Reduced Minneapolis Ridership Numbers  April 2015

The Minnesota Public Radio/Met Council’s most recent projection of average weekday ridership in 2030 at three Minneapolis’s stations (Penn, Van White, Royalston) is 22% LOWER than originally forecasted.

Co-location of SWLRT beside ethanol heavy rail cargo (“rolling bombs”) through Minneapolis violates the basic agreement between the city and appointed Met Council planners.   

SWLRT as a “jobs program” ranks our failing bridges sewer pipes as less critical than this flawed transit plan.

Action Needed: Call Minneapolis City Members

Even if all you say is “please deny municipal consent, vote no,” please make those phone calls NOW, before Friday, September 25th, when the final vote occurs. Focus on the starred (*) names.

*Jacob Frey 612-673-2203 jacob.frey@minneapolismn.gov
*Andrew Johnson 612-673-2212 Andrew.Johnson@minneapolismn.gov (He is quoted in the media saying he felt there was no environmental impact or else he would have voted no in 2014 — now he can! The SDEIS and DEIS provide plenty of data on soil contamination and dewatering predictions.)

Kevin Reich 612-673-2201 kevin.reich@minneapolismn.gov
Cam Gordon 612-673-2202 cam.gordon@minneapolismn.gov  (already on board with us)
Barbara Johnson 612-673-2204 barbara.johnson@minneapolismn.gov (already on board with us)
*Blong Yang 612-673-2205 blong.yang@minneapolismn.gov
Abdi Warsame 612-673-2206 abdi.warsame@minneapolismn.gov
Lisa Goodman 612-673-2207 lisa.goodman@minneapolismn.gov   (already on board with us)

*Elizabeth Glidden 612-673-2208 elizabeth.glidden@minneapolismn.gov
*Alondra Cano   612-673-2209 alondra.cano@minneapolismn.gov
Lisa Bender 612-673-2210 lisa.bender@minneapolismn.gov
*John Quincy 612-673-2211 John.Quincy@minneapolismn.gov
*Linea Palmisano 612-673-2213 Linea.Palmisano@minneapolismn.gov

*Mayor Betsy Hodges: Hodges campaigned against co-location of ethanol and metro rail traffic but changed and voted for after she was elected 612-673-2100

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