Vote Awaits Robbinsdale City Council on Light Rail Project
The Robbinsdale City Council will soon vote on whether to give consent to the Blue Line Extension light rail project. The expected council vote is Sept. 17.
The light rail extension is planned from Target Field Station along West Broadway Avenue in Minneapolis to County Road 81 in Crystal and Robbinsdale, and along West Broadway Avenue in Brooklyn Park.
The Robbinsdale City Council can’t vote to change the project to buses or a different route. Instead, members must decide on the project in front of them.
The project has generated plenty of passion and concerns. At a Sept. 3 public hearing, 32 people spoke to the Robbinsdale City Council on the project. Mark Bettenga was one of them. He has lived in Robbinsdale since 1988, but said Tuesday night was the first time he attended a council meeting.
“I don’t envy you guys at all, but what we’re really dealing with is two mindsets,” said Bettenga. “You have us, that have been here forever, thinking ‘wait a minute, you’re going to change our whole town,’ ‘you’re going to make things uncomfortable for us.’ And then we have the younger mindset that said ‘we want change. We want that.’ And I’ll be honest with you, I’m not sure how I’ll feel about it.”
Of those who spoke, a majority were against the current alignment or against light rail altogether. A whole host of concerns were raised including issues surrounding crime, drug use, proper station locations, noise mitigation, and people not paying for tickets. Lane reductions on County Road 81 to make room for light rail tracks are yet another issue.
“Quite honestly, I just do not see how this will benefit Robbinsdale,” said Brenda Remus, a Robbinsdale resident.
County Road 81 in Robbinsdale
Another resident raised concern that light rail down the middle of 81 will essentially split the city in half and could make it “another Rondo,” in reference to the St. Paul neighborhood broken up by the construction of Interstate 94.
North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale raised another concern: that the proposed crossings at Lowry and Victory Memorial Parkway could delay saving lives.
“Minutes matter,” said Paul Krogh, who oversees grounds and security with North Memorial Health. “While EMS will be equipped with signal preemptions, there will be some delays created that are not present now.”
Krogh said of the 60,000 patients North Memorial Health Hospital sees annually, about a third arrive in their own vehicles and 10 percent of those have critical or life-threatening conditions.
Those who urged a yes vote say it’s a vote for the city’s future.
“I think it will make Robbinsdale more sustainable,” said Dustin Leslie, who said he moved to Robbinsdale because of light rail. “I work downtown Minneapolis so I can expect to take it to work every day.”
Correction: An earlier version stated those who spoke were roughly split for and against. Twenty of the speakers, or 63 percent, urged the council to either vote no on municipal consent, raised concerns about the project’s impact on their home or property, or were against light rail altogether.
