On Being Amble

One of the pleasures in my life is working Downtown. The IDS Center may seem like an enormous glass cage on a bad day, but the Crystal Court is the ultimate "Town Square" of Minneapolis. This means that the new, improved, and exciting all premier here.

Today being no exception, Metro Transit (http://www.metrotransit.org/) and a couple of other municipal transit and park authorities gathered to attract the attention of current and prospective mass-transit riders.

I signed the "Commuter Challenge" with ease being the daily rider that I am. While more than happy to count myself among record numbers of riders in the metropolitan area, I really just want to win that flat screen television.

My efforts are not entirely selfish, to be sure. I spoke to a Metro Transit representative about the University Corridor, due to start tramming around in 2014. While I've heard the argument off-hand that salaries in St. Paul are lower than in Minneapolis, and there had been considerable recalcitrance to the proposed railway because of it, I was surprised when the representative could not speak the effect of this discrepancy between the cities, nor could she verify development obstruction because of it. The purported obstructionists believed a small economic meltdown would occur is a simple, fast, effective corridor would be available.

Moving on, she did make note of the double-edged sword that will perhaps lacerate business owners along University Avenue. Whereas business owners, regardless of property ownership, might find the downtime caused by construction a wonderful opportunity to close and refurbish their store fronts and interiors, the value of the property will likely sky-rocket once the LRT is in operation (as property has along Hiawatha), perhaps crippling their business in high rent or property tax debt. The question is, will the new pedestrian and rail traffic bring more customers than ever to the establishments?

Time will furnish such answers. And I have no patience. Not after living in Geneva and Warsaw. I can't convey my enthusiasm for light rail. When it works, it works. And my word, to live in a city where a car is not requisite to daily life? Where would we put the choir of angels who whisk away the noise, smell, congestion, and oft-aloof Minnesota drivers? I'm just not hearing them yet.