Light rail would bring much needed investment to North
Will it benefit everyone?
By David Pierini staff reporter
America’s roads and railways begin with promises of a prosperous future for everyone.
A Green Line train pulls into a downtown station. Photo by David Pierini
But the path to prosperity often is lined with broken promises and broken lives, especially when the route runs through a poor urban neighborhood. Civic leaders are energized to shape a different, more equitable, outcome as transportation officials consider two proposed routes that would bring light rail trains through the heart of North Minneapolis.
Should the Blue Line extension travel down West Broadway Avenue or Lowry Avenue, light rail trains would connect transit-dependent residents to more jobs, education and health care. Light rail and its stations would spur rapid investment in a community long starved for the amenities enjoyed by wealthier, white neighborhoods.
Light rail could also, many fear, price people out of their homes and businesses, and abrade North’s rich cultural heritage.
There is excitement and wariness in a largely Black community that shares a highway with the Rondo neighborhood in St. Paul. Rondo, the once thriving Black neighborhood, was decimated by construction of Interstate 94 in the 1950s and ‘60s.
Should the Blue Line extension come down West Broadway, investment could transform existing spaces. Photo by David Pierini
“Communities that look like ours have experienced transportation development in horrific ways,” said Felicia Perry, executive director of the West Broadway Business and Area Coalition. “And now, our community has an opportunity to experience this in another way. I’m not asking, I’m demanding that we experience transportation development in a different way. I want to ensure that this is a community approved (route), not just one that is chosen for us. The Blue Line creates amazing opportunities for economic development.”
The Blue Line extension would connect Brooklyn Park, Crystal and Robbinsdale with stops in North Minneapolis en route to Target Field. It is considered the most racially and ethnically diverse transportation corridors in the state. Leaders in the municipalities along the line want light rail to benefit everyone.
Light rail lessons
Residents in the Harrison neighborhood offer several cautionary tales about the impacts of a Blue Line extension.
A new apartment complex looms over a Green Line station in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood. Photo by David Pierini
In 2014, the Metropolitan Council, the body governing transportation, announced a route that would link Golden Valley, Crystal, Robbinsdale and Brooklyn Park to downtown Minneapolis. Met Council was negotiating with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway for right-of-way. The North Minneapolis leg of the track would run down the Olson Memorial Highway. median.
Harrison residents attended meetings, public hearings and sat on committees as officials fleshed out plans. Residents expressed support for the light rail project and even established goals for development to benefit the neighborhood. There was hope the transit project would make Olson Memorial Highway safer for foot and bicycle traffic.
They also conveyed concern for what transit and new development could mean to poorer residents, many of whom were spending more than 50 percent of their income on rent.
“North Minneapolis deserves good transit, we deserve to have the investment,” said Nichole Buehler, executive director of the Harrison Neighborhood Association. “But it should be for the people that live here.”
There was reason to worry. Studies of areas where light rail was built out showed a rise in property taxes, spiking rents and changing demographics. This was especially true in the areas immediately around stations.
St. Paul residents living along Green Line saw rents rise 44 percent, which was double that of other areas across the Twin Cities. Immigrant communities and Black and Brown people living in Frogtown and Rondo, were particularly vulnerable to rent spikes. From 2014 to 2016, “there was a very stark difference in the people who were living in the houses and where they came from,” said Tia Williams of the Frogtown Neighborhood Association.
“There was a lot of community engagement. People did not want to be displaced,” Williams said. “This was written down in the Central Corridor Development Strategy document. But where the problem lies, there are no policies to back this up. There is knowledge of what happens when you put a well-funded transportation project in our neighborhood and it feels to me like (officials) don’t have me or my family or my community in mind whatsoever.”
While sounding their concerns about affordable living, Harrison residents were enthusiastic for light rail because of the improvements it could bring to the neighborhood, such as additional sidewalks, street lighting and making Olson Memorial Highway safer for pedestrians. It could have led to the building of a grocery store; Harrison is considered a food desert.
But long after Harrison residents learned of the Blue Line’s proposed path, investors started swooping in to buy property. Property owners saw tax increases, rents went up, tenants were ordered to vacate and once affordable homes were bulldozed to make way for premium apartment complexes (see related story about displacement in Harrison).
Late last year, Metropolitan Council scrapped the proposed route after failed negotiations with the railway and set their sights on West Broadway or Lowry.
“We’ve already experienced the detriment of the project and now we’re not going to receive the benefits,” Buehler said. “How are you going to make us whole? How do we make sure what happened in Harrison doesn’t happen elsewhere in North Minneapolis?”
Working for different outcomes
Perry has always viewed North Minneapolis as having the potential to be a “Black Wall Street” and understands how light rail could accelerate the investment in a part of the city long ignored.
With a thoughtfully planned light rail, transit-reliant residents will have greater access to jobs throughout the Twin Cities (more than 95 percent work in communities outside of North Minneapolis), education, healthcare and cultural opportunities.
The investment that follows could bring new jobs and more affordable and premium housing options for individuals and families. New gathering places, like shops, restaurants, clubs and recreation centers, would follow.
“North Minneapolis is two full city wards with over 80,000 residents and we do not have a place to go out for dinner for a sit-down meal,” said County Commissioners Irene Fernando, whose district includes the Northside. She serves on a number of committees related to the Blue Line and is chair of the Hennepin County Regional Rail Authority. “I would be hard-pressed to find anywhere in the state with this geographic density that doesn’t have a place to eat dinner out at night. Light rail infrastructure is one of the most effective ways for North Minneapolis to receive economic investment at a safe size and at a scale that we haven’t seen for decades.”
Fernando said county officials are working with Met Council to establish a first-ever anti-displacement team made up of residents, developers, local leaders and other stakeholders to address ways to keep gentrification at bay.
Development and “deeply” affordable housing can happen in the same space, Fernando said, adding its important officials build “authentic” community trust.
Robert Lilligren who represents North Minneapolis on the Met Council said diversity of the region the Blue Line would serve puts anti-displacement concerns “in the forefront.”
“This has to be for everybody,” Lilligren said. “We are committed to hearing from the community before we start making any decisions. The underlying purpose of making this kind of investment in rail is to encourage further development and investment. The risk of displacement is huge.”
Perry said the community has to come out in force and “slow down” the process until residents and business leaders can decide if light rail as proposed is good for the community.
To avoid the risk, stakeholders must first define displacement and how to avoid it, Fernando said. Displacement on West Broadway could be different from Lowry. West Broadway is the most narrow of the two corridors with businesses and homes that come right up to the sidewalk.
Kenya McKnight-Ahad, a local entrepreneur who served six years on the Met Council’s Transportation Advisory Board, says there will be pain associated with a light rail build out. Planning, she said, can not focus on low-income renters alone, she said.
Light rail can ultimately increase affordable housing stock, she said, but city and community leaders must also seek for-profit investments that create business opportunities and housing to support a growing workforce.
She said the city already minimizes the impact of gentrification by requiring investors to submit use plans to the department of Community Planning and Economic Development before it can buy city-owned vacant lots and properties.
“We can’t have a strategy that keeps this community poor,” McKnight-Ahad said. “We have to build a space for the middle class who live here, too. We need mixed-use housing and diverse opportunities that support a whole cycle of life. We want to build opportunities inside for sure, but it's about us having external opportunities as well, connecting to a regional and broader community. What we have is not enough.”