Speed Gibson

The Central Corridor Light Rail Project is years away and already our central planners are floating the next turd: the Southwest LRT to Eden Prairie. Yesterday's Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that this one is running into some Not In My Back Yard resistance.

The 14-mile Southwest transitway will traverse an urban landscape far different from those of the Hiawatha Line and Central Corridor, which mostly were plotted along busy four-to-six-lane roads.

I've walked and biked through the upscale Kenwood / Bryn Mawr / Lake of the Isles neighborhoods this train is supposed to use and it's just what the paper reports, with many homes within 100 feet at many points. This isn't an old train yard, this is prime real estate in Minneapolis due to the adjacent lakes and parks.

"Choking a scenic byway with frequent rail crossings" is not in the park's best interest, said Matthew Dalquist, a member of the Cedar-Isles-Dean neighborhood board, at a hearing last week.

Another option is to bypass via Nicollet to Lake Street, chugging through Uptown, or even further to the east, possibly via a tunnel.

The residents worry about the noise. Indeed, have you noticed how squeaky the Hiawatha cars are? Business owners are concerned with the extensive disruption during construction, just like the business owners along the Central Corridor along University Avenue.

The big loser of course will be the taxpayers, with yet another white elephant requiring endless subsidies.