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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Poor planning strikes agian, this time on Cedar Street

I commented recently on the long-term planning effects of various things involved in planning. Over the years, some of our mistakes have become pretty obvious. Platting 60-foot right-of-ways on section line streets is one I had not mentioned, but Maryland Avenue is an example of that decision’s shortsightedness. Even if nobody had ever pictured the invention of the internal combustion motor vehicle, this street’s inevitable ability to draw traffic should have been more visible.

Now we have another example. Central Presbyterian and St. Louis Catholic churches are being threatened by the proposed Central Corridor light rail boondoggle. [So is Minnesota Public [sic] Radio which recently was helped to move closer to the site with government assistance.]

So who ever allowed the churches to locate there in the first place? What colossal blunderers they must seem now!

It is hard to weep for the MPR folks, especially since their people seem to be folks more sympathetic to rail transit than the general public and their decision on location is so recent. [And I suspect that somehow Bill Kling will find a way to get more money from taxpayers for the suffering he has partly brought upon himself.]

And it is hard to find very many tears for Commissioner Ortega who apparently just found out that his mother attends mass at St. Louis. He has been one of the boondoggle’s biggest advocates.

I do find myself feeling a bit sorry for the communicants/parishioners of the two churches, but I know that I need to fight that feeling.

After all, what made them decide to build there in the first place? Didn’t they have any idea that 21st century pols would want to run their choo-choo past them?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are right about MPR. You’ve been right about this non-charitable charity before. They will be seeking some kind of public help to get them out of whatever problems the train causes them and our authorities will only be too glad to help them.

Midway Barb

UrbanScene said...

While unfortunate the planning debacle, your article is very hilarious, it's true how the 21st century can't seem to be very compatible with the previous one considering that hundreds of thousands of people got along fine even before snow plows or street lights were invented. With light rail, the same issue of compatibility with existing buildings from eras ago always elicit a sly response. Like maybe we'll need to tear down every brick building or maybe they'll be just fine! Only the engineer will know... when it's too late. And no one seems to conveniently have any statistics or rattling numbers on the effect of light rail trains when they have been around for decades around the world. Even Stockholm with 17th century buildings can find a way to mesh modernity.

But ya know, who's going to miss a few churches? We got so many to throw around!