LRT
The 411 on how LRT impacts streetcars in NoMi
At last month's meeting to discuss possible LRT routes along Penn or Oliver as alternatives to the "D1" route that would go through Theo Wirth to Highway 55, I asked a very specific question of our moderators. How would the various D2 options affect the proposed streetcar alignment along West Broadway?MORE »
Business down amid construction
It doesn’t even seem like summertime in Stadium Village to Nancy Rose Pribyl.
Once lined with planters and parking meters, Washington Avenue Southeast is now filled with dirt and barricaded by steel fences. Sitting on the patio with a beer at Sally’s Saloon and Eatery — once a summertime custom — isn’t the same for Pribyl.MORE »
OPINION | Rethinking light rail's impact on business
In a recent two-year period, more than 200 businesses disappeared from storefronts along the streets between the Minneapolis and St. Paul downtowns where the Central Corridor light rail transit line is now being built. That represented a 15 percent loss of the kind of grass-roots enterprises our economy depends on.MORE »
The train is coming, like it or not
Outside the Lyric Apartments meeting room, orange construction barriers, fences and torn-up streets contrasted with the good cheer and artist-decorated hard hats of the Central Corridor Creative Enterprise Zone party.
The vision of the Creative Enterprise Zone at the crossroads of Raymond and University Avenue is to be a livable, mixed-use neighborhood, recognized and sustained as a center of creativity and enterprise. [From CEZ web page.]
The event was billed as a celebration of the arts and businesses along the Central Corridor, and it lived up to that promise. Food, drinks, art, music and determinedly upbeat speakers touted stronger ties among creative folks on the Central Corridor, a plan for supporting enterprise and creativity, support for local businesses, and hope for the future.
NEWS DAY | How much for Central Corridor business aid?
The official story from the Met Council on April , as repeated in MinnPost and MPR was that there's great news and new government money to help businesses along the Central Corridor. "Assistance to businesses along the Central Corridor LRT route will increase to $11.1 million, which now includes more than $6 million in forgivable loans and grants," said the Met Council press release.
The University Avenue Business Association said that they were "happy to see the Met Council responding, but their announcement is confusing."
They got that right.MORE »
NEWS DAY | University Avenue businesses need YOU
As traffic snakes through construction barriers on University Avenue, I look at the chain link fences lining the sidewalks and wonder just how much damage some of my favorite small businesses have already felt. Corner businesses on major cross streets are luckier—the #16 bus still stops at Prior and University and traffic still crosses the street in all directions. Mid-block businesses on the south side of University Avenue (now) and on the north side (later) are cut off by trenches and earth-moving equipment, imprisoned behind chain-link fences.MORE »
Central Corridor businesses challenge LRT report, make an emotional plea for survival
Valentine's Day wasn't so sweet this year for Mary Leonard, owner of the Chocolat Celeste. Leonard saw $20,000 in fewer sales, which she attributes to her business' move from University to Transfer Road - a move she says was necessitated by LRT construction along the Central Corridor. Leonard was one of several small business owners and St.MORE »
University Avenue merchants wary as light rail construction begins
If there's one thing that everybody involved with the Central Corridor light-rail transit line can agree on, it's that 2011 will not be a year of business-as-usual on west University Avenue.
Preliminary utility work has provided a taste of what it will be like when heavy construction begins in a couple of weeks, starting on St. Paul's western border at Emerald Street and moving steadily eastward, reaching Hamline Avenue by year's end.MORE »
Central Corridor construction kicks off on University, Washington Avenues
As construction of the Central Corridor light rail train gets into full swing, many changes have already started to appear on Washington Avenue and University Avenue. As a University of Minnesota student, I come into contact with the construction daily.MORE »
Feds rule: Go-ahead and slap on the wrist for Central Corridor
While U.S. District Judge Donovan W. Frank ruled January 27 that the Central Corridor Light Rail Transit construction can keep on rolling, he also admonished the Met Council to pay more attention to its impact on low income and minority populations, especially businesses.MORE »
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