The crime of light rail

"This is so neat! We are becoming so European! So Trendy!"

Oh boy, oh boy. Is this thing ever start to get out of hand. Our "friends" at the Metropolitan Council are going to spend our money on this boondoggle, come hell or high water. And which boondoggle is that one might ask? The grand daddy of them all - light rail.

This group of pretenders (Met Council) has already drawn up plans for a web of trains to be coming into the city from all points. Under what authority? Zip. None of these clowns are elected - only appointed. And many are political appointees. Many could not find their way down a one way street. And yet they are going to spend billions upon billions building trains to bring people into a downtown that fewer and fewer want to work in.

Crime at many of the light rail stations have been through the roof. Two local television stations reported last week the number of infractions at the stations in the Mall of America and by Lake Street number in the hundreds during a six month reporting period. True, some of the infractions were for not paying a fare (surprised?), but others were for assault, robbery and so on. Many of our city yuppies may like to ride these trendy things, but for thugs, crime on the light rail is like picking low fruit off a tree. 

During my working career, I spent some time working in both downtown location as well as the suburbs. I hated working downtown. Between the panhandling, the expense, the crowds, the crime, the hassle of just getting there, I hated it. And despite what Wonder Woman (the Mayor of Minneapolis) says, crime in the evening is becoming a huge problem. There was an article today about how nervous many of the downtown business owners are becoming. They don't believe the local police yet have a handle on this problem - and maybe never will.

But who cares if more and more people of good sense don't want to work downtown? That is tough toodles says the political hacks on the Met Council. Companies are going to relocate downtown even if it will cost them an arm and a leg. People are going to work downtown even if they hate it. And more and more people are going to live vertically downtown, even if they prefer the open spaces of the 'burbs.

Once our current Euphoria based Governor is gone (three + years and counting), HOPEFULLY we will get a real Governor who can come in and clean out the Met Council. If the next Governor does not have the legislative support to trash this unelected group, then at least he or she can neuter them.

It really is hard to believe in America today we can have this amount of taxation without representation. It is very, very hard to believe. Thank you Democrats.