One giant waste of money

"In the paper this morning was an article about the unelected, rogue, Met Council trying to breathe some life into the failed Blue Line extension. They are excited by the fact that Biden, who has never worked a day in his life, is going to be the President (won't they be surprised when he is not)."

If I were to be asked, what the biggest folly in the Twin Cities is right now, I would say, hands down, our light rail system. What do you have against trains, Bird? Nothing, actually. Except they are expensive, and hardly anyone rides them. How bad is it? According to a Channel 5 report done by Tom Hauser recently, LRT ridership is down 97%. Like I said, hardly anyone rides them.

Before somewhat jumps in my stuff and tells me about the effects of the Floyd issue as well as the pandemic, let me first say that ridership was also down in March. Not 97% down, but still down. According to a March 2020 article in Twincities.com, ridership was already down on the LRT system. Get ready now for the slew of excuses - a harsh winter, low interest rates in car loans, and the proliferation of Uber and Lyft services. The real truth? Crime and fewer folks are working from offices downtown.

So far in this late fall, we have had periodic road closures so the notorious Green Line can continue being worked on. Yes, that $2B boondoggle is still hanging around. And once it is up and riding, who will use it? Good question. Some demographers are predicting this pandemic, as well as the social unrest in larger cities, are going to change the way we work and live. De-centralized instead of centralized (like Agenda 21 wants us to be). I have not talked to anyone, who now thinks it would be a great idea to work and/or live downtown.

In the paper this morning, was an article about the unelected, rogue, Met Council trying to breathe some life into the failed Blue Line extension. They are excited by the fact that Biden, who has never worked a day in his life, is going to be the President (won't they be surprised when he is not). Also having Mayor Pete in charge of Transportation, will mean a steady stream of "free money" from Washington to fund these worthless and very expensive transportation projects.

By the way, it is also the North Star which is gathering dust right now. The service from the expensive North Star rail hubs is all but shut down. I drove by the Coon Rapids station earlier this week. The giant parking lot was all but empty, and the station looked deserted. Even in the best of days, the North Star bled cash. It solved zero traffic problems, and served only a few. Once the pandemic is over, it will take a long time to get the North Star back to even close to "normal".

Bottom line? The rail system in the Twin Cities have done nothing except provide better venues for law breakers. The inner city hubs have proved to be great places to get mugged at night. But, we will keep pouring good money after bad into these things. Why? As Forrest Gump would say, "Stupid is as stupid does". Ain't that the truth, Mr. Gump.