Via Alex Scheiferdecker on Twitter, here’s a captivating map that speaks for itself:
The resulting conversation on Twitter was a critical, as it should be, of the way that the region’s light rail investments skip all the most densely populated parts of the Twin Cities, most especially North Minneapolis and Uptown.
Highlights include:
Boy a midtown line sure would be useful
— ko (@KOlson5581) August 6, 2017
Yes they could have dropped the green line extension down Nicollet and west along the midtown greenway but noooooo it was too expensive.
— Michael Tomatz (@MichaelTomatz) August 6, 2017
Um Hello! NE Minneapolis needs a train!
— r 💜 (@RobinIller) August 7, 2017
Alex does offer the caveat that a jobs map would be kinder to the transit planners:
Important to point out that a map with jobs would look quite different. Much of this system has been built around THAT map.
— Alex Schieferdecker (@alexschief) August 6, 2017
Just using density asa measure, it’s pretty clear that the entirely of the northern half of South Minneapolis, all the way from Lake Calhoun to Hiawatha Avenue/ Highway 55, is the key missing piece of the transit picture. After that, North and Northeast Minneapolis, East Side and North End in Saint Paul, and Southeast Minneapolis and other parts of Saint Paul are the densest places in the metro area. (Note that the Riverview line, if rail is the chose option, would hit a red spot or two as well.)
Most of the suburbs, on the other hand, really lack the density that helps transit thrive. That might change, I suppose. (Brooklyn Park is the big exception, though!)
Anything else about this map jump out at you?