Hennepin Avenue, along with a slew of other roads in Minneapolis and around the state, saw a flurry of orange construction cones suddenly appear on or around March 31, the unofficial start of Minnesota’s roadwork season.
I live just off Hennepin, but far enough north to avoid major impacts during last year’s first phase of the project. But as this year’s construction moves north, I’m in the heart of the construction zone.
Hennepin joins many other projects that balance both road building and the implementation of an Arterial Bus Rapid Transit (ABRT), the most common form of mass transit being built in the Twin Cities these days. Think of the A Line in St. Paul, or the C and D lines in Minneapolis, all currently operating, or the Metro B line, the much anticipated crosstown ABRT along Lake Street in Minneapolis and Marshall Avenue in St. Paul. These buses make fewer stops and collect fares before riders board, delivering faster travel times through major corridors.
Hennepin Avenue will soon be home to the Metro E Line, an ABRT line replacing much of the current Route 6 and traveling east along University Avenue through Dinkytown to the Westgate light-rail station.
Roadwork, Transit and Anti-Displacement
These new Twin Cities transit projects highlight a critical tension: How do we build the infrastructure our communities need while safeguarding the small businesses that are the heart and soul of our neighborhoods?
Metro Transit’s ambitious expansion — shifting from “a mega infrastructure project every 10 years” to opening major transit lines every 18 months — marks a significant and essential step forward for our region. At its core, this progress reflects a fundamental truth: All Minnesotans deserve the freedom to access their communities, jobs, education, families and daily needs through reliable, affordable transportation options.
Transit is essential to improving accessibility and affordability for all Minnesotans, across abilities, disabilities, races, classes and geographies. Beyond individual benefits, transit investments benefit Minnesotans by enhancing our region’s competitiveness, reducing congestion, fostering environmental responsibility and driving economic vibrancy.
However, the experiences of business districts across the metro highlight another pressing issue, driven not by transit itself, but by the lack of adequate support for small businesses and residents during construction projects tied to public investments. When construction timelines stretch from six weeks to six months and businesses face significant drops in revenue, it’s more than an inconvenience for shop owners. It’s a threat to their livelihoods and to cherished community spaces that have taken years to cultivate.
This is an age-old problem and one that would exist with or without transit. Road construction focused on cars has led to the half-joking expression that Minnesota has two seasons: winter and road construction. This latter season implies that drivers will face difficulties reaching destinations quickly or finding parking when they arrive.
It’s exciting to see transit projects advance more frequently and numerously as metro sales tax funding accelerates our ABRT build-out. Even though these projects add significant benefits to communities, transit can become a scapegoat for road construction woes.
Multi-Modal Investments for Vibrant Streets
Transit, as well as safe and welcoming spaces for bikers and pedestrians, is vital to the success of small businesses, serving multiple roles: connecting businesses to customers and employees, catalyzing nearby development and enabling broader infrastructure improvements. While transit projects are often blamed for traffic and parking disruptions, they frequently include other critical utility and road upgrades that would be necessary, regardless of transit expansion. Similar challenges for businesses will also arise in non-transit-related projects, as Minnesota cities tackle long-overdue infrastructure investments.
The solution isn’t to slow down or alter transit development but to better support affected businesses during and after construction. The current patchwork of city, county and state resources is insufficient and needs to be strengthened.
The heart of this issue is anti-displacement protections, a challenge that demands better solutions from advocates and state policymakers. Transit and other infrastructure investments often bring construction disruptions that unintentionally displace residents and businesses. Over the long term, rising rents and property values can further drive displacement. Addressing both immediate and long-term impacts is essential to crafting policies that ensure transit development is inclusive, particularly in marginalized communities that are most vulnerable to these pressures.
We missed a critical opportunity to address this issue in the 2023 Transportation Bill. Some opposed using metro sales tax dollars to support anti-displacement efforts directly tied to transit, effectively separating these issues and denying them equal priority under the same funding mechanism. Instead, a one-time allocation was made for this important work along the Blue Line Light Rail Extension, leaving communities and advocates to scramble for funding on a project-by-project basis.
Balancing Transportation Development and Displacement
Austin, Texas, provides a compelling model for integrating transit expansion with anti-displacement measures. In 2020, voters approved Proposition A, a $7.3 billion transit initiative funded through property taxes and federal matching funds. The plan allocated $300 million to Project Connect, an effort to prevent displacement along new transit lines, incorporating tools to track housing affordability and community vulnerability.
Additionally, Austin’s Equitable Transit-Oriented Development (ETOD) plan prioritizes preserving small, BIPOC-owned and legacy businesses, making equity a central goal of its transit strategy.
The University of Maryland’s National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education offers transit advocates and policymakers valuable insights through its Small Business Anti-Displacement Toolkit, designed to support businesses even after construction ends. The toolkit outlines strategies such as commercial tenant protections, tax credits and incentives, and community ownership models to help keep rents affordable and safeguard local businesses.
In the Twin Cities, adopting a regional or statewide approach is the most practical way to protect small businesses during critical mobility investments. Without it, inconsistent policies will lead to uneven outcomes across different cities or counties, even along the same transit route.
At least a few legislators, including Rep. Katie Jones (DFL 61A), have voiced support for a grant program to help small businesses weather the challenges of road reconstruction. Sen. Found Hawj (DFL 67), assistant majority leader in the Senate, and Sen. Sandy Pappas (DFL 65) are also working on this issue, starting with a project-by-project approach but shaping up a pilot to a state-wide approach, including their bill to provide construction mitigation grants to businesses affected by St. Paul’s Arcade Street and East Seventh Street reconstruction.
Minnesota deserves both thriving small businesses and world-class public transit. Transit should be a meaningful addition to the accessibility and vibrancy of cultural and economic corridors throughout the region. With thoughtful planning and robust support systems, we can ensure that investing in one doesn’t come at the expense of the other.
Editor’s note: “Street Views” appears in Streets.mn twice monthly. Respond to columnist and board member Joe Harrington directly at [email protected]. You may also add comments at our Streets.mn pages on Bluesky and Facebook.