Read June 8, 2010 edition of the Star Tribune for the latest on the saga of the Central Avenue Streetcar Proposal.  According to the Star Tribune, Minneapolis is looking for help to pay for a $600,000 “study” to determine if this Central Avenue Streetcar Line would work.  Since Minneapolis has already designated  $250,000 just to do a study for this proposal, now they are looking for Columbia Heights and Anoka County to help pay for more studies?

Comments made by a couple members of the City Council and staff member Scott Clark at the May 24th Columbia Heights City Council meeting were that “It’s not going to cost us anything to look at.”  Thankfully, Bruce Nawrocki, Bobby Williams and Bruce Kelzenberg were all ready to vote ‘no’ when Tami Diehm suggested that there not be a vote but just recommended that the staff continue to follow Minneapolis and their discussion about a potential streetcar line. This allows the item to come up again at any time in future meetings.

Let’s put this into perspective:  How many jobs will be lost in the City of Columbia Heights to help fund this study? If we pay out ‘our portion’ for this study what are we going to be cutting in other areas to finance this study?  The budget for 2010 has already been set.  Which job are we going to be cutting first to help pay for this?  I don’t see the staff or council lining up to take a cut in pay.

This is not the time to be looking at spending money on studies for streetcars.  Let’s concern ourselves with balancing our budget and living within our means.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.