West Broadway business owners are among the latest group of people in North Minneapolis who are worried about the Metropolitan Council’s proposed plans to run a light rail line through their neighborhood.
Some of the concerns include parking removal, as well as how traffic and buses would be affected. They’re also worried about changes to buildings to accommodate street widening for the light rail, and concerns about how businesses, many of which are BIPOC-owned, would be affected during and after construction.
“I think the light rail will destroy the commercial corridor, the only commercial corridor that we have in North Minneapolis that has viable potential,” said Dean Rose, who owns the Broadway Liquor Outlet, as well as the building with 103 affordable housing units above it, on the northwest corner of West Broadway and Penn.
The Met Council’s consideration of an extension of the Blue Line light rail down West Broadway on the way to Brooklyn Park is a relatively recent development. The project, which has been in the works for almost a decade, was initially rerouted out of North Minneapolis because of gentrification concerns.
The agency is again proposing bringing the route back into the community because they were unable to convince Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad to run the light rail alongside their tracks through Theodore Wirth Park.
These concerns come as Lyn-Park homeowners are worried about how the light rail would affect their property values and their ability to build generational wealth. They persuaded the Met Council to study running the route closer to Washington Avenue.
Business owners like Rose are concerned about how the light rail would affect buildings along the West Broadway corridor. As part of the 2007 West Broadway Alive plan, Rose worked to develop guidelines that require new buildings to build up to the sidewalk, as opposed to having off-street parking in front.
“We have been looking and developing West Broadway,” said Rose. “That [planning] allows for interaction of customers and pedestrians and community members to engage in commerce in a comfortable way that is accessible to bikes, pedestrians, autos and buses,” he adds. “When you make this shift to putting light rail down West Broadway,” he continues, “it flies in the face of all the development principles that we’ve been investing in for decades.”
It also makes it hard for Teto Wilson, who owns the building that houses his business—Wilson’s Image Barbers and Stylists, across the street from Broadway Liquor Outlet—to decide whether or not to buy other buildings along the corridor to rebuild.
“You’re literally taking a building I would have purchased at full price and you’re making it much smaller,” said Wilson, referring to a building he is interested in that the Met Council wants to remove five feet of to allow the light rail to pass through. “[It’s] putting a lot of people that have projects either in the works or in their minds in a holding pattern.”
Parking is also another issue for business owners such as Tara Watson, who owns a chiropractic practice and franchises an Anytime Fitness on West Broadway. “We already struggle with parking on the avenue [at] certain times of the day because of the on-street parking regulations,” says Watson. “It just makes it really, really difficult now for you to reduce it down to one lane on each side with something going through the middle, congesting the area more [and] taking away people’s businesses.”
Business owners like Wilson are also worried that removing parking will make it harder for those with mobility access needs to visit their businesses by Metro Mobility or taxi. “If I have a customer that’s in one of those Metro Mobility vans and they pull up in front of my business, they’re not going to be able to stop, get out, use the ramp, let the customer out, and bring them into the shop,” worries Wilson. “Because you’re gonna create a traffic bottleneck.”
People may have a harder time getting to West Broadway businesses by light rail because the Met Council is proposing up to three stops on West Broadway, which is less than the nine and a half bus stops that exist today. Depending on the alternative, trains may either stop at Illion/James and Aldrich/Bryant or just at Emerson. Both alternatives call for the light rail to also stop at Penn.
“The train is gonna go right past all these other businesses,” said Wilson. “I just don’t see how it’s going to truly benefit the people here. What about us that have businesses here? It’s gonna be more of a negative impact for us versus having people to … not have to drive any longer.”
Some West Broadway business owners believe the Met Council would be better off running a shuttle with San Francisco-like cable cars or building a rapid transit bus route, similar to the C and D lines. “I don’t think you’re going to have anyone complaining about a [line similar to the] C Line compared to a rail line,” said Wilson. Metro Transit does indeed plan to build such a route on West Broadway after 2030, that runs to Robbinsdale Transit Center and 38th Street Station via Washington and Cedar Avenues, replacing Routes 14 and 22.
It’s possible that some of the concerns businesses have may be addressed later this year when the Met Council releases its report required by the federal government on how the project will affect the surrounding neighborhood, and what they plan to do to mitigate those concerns.
Although Metro Transit staff did not respond to repeated email requests to comment on West Broadway corridor businesses’ concerns, they plan to host community meetings to get more feedback this coming month. Their next meeting will be on Monday, April 17, from 5 – 7 p.m., at Sanctuary Covenant Church, 710 W Broadway Ave. They also have a virtual meeting scheduled for Wednesday, May 17, from 5 – 6 p.m.
Support Black local news
Help amplify Black voices by donating to the MSR. Your contribution enables critical coverage of issues affecting the community and empowers authentic storytelling.
the city council does not think. or care about what is good for the citizens or the business owners. its the plan and thats that !! sad they want to narrow every thing, even service and emergency vec. cant get thru !!
Be careful what you ask for Northside. The MTC and other regional transportation stakeholders have an abysmal record of completing major projects such as a light rail on budget and in a timely manner .
My main concern is with the latter. How long did it take to complete the C-Line?
What is the economic impact of long-term disruption of the Northside’s only business corridor. Perhaps the business owners along Broadway need to sit down with business owners who survived the light rail in St.Paul’s Midway and the businesses on the West Bank of the U of M where retail lost a great deal of on street parking and disruption of their business. The city even had to create a marketing promotion to persuade long time patrons that “we’re open for business”.
The rail running up to Brooklyn Park assumes that apartment dwellers across 610 and Brooklyn Park residents will commute to downtown to work and Northside residents as well.
This is a huge assumption. COVID has changed significantly the need to come to work when working remotely has grown significantly. Check out the remote lots to pick up an express bus, are they filled and how much compared to pre-COVID?
The existing light rail line suffers from crime and the presence of our homeless using it as a “home”. Will our single mothers ophthalmology for the C-Line or the light rail? These two factors have caused ridership to plunge. As a former Twin Cities commuter I always preferred the 94D express bus compared to the drama of the light rail.
Broadway is recovering- slowly. New housing is in now or being built. How will light rail, a long term project, disrupt plans on the books now, existing businesses and I have not mentioned gentrification. Studies have already been done on how far gentrification extends from the rails.
If the project is also presented as correcting “transportation”disparities” count the cost and beware of what you ask for.