The only place another Northstar stop would make sense, for actual commuters - ostensibly the ones the thing is aimed to serve, would be at Foley Park and Ride - where acres of parking is occupied by those now riding a more expensive transit delivery option, a series of express buses that add far more carbon to the atmosphere than stopping and restarting the Northstar there would produce.
And labor cost and bus maintenance costs could be lessened, but Sivarajah is log-rolling for Matt Look, as are West, and Westerberg, with Look wanting a Northstar stop in the Ramsey Town Center, as if dumping infinite amounts of public cash - this at fourteen million for a stop at the Town Center - would rescue that incredible mistake from its proper, moribund status.
It's a sow's ear. Admit it Matt. Move on.
It's your WANT, Matt, admit that. It's nobody's NEED. You ran on that want-vs-need rhetoric, Matt, now deliver.
For Sivarajah to simply say, "I'm doing log-rolling for Matt," would be okay. It would be honest.
But this (Paul Levy of Strib reporting, this link):
Fiscal conservative Look has different view of proposed Ramsey station
The Anoka County commissioner wants the $14 million price tag to be part of the state bonding bill.
[...] A vote for veterans
Sivarajah, the new chairwoman of the board, has never been bashful about bashing Northstar. Even with a perceived alliance on the board among Sivarajah, Look, West and Westerberg, her support of a Ramsey station is somewhat of a surprise.
"The only reason I would support the Ramsey station is the veterans clinic," Sivarajah said of a new outpatient clinic for military veterans that is to open in Ramsey this fall.
Of Northstar, she said, "Frankly, the way I look at it, we inherited what we have. Northstar is here. At this point, we have to do what we can to boost ridership in order to bring down the subsidy per rider.
"Am I happy about it not being a success? No," she said of the line, which missed ridership targets in 2010. "It would be great if I was proven wrong. We're stuck with what we have."
Northstar began operating in November of 2009 with stations at Target Field in Minneapolis, Fridley, Coon Rapids, Anoka, Elk River and Big Lake. After falling 21 percent below projections for 2010, ridership showed a 19 percent increase in January.
What a crock, Rhonda. Veterans are going to pile out early to catch a Northstar for an 11:30 am appointment at the VA clinic, and hang around the sandburs at Ramsey Town Center until the evening rush hour, all day long in Ramsey, so they can then take the Northstar back?
Before that happens pigs will fly.
Give me a break, Rhonda.
Some lies and excuses clearly are transparent.
This is most surely Sivarajah bringing "transparency" (in one awkward sense) to the county board.
Madam Chairman, call it like it is. Don't make the veterans walk your plank, for doing log-rolling and being too disingenuous to admit it. Don't insult veterans that way. Don't insult the intelligence of your constituents that way.
Would the Watchdog please bark about this one? Why the silence, there, Harold?
Yo, are you there, Harold?
Woof, woof? Not a bark? Not even a desultory growl?
Huh?
Lap dog, or watchdog?
________________________________
Rhonda, Matt, Watchdog, Westerberg, all of you "conservative" "reduce spending and waste" Republicans, such as you are, here, first is the Foley Park and Ride, and environs, (with adjacent rail tracks in view), note autos all over the place - there are real honest-to-goodness commuters there (ostensibly the target group Northstar was built to serve), without a commuter rail stop. After that image, juxtaposed, the moribund Town Center's vast emptiness, with a multistory ramp, without visible autos, with a handful of people served by the cash-losing express bus service -- waste that could be cut -- and these conservatives and their lap dog, excuse, their watchdog, wanting to dump fourteen million of taxpayer money into somebody's pet want, nobody's need. Note, both images are to the same scale. No trickery there, only clear evidence.
WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?
AND WHAT DID THEY SAY TO GET ELECTED?
Foley.
Ramsey.
And I drove recently by the Foley site. It's presently more crowded than in the above somewhat dated Google aerial image.
Folks on the county board, get real about money.
Voters, please pay attention. It's only tax dollars they intend to waste.
Finally -- Veterans, are you happy being trotted out as somebody's excuse for waste?