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Monday, August 22, 2011

Looming, monster ugly thing being planned by Flaherty-Collins, in Orland Park.

Look at this hideous thing:


This link. It looks like something designed and built in the Soviet Union during Stalin times. Socialist chic. Will the one in Ramsey be that ugly?

Expect it, since the bells-and-whistles description differs little to not at all; this for Orland park.


It will be about the same size in Ramsey, but with the Ramp included to make it BIGGER. Compare the p.3 description, (with LESS parking, but MORE retail), again, this link.

Enlarge that first image, look at it, the scale of it, and imagine it looming ominously on the Clown Center skyline. Drive Sunwood, and feel the claustrophobia.

___________UPDATE__________
PiPress has an online story about the Northstar stop, here.

When you think about it, the Star express [the subsidized bus] has been losing money consistently, month in, month our and will cease running when the train stop is finished. It can be expected to lose money consistently up to that point. At a conservative $12 million to fully build the stop, and projecting a bus ridership growth to 300 riders round-trip, that works out to $12,000,000/300 = $40,000 per rider and it has been pointed out more than once by Terry Hendriksen, that Ramsey and the other taxing entities in play for the project could buy each rider a nice but conservatively priced low-end Lexus for that money, and still have around $10,000 per head, cash left over.

Moreover, at an annual Metropolitan transit taxing authority $300,000 further tax tab, for three hundred riders, existing non-user Ramsey taxpayers will be accorded the joy of paying an extra $1000, per rider, per year, for the benefit to them of having those riders pay less than it takes to make the thing pay for itself, ticketwise.

What a deal. And PiPress reports the shiny new thing is set to be completed, when? Read it, it says,

The station is projected to boost Northstar line ridership by about 10 percent, much of it coming from riders who currently take the Ramsey Star Express bus, which will be discontinued when the station is ready.

[...] In addition to St. Cloud, there has been discussion of constructing a Coon Rapids/Foley station and more recently a stop in Becker.

The time isn't right for any of those, Look said, adding that Northstar first needs to increase ridership to 4,500 daily before Metro Transit - the owner and operator of Northstar - would consider extending the line to St. Cloud. Currently, ridership is hovering around 2,450 people daily.

In the meantime, attention will be focused on marketing the rail service and getting the Ramsey station up and running. The station is anticipated to open in late fall of 2012.

Boosting 2500 riders ten percent is 250 riders, so my 300 rider scenario has an optimistic bias.

Isn't it great? Dump $40,000/rider into capital, all paid from taxes at one or another level of government, and then add an annual hit of $1000 per rider for sweeping out the station, and what have you got? Answer: You have a boondoggle that will be conveniently opened election time, 2012, well before the ramp-rental-wrap will splat out, and those up for reelection will beat their chests Tarzan style touting "how great it is."

Wait and watch. That is exactly how it will shake out and Ben Dover will be on his perch across the street from city hall, always smiling, no matter what. And the veterans needing clinic attention will drive because the thing with its spiffy stop only runs during morning and evening rush hour, to/from downtown, and either the vets drive or hang around Ramsey all day (for a half-hour appointment) and sit, spit, and listen to and feel the trains rumbling by. How great it is.