Are We Having Fun Yet?
Peter York, British journalist and management consultant once said: “One should never learn from one’s mistakes. Making the same mistakes, over and over again, is a source of unremitting pleasure.”
By Mr. York’s rubric, Hennepin County and the Met Council must be positively swimming in pleasure.
I recently reviewed the minutes of the Southwest LRT Executive Change Control Board, the seven-member body charged with approving changes to the original plan. Our own county commissioner, Marion Greene, has been a member since 2014.
Guess what? Same old same old.
Divers are still being sent into the Kenilworth tunnel to repair leaks. Specialized equipment needed for the project is no longer manufactured. Additional insurance is required because of the risks associated with the co-location design residents warned about years ago. Taxpayers are also paying more than $400,000 to correct track curves that shifted because engineers failed to adequately account for stabilization and temperature fluctuations.
Even commissioners themselves questioned why some of these issues had not been anticipated.
Feeling the pleasure yet?
Now comes news that the proposed Blue Line Extension from Minneapolis to Brooklyn Park has climbed another $336 million, bringing the estimated cost to $3.58 billion — nearly four times the original estimate and surpassing Southwest LRT as the most expensive public works project in Minnesota history. Meanwhile, a Met Council study found that bus rapid transit could provide service for about $120 million, a small fraction of the cost of light rail.
Metro transit ridership, particularly on light rail, remains well below pre-pandemic levels. Yet Hennepin County and the Met Council continue to insist that more rail is the answer, even as costs rise, remote work reduces commuting, and public confidence erodes.
Southwest LRT should have been a once-in-a-generation lesson. Instead, it has become a template: the same consultants, the same excuses, the same promises from politicians — and the same taxpayers left holding the bag.
Where are the consequences for repeated mismanagement? Who is accountable? Why do our officials refuse to learn from their mistakes? At what point will reality prevail over institutional arrogance?
As a member of Minnesota’s 2024 Metropolitan Governance Task Force — whose recommendations were effectively sidelined in 2025 by those content with maintaining the status quo — I continue to ask those questions.
Mary Pattock
Cedar-Isles-Dean
Save Lyndale’s Trees Before They’re Gone
As Hennepin County advances plans to reconstruct Lyndale Avenue, we urge decision-makers at the county and city of Minneapolis to prioritize the corridor’s mature street trees and redesign the project to save as many as possible.
Current plans call for removing dozens of mature street trees. While infrastructure improvements are important, losing established tree canopy has far-reaching consequences. Newly planted trees take decades to provide the same environmental and community benefits as mature trees.
Urban trees are essential infrastructure. According to the Arbor Day Foundation, a single mature tree absorbs approximately 48 pounds of carbon dioxide annually. Using the i-Tree Planting Calculator, a mature urban tree also captures about 5.5 cubic meters of precipitation, reduces cooling electricity use by 173 kilowatt-hours, reduces heating natural gas use by 2,407 kBtu and captures 0.33 pounds of particulate air pollution annually. Multiply that by the dozens of mature trees at risk under the current Lyndale plan, and the long-term environmental cost becomes clear.
The benefits of mature trees extend further. Urban tree canopy supports wildlife habitat, enhances property values, encourages pedestrian activity that sustains local businesses and has been associated with reduced street crime and slower driving speeds. These benefits should inform any evaluation of street design and safety. As climate change brings more extreme heat and precipitation to Minneapolis, preserving and expanding our urban tree canopy is not optional. It is essential to maintaining a livable city.
We commend Minneapolis for revising the Hennepin Avenue reconstruction project late in the approval process to preserve more trees, and we urge Hennepin County to do the same on Lyndale. Where removal is unavoidable, the county should commit to a canopy-based replacement strategy in partnership with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board that not only restores lost canopy but increases it as part of this once-in-a-generation project.
For data sources referenced in this letter, visit the “Learn” page at GreenCitiesAccord.org.
Michaela Neu
Green Cities Accord
Enough With Fixing What Isn’t Broken
I feel very strongly that we should not turn Lyndale Avenue into another Hennepin and cut down so many trees in the process. We do not need to narrow and concrete everything and slow traffic. If drivers are going too fast, the answer is police writing tickets. Drivers will take heed.
I also can’t believe the plan to redesign the Mall. If something isn’t broken, why spend millions of taxpayer dollars to fix it? We don’t need to “parkify” a piece of land that people travel through but don’t sit around in. For me, the Mall helps me get over to Excelsior Boulevard. And all the apartment dwellers in the area will be pressed for parking. That’s unfair.
At 77, I do not want to be forced to walk everywhere. I didn’t own a car until I was 34. Until then, I walked, biked and took the bus. But I have been hit twice by bikes riding on the sidewalk, once after a heavy, wet snow, which broke my wrist. I’ve also been startled by the rudeness of a cyclist cutting me off when I never saw him coming. And now we have motorized bikes, too. At this stage of my life, forcing me to walk feels like discrimination against seniors.
I had a friend, now deceased, who was hit by a cyclist on Nicollet Mall. The cyclist kept right on going. My friend told me that after multiple operations, his arm was never the same. Cyclists do not want to lose their momentum, and too many do not care enough even to call out, “Passing on your left.”
Thank you for the chance to be heard.
Linda Huhn
East Isles
Common Sense Over Politics
I want to commend you on an excellent and enjoyable article about the many well-placed economic concerns currently affecting Minneapolis.
You never once brought politics into the discussion or demonized individuals who may hold opposing views. Instead, you thoughtfully identified the key issues and logically offered practical solutions.
If we are ever going to move this city forward, we first need to build consensus and then implement common-sense, practical solutions that enhance the experiences of everyone who calls our city home. Thanks again for the insightful and thought-provoking article.
Kevin Kramer
Cedar-Isles-Dean
A Footbridge on Lake of the Isles
A footbridge over the southern end of the north bay of Lake of the Isles would improve access to the park and surrounding neighborhoods. It would save three-fourths of a mile each way for those who walk or bike from the east side to The Kenwood Restaurant, Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church, the bookstore, veterinary clinic, Kenwood Community School, the future Southwest LRT station and other destinations in Kenwood. Folks who live on the west side of the lagoon would save more than a mile round trip walking or biking to businesses and bus stops on Lake Street and Hennepin Avenue. It would also provide more access to street parking for lake walkers and ice skaters.
Some people cannot walk the nearly 3 miles around the lake, including children, older adults and people with physical limitations such as arthritis. The footbridge would save them about three-fourths of a mile when walking around the south section of the lake. The footbridge would allow them to walk around just the north lagoon, a distance of less than a mile in about 20 minutes.
According to Google, a 250-foot steel footbridge would cost less than $300,000.
David Andersen
East Isles
No, Workers Shouldn’t Return to the Office to Boost Landlords Profits
I found “Minneapolis Economy is Struggling” to be an out-of-touch defense of landlords rather than working residents. The suggestion that public employees should return to the office to boost landlords’ profits ignores the reality of rising costs for workers. Minneapolis’ challenges stem from many factors, including COVID and public safety concerns. Rather than asking thousands to absorb new expenses, landlords should adapt to changing market conditions, lower rents where necessary and perhaps reconsider renting to THC shops, bath houses or other businesses that do not fit their vision of Minneapolis.
Igor Shults
Bryn Mawr
Correction
A June 2026 article, “Summer Means Party Season,” by Molly Mogren Katt, incorrectly stated that customers who order online from Isles Bun & Coffee can skip the line and pick up their order at the bakery side door.
Side-door pickup is not available through online ordering. Customers who need this option must arrange and confirm it by phone, speaking with staff in person, so that the bakery can review the limitations of this type of pickup.
The Hill & Lake Press regrets the error and thanks Isles Bun & Coffee for the clarification.
