First post on The Opportunity Corridor being discussed for Cleveland’s east side can be seen here - I did a link and then a lament about why there is not a rail component. I still lament that point but now I have a better understanding of why these kinds of corridors exist near or parallel to rail road tracks. Now a blog post by Jim Nichols yesterday in the PD shows an earlier model for this idea put in place in St. Paul Minnesota. An aside: this kind of story is what I relish about newspapers and takes me back to the old days when I awaited the next edition of every paper. Kudos to Mr. Nichols. I read the article and realized I have a friend who is an eye witness to this, Bonnie Erickson of St. Paul. And in her usual form, she had some interesting words to impart about it.
First an overview from yesterday’s PD : St. Paul had it’s own section of the city cut off from easy access and when you tied this in to a declining business economy, they found themselves with 6000 fewer jobs.
“In a black decade that began in the mid-1980s, plant shutdowns swept through the blue-collar neighborhoods of St. Paul’s East Side: Whirlpool Corp., 3M, Globe Manufacturing Co., Cannon Conveyor Co., American Hoist Works and Stroh’s Brewing Co., to name just a few that closed or downsized drastically. ”
St. Paul tried to figure out a way to bring that neighborhood back to life and decided improving transportation access to it was key.
The second point is that the State of Minnesota was critical to this project, not just in terms of money, but in terms of luring prospective businesses to the area. Their Port Authority was also key.
The next point is that this idea surfaced in 1993. By one decade later, 2003, Phase One was put into place. By 2007, Phase Two. They still don’t have 6000 jobs back to the area but, they do have 2100 along that Phalen Corridor.
Some of us are used to being beaten down and become almost knee jerk naysayers. And some have legitimate points. But I definitely see a parallel here. I noticed yesterday one of the commenters said we couldn’t expect to do what St. Paul did because their city is doing better economically than ours. I disagree. With State help why not? I mean, we have German and Chinese companies locating headquarters here soon, we have the fourth best rated hospital in the Country (The Clinic), we have The Port, we have the start of a high tech community and we still do darn good in the manufacturing area. If Governor Strickland worked really hard, he could convince a few large and sound companies to locate here, just as the Governor did for St. Paul.
Bonnie is sending me some great reading about the Phalen Corridor, I can’t wait to get it. But in the meantime, let me put in her comments to me, in total, for a St. Paul resident’s perspective of The Phalen Project:
“ I’m not an urbanist, so can’t give you good stats, etc., about the corridors, but I can tell you this is one of the things that makes St. Paul unique to me. The cities I have lived in do not have good connecting roads between highways and major throughways. They have “parkways” but they are designed to slow traffic down, not move it along. My typical experience in other cities has been exiting the highway and getting on a 4 lane city street which stops at every second or third intersection for a light. The St. Paul corridors (the newest is Phalen) have very limited lights because they follow the railroad tracks which naturally divide two parts of our city and as a result have limited intersections (major city street roads are already overpasses because of the railroad tracks but there are limited side street interruptions). (all bold emphasis is mine, not Bonnie’s.)
“The Phalen Corridor (as we call it) came to St. Paul just as I was moving into St. Paul. It is a great connector of different segments of the city and has attracted business because of the ease of access and space afforded the new campuses. There are plans to extend the corridor to connect with another east/west ”corridor”, Pierce Butler Drive. That will give access from the east side of St. Paul to the west with excellent traffic flow. The area just 3 blocks north of my house is the missing connection so our neighborhood block club has been consulted several times about our wishes for connecting the Phalen Corridor with the Pierce Butler route. This missing segment also has the potential for adding a great deal of “green” space and moving the extension of the Gateway Trail (biking trail which snakes through St. Paul and connects with Stillwater [14 miles I think] but feels like you’re not in the city at all because of how it is configured) from neighborhood city streets to a more green location. The north side of the railroad track has another “corridor” called Energy Park Drive. So far it does not extend as far east as the southern side of the tracks has. The Phalen Corridor is actually on the north side of the tracks for most of its route but the connecting stump on the west end is on the south side of the tracks.”
What I like about the Phalen story, is it seemed to be an idea and then an implemented plan in a decade. We could do that here if we rolled up our sleeves! Okay, what do you think?
Peace Out – 3C
9 responses so far ↓
1 Bonnie Erickson // Jul 16, 2008 at 12:43 am
Carole, When you get the book, you’ll see how important the combined effort of several levels of politicians (state, county and city) was to this project. It took a visionary and a motivator to get the project done, but it’s fantastic from the user’s perspective . . . not to mention the new job opportunities.
2 Bill Callahan // Jul 17, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Three things about the Phalen Corridor that the Plan Dealer didn’t mention:
1) It starts at a freeway interchange 4,000 feet from the Minnesota State Capitol dome.
2) Even after recent layoffs and property selloffs, 3M Co. still has a thousand people working at its facility in the middle of it.
3) The Payne-Phalen and Dayton’s Bluff neighborhoods between which the Phalen Corridor is located had, respectively, 18% and 15% population growth rates from 1990 to 2000. Both neighborhoods ended the decade with median family incomes of more than $34,000 — compared to $12,517 in Kinsman and $16,799 in Fairfax, the two Cleveland neighborhoods continguous to the Opportunity project.
Raises some issues about comparability, don’t you think?
3 Carole Cohen // Jul 17, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Bill I was hoping to get a discussion going so thanks – your point #2 …wouldn’t the Clinic qualify as a large employer in the area?
I hear you about the money and loss of population…..Just to play devil’s advocate though, what are we to do about revitalization in any fashion when loss of population is always going to be an issue?
The median incomes are sobering!
4 Bill Callahan // Jul 17, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Carole, just because the comparison is dubious, that doesn’t mean the project is dubious too. I’m just complaining about yet another piece of sloppy reporting.
Yes, or course the Clinic (and the Circle in general) is a credible anchor for the northeast end, and a destination for the whole corridor. Does that equal a business location magnet for two miles toward 55th? Something like that is already supposed to happen in the Euclid-Carnegie corridor and I’m not sure it’s working out all that well. Is something different going to be spurred by the handy Interstate truck access, or by diverting all that West Side traffic from the older surface streets? Could be.
It’s just a really different situation from downtown St. Paul.
5 Bill Callahan // Jul 17, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Oh, and let me say that I don’t think building decent road access for a couple of communities and a major employment district that don’t have it has to be justified by some specific economic development outcome. Creating fair access and relieving some of the stress on Woodland, Carnegie, Euclid, etc. could be plenty of justification.
6 Carole Cohen // Jul 17, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Bill I would really like to see the State get agressive on attracting business into the east side areas that could make a difference. I was waiting for a bus at Public sq today and several Euc Corr. buses went by…empty. I am really hoping that is going to change. It made me want to ride it just to be counted.
I was thinking about your proposal for transparency on the web for all the City Depts. I am hoping this might include meeting notes that would tell us when businesses have either 1)expressed an interest or 2) are threatening to leave. There could be citizen pr to convince them to come/not leave.
7 TimFerris // Aug 10, 2008 at 11:07 pm
When you don’t have the money, you don’t spend more money, borrowed through bond issues, on the hope that an outside chance will pay off. When you don’t have the resources, you don’t spend large amounts on massive projects, but fix as you go. You do not put the future into hock.
We shouldn’t even be having this discussion.
TimFerris’s last blog post..Breast Cancer Fundraiser..
8 Carole Cohen // Aug 11, 2008 at 7:37 pm
You know, everything you say makes sense. I just worry about the east side needing as much attention as has already been given the west side. And yes money is not to be spent frivolously. I’m halfway through the St Paul book and so far it’s all been about their history. Very interesting but not yet to the point where I can make any comparisons. I say call Warren Buffett and get him out here to help!
9 Opportunity Corridor Idea Still Brewing // May 17, 2009 at 7:45 am
[...] wrote one post saying any large project like this has to have a rail and transit component. Second post last July with an update and a bit about how it worked in St. [...]
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