“The building of railways seems to be a simple, natural, democratic, cultural and civilising enterprise; that is what it is in the opinion of the bourgeois professors who are paid to depict capitalist slavery in bright colours, and in the opinion of petty-bourgeois philistines.” —Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Preface to the French and German Editions.
Thus begins Twin Cities Sidewalks’ Nov. 11 post on the light rail as a gentrification machine. But author Bill Lindeke goes on to argue that the LRT is not just “another bourgeois subsidy,” but rather “a smarter bourgeois subsidy than most,” no different, in fact, than freeway projects, just more energy efficient.
Lindeke continues with another post on the the Light Rail bus tour. “The thing you quickly realize if you’re paying attention to the LRT debate,” writes Lindeke, “is that when it comes to planning politics, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Every possible business or community interest knows about the coming construction, parking changes, and landscape. The largest players have their lawyer on speed dial. And everyone is trying to scrape for every dollar.”
But perhaps he’s right about it being no different than a freeway project. According to the Twin Cities Daily Planet, the Light Rail bus tour had residents recalling “how the construction of I-94 devastated the landscape and culture of [Rondo's] predominately African-American neighborhood in St. Paul.”
Latest comment — noodleman: @jane: Dang. I offer you Japanese curry but you'd rather eat lutefisk. Are you trying to confuse me?