North Minneapolis businesses concerned over Met Council’s proposed light rail extension

By H. Jiahong Pan

ContributingWriter

West Broadway business owners are among the latest group of people in North Minneapolis who are worried about the Metropolitan Council’s proposed plans to run a light rail line through their neighborhood.

Some of the concerns include parking removal, as well as how traffic and buses would be affected. They’re also worried about changes to buildings to accommodate street widening for the light rail, and concerns about how businesses, many of which are BIPOC-owned, would be affected during and after construction.

corridor that we have in North Minneapolis that has viable potential,” said Dean Rose, who owns the Broadway Liquor Outlet, as well as the building with 103 affordable housing units above it, on the northwest corner of West Broadway and Penn.

The Met Council’s consideration of an extension of the Blue Line light rail down West Broadway on the way to Brooklyn Park is a relatively recent development. The project, which has been in the works for almost a decade, was initially rerouted out of North Minneapolis because of gentrification concerns.

The agency is again proposing bringing the route back into the community because they were unable to convince Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad to run the light rail along- side their tracks through Theodore Wirth Park.

These concerns come as Lyn-Park homeowners are worried about how the light rail would affect their property values and their ability to build generational wealth. They persuaded the Met Council to study running the route closer to Washington Avenue.

Business owners like Rose are concerned about how the light rail would affect buildings along the West Broadway corridor. As part of the 2007 West Broadway Alive plan, Rose worked to develop guidelines that require new buildings to build up to the sidewalk, as opposed to having off-street parking in front.

“We have been looking and developing West Broadway,” said Rose.