Here's more from the light rail project, this time looking in the opposite direction at the rail tracks waiting to be placed! It really is astonishing how difficult it is to get any public transit built in the US, but the Central Corridor project is so big, and the influence may be so big, that it had enough momentum to keep going.

There's some interesting history with the Central Corridor and previous transportation projects in the area. Adjacent to University Ave is I94, a major highway that runs straight through Saint Paul's downtown, and dangerously close to Minneapolis'. It's a horrible road, and a horrible idea. To make matters worse, it was built straight through the Twin Cities vibrant Rondo neighborhood, which was predominantly African-American. The resulting diaspora never was able to recapture the same type of community, and the host of social justice issues followed that still have implications today. The Central Corridor, as a public transit project instead of a highway, could be the first real step towards urban planning reconciliation in the area; a small first step towards undoing the terrible legacy of the highway.