It IS a monorail; and an aquarium, too

Several readers guessed right when they suggested the transportation plan in Grand Forks Mayor Mike Brown's State of the City address might be that monorail that's been floating around since the time of John D. Odegaard, the former head of UND's aerospace school.

That was why I was so puzzled. There's been no funding for that project and, as one reader said, it's hard to understand the need for it. Mind you, it might have some benefit that justifies the potential price tag, but we'll have to wait for the project proposal. The monorail does have some fans already, though, just because it's so cool.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, Brown didn't call it a "monorail;" he said "light rail." There are some differences in their advantages and disadvantages, though there's apparently no clear agreement on which one costs less. A major advantage of monorail though, is voters think it's super-cool. Voters in Seattle, my home turf, voted twice to build a huge monorail system and then, when it was learned that the financing would be tougher than expected, voted again to kill it.

I suspect that there would be no significant difference in costs if a light rail were elevated as it would have to be if it's going to cross the rail road tracks on 42nd Street and DeMers Avenue. At-grade, meaning at street level, is what makes light rail cheaper. When you have to build big support columns for several miles, expenses go way up.

When I talked to the mayor about partners, he said that he has not identified a partner or funding source. He just wanted to put the idea out there again and see if there are any partners.

You'll remember that back in 2002 or so, a group called New Horizons Decade had also proposed some form of rail transportation at the Alerus Center. We have not heard from that group in a while and, given that financing was dependent on a sugar daddy like Ralph Engelstad, we may not hear anything until the economy picks up.

So would the Obama administration be the sugar daddy for light rail? We'll have to wait and see. I can't imagine there's that much money out there, not for new infrastructure when we're still trying repair old infrastructure.

The other very puzzling proposal is the aquarium next to the CanadInns water park. When I got wind of it on Friday, my first reaction was "How?? Why?? Here??" Again, this is a proposal looking for a partner. There was mention of UND but university President Robert Kelley said that he had not talked about it with the mayor, which would be logical because, correct me if I'm wrong, marine biology is not one of the university's fortes.

In today's speech, the mayor added a children's air and space museum as an alternative to the aquarium. Dr. Kelley said he could see how UND could collaborate on that, which would be logical because aerospace is one of the university's fortes.

Also, I clarified with the mayor that he was not thinking of raising the sales tax for any of this and he said "NOOO."

The other thing I want to follow up on right away is the Destination Corridor idea. As I mentioned in my story, his vision is a bit broader than just the area around the Alerus Center and immediately south. He's talking about a corridor from Gateway Drive, down 42nd Street where it curves into 38th Street South, past 32nd Avenue South, and down to 42nd Avenue South, roughly the area where the Park District's proposed Wellness Center and some residential developments are to be located.

So, there you go. I have an interview I have to rush to so that's it for now.

Posted by: Tu-Uyen on 2/23/2009 at 2:00 PM | Comments (17) | Permalink