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Minneapolis, MN

Minneapolis Wants to Be the ‘Bus Rapid Transit Capital of North America’

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Minneapolis Wants to Be the ‘Bus Rapid Transit Capital of North America’


At 11:10 a.m. on the primary Saturday in December, with temperatures within the single digits, a stretch bus pulled out of the transit station on the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., with one passenger, and headed north by Richfield into South Minneapolis. It rolled up Chicago Avenue, passing new platforms each half-mile or so, idling briefly at purple lights and selecting up stray riders. It took a brief detour onto a parallel route because it approached thirty eighth Avenue, the intersection — now a memorial — the place George Floyd was killed by a police officer within the spring of 2020. At seventh Avenue it turned left onto a devoted bus lane, painted purple, and continued by an apocalyptically unpeopled downtown. On Fremont Avenue, three youngsters realized they had been on the incorrect line and acquired off. A little bit greater than an hour after it left, the bus got here to a cease at a transit station in Brooklyn Middle surrounded by purchasing retailers and floor parking tons.

“I solely have seven minutes,” the driving force mentioned as he disembarked. “And I’ve to pee.”

Earlier that morning, a gaggle of native transit officers, county commissioners, mayors and members of Congress had gathered on the Mall of America to chop the ribbon on the D Line, the latest bus speedy transit (BRT) route within the Twin Cities’ Metro Transit community. The D Line runs alongside what has been probably the most closely used bus runs in all of Minnesota: An 18-mile arterial route the place 1 / 4 of households don’t have entry to a automobile, based on officers.


In contrast to common bus service, Metro’s BRT traces solely cease at devoted bus platforms each quarter- to half-mile. Riders pay their fares, earlier than boarding, at well-lit stations with electrical heaters and digital indicators displaying schedules and real-time arrival info. The buses are scheduled to return each 10-Quarter-hour. The D Line is Metro’s fifth BRT route, and it’s within the planning phases for half a dozen extra.

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“We’re effectively on our approach to making this the bus speedy transit capital of North America,” mentioned Minnesota State Rep. Frank Hornstein, who chairs the transportation finance and coverage committee within the state Home of Representatives, on the ribbon reducing.

Why BRT?

The principle good thing about bus speedy transit is that it’s quicker and extra dependable than the bus, largely as a result of it makes fewer stops. However completely different transit companies have taken completely different approaches to BRT, choosing from a menu of options that enhance the expertise for riders. Essentially the most strong BRT networks have absolutely devoted bus lanes to maintain automobiles out of the common circulate of visitors and permit them to function like trains. In Minneapolis, BRT buses just like the D Line function principally in visitors, with some sign prioritization to set off inexperienced lights once they’re falling delayed. Permitting riders to prepay fares reduces idling time as effectively. Metro officers say the BRT traces run about 25 p.c quicker than the common bus.

BRT additionally tends to be less expensive than constructing rail traces. The $75 million D Line was accomplished on time and below price range, says Katie Roth, the director of arterial bus speedy transit at Metro Transit. That’s a pointy distinction with the system’s Southwest mild rail challenge, which is years delayed and nonetheless dealing with shortfalls on its drastically expanded price range.

Metro started assembling funding for the D Line in 2014, Roth says. It went by planning and neighborhood engagement from 2016 to 2018, engineering in 2019, and it started building in 2021. In all, the challenge consists of 61 new bus shelters, 78 crosswalk restripings, 24 visitors sign upgrades and 246 electrical heaters, which will be turned on by passengers on the press of a button.

Like each different transit system within the U.S., Metro has seen steep declines in ridership for the reason that pandemic. However its BRT traces have recovered extra rapidly than different modes, Roth says. And Metro is anticipating the BRT improve to enhance ridership on the D Line as effectively; different bus traces within the Metro system noticed 30 p.c will increase in ridership once they had been switched to BRT, she says. Routes just like the D Line, which mirrors the 5 bus, serve individuals in each a part of town. Although routed by downtown, its fortunes aren’t tied to the destiny of the central enterprise district, Roth says.

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“After we take into consideration arterial BR, it’s targeted on these workhorse, city, native bus routes,” Roth says. “These routes serve such an important number of journey functions. [Riders] are going not simply into city, however they’re actually dwelling their lives alongside these bus corridors.”

The BRT line consists of 61 new bus shelters, 78 crosswalk restripings, 24 visitors sign upgrades, and 246 electrical heaters, which will be turned on by passengers on the press of a button.

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Different Service Cuts

On the identical day that Metro launched the D Line, it started service cuts to a variety of different bus traces. The 5 bus has been largely changed by the D Line; buses nonetheless cease at each block alongside the route for individuals who want localized service, however they solely come each 60 minutes. Dozens of different bus traces are seeing lowered service as effectively. The cuts are a operate of a bus driver scarcity that’s affected transit authorities in every single place. Metro buses within the Twin Cities now prowl the streets promoting the beginning wage for bus operators of $26.16 an hour, with a signing bonus of as much as $5,000.

A driver on the D Line who requested to not be named mentioned the perfect factor about working BRT is just not having to gather fares. On an everyday bus line, the driving force has to resolve how one can take care of a passenger who doesn’t pay, and it’s the No. 1 supply of battle. Many drivers have give up, retired or died for the reason that pandemic started, he mentioned. Employees needed to negotiate with administration to get a bonus to match these being supplied to new hires. Metro says it’s seeing extra curiosity within the open driver positions recently, although, based on a report within the Star Tribune.

Transit advocates have welcomed the growth of BRT on the identical time that they’ve protested the service cuts to current bus traces. Sam Rockwell, the chief director of Transfer Minnesota, says if transit methods like Metro need extra individuals to experience, they should run buses far more incessantly — like each 5 minutes.

“Are you able to think about in the event you may solely begin your automobile each fifteen minutes? Folks would go bananas. It’s completely unacceptable,” Rockwell says.

Increasing the Transit Community

Rockwell says he’s lived in cities like Paris with sprawling, high-frequency transit service, and is aware of “what that does to your psyche and your sense of freedom.” Metro does a very good job with the price range it has, he says, but it surely must be pushing for far more. Transfer Minnesota is advocating for an extra 20 BRT traces crisscrossing the Twin Cities, with service each 5-10 minutes, he says. BRT is a significant enchancment over native bus service and less expensive than rail, and must be seen as a approach to rapidly set up a greater regionwide transit community.

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“We’re actually specializing in this BRT community proper now as a result of the advantages of transit are biggest when there’s a full system, and we predict we have to get to that basically practical, actually high-quality system as quick as doable,” Rockwell says. “If a few of these traces alongside the best way are rail, nice. If we are able to convert a few of these traces to rail long run, nice. However extra essential than getting a specific mode on a specific hall, within the close to time period, it’s getting that full community constructed out.”

Stephanie Lotshaw, a program director at TransitCenter, says there are good causes to construct high-capacity rail in lots of cities. However in numerous contexts, “bus-based transit can meet a number of the identical pace and reliability wants and it’s oftentimes quicker to implement,” she says. Whereas there are bus methods that attain for rail heights of effectivity in different international locations, together with components of China and Latin America, any efforts to prioritize bus service on metropolis streets and enhance the expertise for riders must be applauded, she says.

“[BRT] is a high-quality, high-capacity answer to transit wants, and if it’s deliberate effectively and executed effectively, it may actually be a longer-term answer,” she says.

Metro Transit within the Twin Cities is at present in the midst of planning the E Line, one other BRT route that’s anticipated to start service in 2025. Hornstein, the state consultant, mentioned on the ribbon reducing that the Legislature can be trying to fund “G, H and past” within the subsequent session. After the occasion, he advised Governing that the Legislature had negotiated funding for initiatives just like the D Line with a divided authorities, and that the current Democratic-Farmer-Labor Get together victories within the Minnesota Home, Senate and governor’s workplace create a “big” alternative to put money into future transit initiatives, he mentioned.

“Of all of the transit modes, I feel [BRT] is extra conducive to bipartisanship,” Hornstein mentioned. “It’s not going to be straightforward. There’s all the time struggles. Generally it relies upon who we’re negotiating with on the opposite aspect of the aisle. However I do assume that is actually a mode that folks can get behind.”

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The identical day that service started on the brand new BRT, town lowered or reduce service on different native bus traces. The cuts are a operate of a bus-driver scarcity that’s affected transit authorities in every single place.





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Minneapolis, MN

Trump administration denied Minneapolis nearly $1 million over ‘defund the police’ comments

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Trump administration denied Minneapolis nearly $1 million over ‘defund the police’ comments


Trump administration officials used a “seriously flawed” process when the rejected a Minneapolis grant request over City Council members’ support for the defund the police movement, according to a newly released audit.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance denied Minneapolis’s 2020 application for $900,000 to address opioid overdoses, according to the report published this month by the Department of Justice inspector general.

“BJA’s justification for denying Minneapolis funding contained critical errors and omissions that we believe rendered the justification inadequate,” the inspector general’s office wrote.

The federal denial came as opioid overdose deaths across Minnesota were skyrocketing. The number of deadly overdoses involving opioids more than doubled from 2019 to 2021, according to Minnesota Department of Health data.

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The city had proposed using the dollars for a three-year Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion project. It aimed to reduce the number of people having run-ins with law enforcement and the corrections system and cut down on opioid overdoses.

“The City of Minneapolis is losing community members to the opioid epidemic at an alarming rate,” Minneapolis Health Department Deputy Commissioner Heidi Ritchie said in a statement Tuesday. “To combat this crisis, the City is looking for new and innovative ways to help our community members who are struggling with opioid misuse. We welcome any opportunity for funds to assist our response.”

Minneapolis was one of 212 groups that applied for federal funding in 2020 through the Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program.

The city received the second-highest peer review score of any application. The Bureau of Justice Assistance ultimately recommended distributing $147 million to 110 of the 212 applicants. Minneapolis was not among them.

Minneapolis had applied for the nearly $1 million in May 2020, four days before a police officer murdered George Floyd. As federal officials considered the city’s application, nine of the 13 council members expressed support for starting “the process of ending the Minneapolis Police Department.”

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That July the Bureau of Justice Assistance sent a memo with its funding recommendations to the Office of Justice Programs for approval and cited “statements of governing officials and recent news reports” as the reason Minneapolis was left out, according to the recent audit.

“The BJA [Acting] Director is extremely concerned that Minneapolis officials do not understand the impact of defunding their police, and does not believe that this law enforcement grant can be properly administered without a vibrant, fully funded police department,” the memo stated.

Minneapolis was not the only community considering “defund the police” measures after Floyd’s killing, the audit states, noting that officials in Los Angeles were also talking about such measures.

However, that community wasn’t removed from the running for grant dollars. Los Angeles County submitted a similar project to what Minneapolis proposed and ranked 68th among the applicants. It received $1.2 million.

“It’s really unfortunate” that Minneapolis, despite its high application score, was targeted over City Council members’ comments, said Brian Zirbes, executive director of the Minnesota Association of Resources for Recovery and Chemical Health.

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Zirbes has experience with government funding requests from a previous job at the Minneapolis Department of Human services. He said there it was “almost unheard of” to reject a top-scoring grant applicant. That denial “is kind of shocking,” he said.

“Overdose death rates are at an all-time high in Minnesota and are having a disproportionate impact in Black and Brown communities,” Zirbes said. “We need a comprehensive approach to address this problem.”



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Minneapolis, MN

Cannon Falls couple provides both entrees for Minneapolis School Districts' Minnesota Thursdays

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Cannon Falls couple provides both entrees for Minneapolis School Districts' Minnesota Thursdays


MINNEAPOLIS — The lunch menu on March 7 at Minneapolis Public Schools included beef and cheddar sandwiches from BAMF Meats and plant-based sloppy joes from Deeply Rooted — both produced in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. 

Bertrand Weber, director for Minneapolis Public School Culinary and Nutrition Services, said once a month for the last 10 years, the school district celebrates “Minnesota Thursdays” over the lunch hour. Everything from entrees to desserts are sourced from around a 200-mile radius outside of the Twin Cities, Weber said.

“It’s a celebration of local harvest, and we try to really showcase those items to our kids,” Weber said. “The acceptance is different based on the grade level, but they always look forward to it on a regular basis.”

On March 7, the menu consisted of a beef and cheddar sandwich from BAMF Meats in Cannon Falls with cheese from Bongards in Perham; a plant-based sloppy joe from Deeply Rooted in Cannon Falls; sweet potato JoJo from Fifth Season Cooperative in Viroqua, Wisconsin; cole slaw from Driftless Organics in Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin; and a freezer pop from JonnyPops in Elk River.

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The two entrees came from Kayla and Wade Beyer, who were on hand March 7 to enjoy the school lunch inside of Franklin Middle School in north Minneapolis.

“Today was awesome,” Kayla Beyer said after the lunch. “It really was like the pinnacle of the story we’re trying to share. It’s not all about just eating meat or all about eating a plant-based diet fully — it’s about having better choices and making deliberate choices with every meal.”

Students at Franklin Middle School in Minneapolis eat lunch on March 7, 2024.

Noah Fish / Agweek

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Wade Beyer is the owner and operator of

BAMF Stock Farms

in Cannon Falls. The calf-to-cow finishing operation runs about 200 head while also raising hogs and crops. Aside from the eight steers worth of roasts he sold to the Minneapolis schools, the farm has sold hamburger to the Pine Island School District, which is about 20 miles outside of Rochester, for about a year.

“It was different, but they did a good job,” Beyer said of eating the food he raised at a cafeteria table inside of Franklin Middle School. “I thought it tasted great.”

He said it can be a challenge for farmers to make the leap to sell to school districts and to know where to start that process.

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“If it weren’t for my wife, I probably wouldn’t have done it,” he said. “She’s already familiar with that network.”

Minnesota Grown, which the farm is a member of, is a place for schools to look if they are interested in connecting with local farms, Beyer said.

“Otherwise, just talking to your local schools, and go from there,” Beyer said.

Kayla Beyer is founder and CEO of

Deeply Rooted

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, which began around four years ago and provides shelf-stable plant-based crumble in flavors like Italian, Mexican and Korean barbecue. Consumers simply add water to the product, and she said that 4 ounces becomes 1 pound.

“I’m a food industry veteran who was working for big corporate America — big CPG brands — and wanted to start a food company that makes a bigger impact,” said Beyer, a mom of five who grew up on a dairy farm. “I worked in mass manufacturing where I saw how processed food was, and so not only did I want to put a better product on the retail shelf, I wanted to put a better product on my kids’ trays at school.”

Beyer said the way she made the farm-to-school connection with Minneapolis Public Schools was by making a simple phone call to Weber, who told her exactly what the program needed for Deeply Rooted products to be served to students.

The crumble served at Minneapolis schools went through a sodium reduction process to meet USDA standards, which she said made the product taste better in her opinion.

“I tasted my original formula now and it’s salty to me, so it’s a very good change,” she said. “We just lowered the sodium, the salt, and increased the other spices. So it wasn’t a big deal for us to do that, and we did it willingly.”

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Beyer said unlike the many plant-based companies that have popped up in the past few years, she said Deeply Rooted has nothing against meat that’s raised on a farm.

“I thought what a great opportunity to change that narrative and bring it from an agricultural perspective that I have had all these years,” she said.

Another reason Beyer was interested in selling Deeply Rooted products to the K-12 market is that it’s much larger than the retail space, she said. In retail, products like hers are targeted towards vegans and vegetarians, which she said the company’s mission doesn’t align with.

“There’s nothing wrong with being a meat company, and there’s nothing wrong with having a plant-based option,” Beyer said. “Let’s make it palatable, so it tastes good, and they actually come back for more.”

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Noah Fish

Noah Fish is a multimedia journalist who creates print, online and TV content for Agweek. He covers a wide range of farmers and agribusinesses throughout Minnesota and surrounding states. He can be reached at nfish@agweek.com

He reports out of Rochester, MN, where he lives with his wife, Kara, and their polite cat, Zena. He grew up in La Crosse, WI., and enjoys the talent from his home state like the 13-time World Champion Green Bay Packers and Grammy award-winning musicians Justin Vernon and Al Jarreau.





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Minneapolis, MN

Man suffers life-threatening injuries in shooting outside Lake Street light rail stop

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Man suffers life-threatening injuries in shooting outside Lake Street light rail stop


Police say a man is in the hospital with serious injuries after he was shot Monday evening outside a south Minneapolis light rail stop.

According to Minneapolis police spokesman Aaron Rose, the victim, a 32-year-old man, was shot around 8:22 p.m. near the light rail station at the intersection of East Lake Street and Hiawatha Avenue. Officers provided first aid until the shooting victim could be taken to Hennepin County Medical Center.

Investigators believe an argument preceded the shooting.

The victim’s wounds are considered life-threatening, Rose said.

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Police have not announced any arrests.



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