Two years before the planned start of major construction of the Blue Line light-rail extension, businesses in Brooklyn Park are long accustomed to hearing, “the Blue Line is coming.” But now that the project’s design is being finalized, some residents are amping up concerns about the impact the line might have on surrounding communities.
The $3.2 billion, 12-stop extension would connect Minneapolis and Brooklyn Park, with several stops in both of those cities and others in Robbinsdale and Crystal. Construction will begin in 2027, with an expected opening in 2030. The projected cost, which would be among the highest ever for a Minnesota public works project, has made it controversial, even as proponents say it could be an economic boon to an underserved area.
Kevin Stammer, manager at Cajun Deli, which is in the Parksquare Shopping Center near the intersection of West Broadway and Brooklyn Boulevard, said he received a folder of information on the project from the city of Brooklyn Park months ago showing that the line will run along West Broadway, with a station at its intersection with Brooklyn Boulevard.
Stammer said he’s not sure a new public transit option will lead to more customers at the nine-year-old restaurant.
“I view it as a start to opening up more public transit, but accessibility-wise, I think it’s probably a waste of money,” Stammer said. He said he’s not convinced that people will take light rail just to visit a Brooklyn Park restaurant. He sees the Blue Line as more useful for those traveling south toward the Mall of America or the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
About 6,400 people will start using transit because of the Blue Line extension by 2045, according to the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Blue Line Extension published in June 2024.
In order for the Blue Line to succeed in Brooklyn Park, residents will need to change how they travel, Stammer said. Most Cajun Deli customers drive to the restaurant, he said.
“I do think it’ll be harder for [Brooklyn Park residents] to adjust to using the light rail,” he said. “The option for it is great, but it’s going to take a few years before people actually are utilizing it.”
A high percentage of households near the planned corridor don’t have cars, according to the Metropolitan Council.
Joseph Yohanis, a worker at A&J Tobacco, in the same shopping center that houses Cajun Deli, disagrees with Stammer that the new Blue Line wouldn’t bring additional customers, saying that area businesses will benefit from increased street traffic. But he stressed that people will only use the line if it’s free of crime and safe.
Light-rail safety has been a common topic during public engagement sessions on the Blue Line extension project. Yohanis, who lives near downtown Minneapolis, said he doesn’t ride Metro Transit trains anymore because of open drug use and loitering around stations.
He said once the Blue Line is extended, he’d expect to see more Brooklyn Park police officers in the area, but there would also need to be effective law enforcement on the trains. Yohanis said Metro Transit would have to make sure the trains were safe for everybody — and that everyone paid.
“People just use the train for free,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of people don’t pay. If it’s a college student, I understand. But like, regular working people, if we don’t pay, it doesn’t make sense.”
Work underway to engage citizens and counter displacement
Cara Donovan, a senior planner for Brooklyn Park, said the city has been working on engaging residents about the project for years, and understands some of the concerns. A key talking point has been anti-displacement work — efforts to ensure that the line does not push out residents or businesses before, during and after construction.
Donovan said the city of Brooklyn Park created an anti-displacement survey in multiple languages in an effort to engage with residents. That’s a necessary effort — one in five residents of Brooklyn Park is foreign-born, and immigrant-owned businesses surround the West Broadway-Brooklyn Boulevard intersection.The Parksquare center’s anchor store is Dragon Star Supermarket, owned by Cambodian immigrants.
Displacement can take two forms, Donovan said — direct and indirect.
Most displacement created by the project will be indirect. Examples: Business along the corridor might suffer a revenue drop due to traffic disruptions caused by construction. Or, after the project is complete, landlords might raise rents for residential and commercial units, causing additional displacement.
Advocates are working to obtain funding for anti-displacement efforts.
Hennepin County commissioned the University of Minnesota’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs to analyze data and collect community input about potential displacement.
The Green Line, which connects Minneapolis’s and St. Paul’s downtowns, has at times been used as a measuring tool for the Blue Line project.
According to the report, property values and housing costs significantly increased and demographics shifted in Blue Line station areas, defined as areas within a half-mile walking distance from a train station.
The impact zone for direct and indirect displacement for the Blue Line project extends a mile out from the train route, according to Donovan. But the focus will be mostly on the area within a half-mile radius.
The Blue Line extension is intended to be an investment in infrastructure for the area it covers, Donovan said. But work needs to be done to make sure it’s not pushing out the people who would benefit from the line.
“The area in north Minneapolis up to Brooklyn Park hasn’t seen as much investment, and so, be it right or wrong, now we’re doing that investment, and we know that there are vulnerable people here that are BIPOC, that are immigrants, and they deserve to have that infrastructure just as much as the other regions,” Donovan said.
Securing anti-displacement funding
More than a dozen community groups have called on Metropolitan Council leaders to avoid displacing immigrant communities and communities of color as they plan the Blue Line extension.
Since 2013, the Blue Line Coalition, a group of organizations advocating for community members along the train’s route, have argued that the Blue Line extension raises questions about racial justice and regional equity.
Ricardo Perez, an organizer for the coalition, said communities along the line have mixed feelings about it.
“The engagement and the sentiment from people really depends on the questions that you’re asking,” he said. “Because, if you’re asking people who have been historically impacted by transit projects, ‘Do you want another one?’ they’re going to say, ‘No, absolutely,’ and I get it completely.”
The coalition is seeking funds to combat displacement, with a goal of obtaining funding equal to 5% of the total cost of the Blue Line, Perez said.
During the 2024 legislative session, the group celebrated an early win, a $10 million initial investment from the Minnesota Legislature in funding for the new Anti-Displacement Community Prosperity Program.
Perez said that while the news was welcome, it was “disheartening” to learn that the money wouldn’t be immediately available for use.
“We need to find matches to be able to unlock the $10 million that the state gave us,” he said.
A key proposal on how to use the money, according to Donovan, is to cover the gap in revenue for businesses affected by construction. The limit would be $25,000 per business.
There’s also another program in the works, the Small Business Financial Support program, that could offer affected businesses grants to combat increases in rent or property taxes.
This program is modeled off a similar grant program that was implemented during construction of the Green Line light rail in St Paul and Minneapolis, according to Brooklyn Park City Council documents.
There are an estimated 275 businesses within a quarter-mile of the Blue Line extension route. Seventy-three businesses that will likely experience construction impacts have already been contacted, according to a June report from the city of Brooklyn Park.
This program would provide up to $20,000 per business and prioritizes retail businesses.
“I talked to one business that said that wouldn’t be sufficient,” Donovan said. “There’s a lot of businesses along the line. And so we have to be careful about making sure that we can provide that gap financing to many different businesses affected by the construction.”
The money will also be used to assist people displaced from their homes along the route, but Donovan said that program is still being formulated.
“If we can’t get funding, we can’t necessarily pull through on programs, but we’re working on it, and we’re trying hard to find different resources to make sure that we have those in place,” Donovan said.
In June, Brooklyn Park published the results of the survey given to residents. There were 166 responses to the anti-displacement survey, most from white women. More than half of respondents opposed the Blue Line extension.
For many, the extension promises benefits
Not all Brooklyn Park residents are worried that the Blue Line extension will have negative impacts. Some business owners said the new transit option could lead to a better quality of life in the area.
Turquoise Phillips, who was getting her hair braided Thursday afternoon at Unique Beauty Salon at the Parksquare Shopping Center, said she’s all for it.
“Right now I have to drive downtown [Minneapolis]. I work in an office, you have to pay for parking, traffic is icky,” Phillips said. “If I could just hop on the light rail, I would.”
While light rail trains aren’t always on time, they’re more dependable than buses that only run once an hour or so, Phillips said.
When she lived in St. Paul in years past, Phillips regularly rode the Green Line.
“It was really accessible,” she said. “It just made the commute easy.”
Salon owner Hawa Koroma said she doesn’t understand why many people are against train transportation when it’s commonly used worldwide.
“I don’t know why they don’t want to bring it here when in Europe they have it all over,” Koroma said. “China, even Dubai, they had one a long time ago. I don’t know why they don’t want to bring it here. This is the greatest country, and we don’t have them.”
The new train line could save some struggling businesses by making it easier for customers to travel to businesses like hers once it’s near a light rail station, Koroma said. Currently, many of her customers use rideshare apps like Uber to get to her salon.
“Uber costs a lot of money, and when my customers finish, they have to wait for a ride,” Koroma said. “Some people cannot afford car insurance, gas, all those things, so I believe [having light rail nearby] will help a lot.”
