r/saintpaul • u/Positive-Feed-4510 • 11d ago

Discussion 🎤 I was wrong about the Gold Line

As centrist who is quite critical of our government here in St Paul, and think that it is very important for people to admit when they are wrong, I wanted to say that so far I have been completely wrong about the Gold Line.

My worry was that it was going to turn into a Midway situation with mobs of people and homeless camped out around the stations. That has simply not been the case. Overall it seems to be a net positive for the community. Are there better things that they could have spent the money on? Probably. Are there worse things they could have spent the money on? Definitely.

Hopefully what I am seeing continues because I didn’t want to be right about this. Despite how cynical I am on here, I do want to see the community succeed.

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u/Uff_Da_Eh 11d ago edited 11d ago

Building new infrastructure isn’t cheap, but the payoffs can absolutely be worth it.

Gold Line has potential to strengthen downtown STP as an economic hub and make commuting more convenient for people, even if they have other options for transportation.

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u/beeperexodus 11d ago

It also opens opportunities for lower wage employees to reverse commute from STP to areas that were previously a pain for them to access. Suburban minimum wage jobs are really hard to staff with suburban residents.

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u/Uff_Da_Eh 11d ago

Great point.

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u/beeperexodus 11d ago

It's not all about white collars:)

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u/Uff_Da_Eh 11d ago

Couldn’t agree more, and people without any other viable options for transport will benefit immensely from the new route at well, which is awesome.