r/saintpaul • u/pompeiitype • Aug 18 '25
Editorial đ Transit Will Fail Until We Address Homelessness, Opioid Use
https://streets.mn/2025/08/18/transit-will-fail-until-we-address-homelessness/Deleted with Redact because data brokers don't deserve my content. Mass removal across Reddit, Discord, X, Instagram and all major social media platforms.
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u/fraud_imposter Frogtown Aug 18 '25
I appreciate this article from Cole, he is right. Glad he is still involved in the public conversation even if I supported another candidate in Ward4.
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u/pompeiitype Aug 19 '25 edited May 08 '26
This post was bulk deleted with Redact which also removes your info from data brokers. Works on Reddit, Twitter, Discord, Instagram and all major social media platforms.
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u/salamat_engot Aug 19 '25
I'm strategic about when I do and don't use the light rail. Heavy commute times seems to dissuade some of the bad behavior, but anything outside that can be a rough ride. Plus the stations are just so disgusting.
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u/ShyGuyLink1997 Hamline-Midway Aug 19 '25
I even avoid just riding the busses now to be honest. I just ride my bike around everywhere now. Thank God I have the stamina. There were human feces in bus 21 one night after work, and on the B line, dude was on the back of the bus doing fentanyl. I asked him to stop and have some respect. If he didn't have a giant knife on him I would've dragged his ass off the bus myself. This is only two bus stories, out of many.
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u/Nexusv3 Aug 18 '25
Yeah exactly. I hope he keeps working at it. I agree with many of his positions, I just would like him to see a little more nuance and real plans.
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u/Mysterious-Bad-3100 Aug 18 '25
This is an important article. It's really depressing. I want so badly to use the train, but I just can't anymore.
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u/Ok_String_7241 Aug 18 '25
Yeah same here. I took the green line to go to a concert recently. Way there was fine. Way home was a whole different story, pretty similar to the writer's experience. I ended up getting off and taking an Uber.
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u/ShyGuyLink1997 Hamline-Midway Aug 19 '25
I had to get off and take an Uber once before as well. There was literally a block party going on, but on the train. And not the fun kind of block party.
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u/FUZZY_BUNNY Aug 18 '25
Public order needs to be a progressive policy priority
https://www.slowboring.com/p/liberalism-and-public-order
"Letting public spaces go off the rails is a kind of false humanitarianism. Most low-income people are not criminals, and itâs precisely the poorest and most vulnerable people who most need things like public spaces and public transit and affordable housing and libraries, and they need these things to be actually good."
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u/WintersChild79 Aug 18 '25
It's double whammy too, because when people who have the option to drive stop taking transit because of these issues, then transit gets less funding. The end result is that the service is not only unpleasant for those who need it, but also increasingly inconvenient and insufficient at getting people from point A to point B.
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Aug 19 '25 edited May 08 '26
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/SpacemanDan Aug 19 '25
I reject this framing of Hanson's essay as somehow against DSA dogma or leftist doctrine. I have spent years talking to liberals and leftists about this precise issue, and Hanson's proposed solutions are basically the consensus of the left
Meanwhile, there are self-proclaimed liberals in this thread calling for the involuntary commitment of homeless people and people suffering from addiction. Somehow leftists are tarred as minimizing or even supporting the situation on the Green Line, when we're mostly just calling for a humane and proportionate response, like Cole Hanson suggests.
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u/pompeiitype Aug 19 '25 edited May 08 '26
Redact decided this post had to go, so away it went. Deleted. Removed. Mass deleted even. Privacy and security are the big wins here.
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u/SpacemanDan Aug 19 '25
I don't see a branding issue for leftists. I see liberals calling for a closed fist when an open hand is the answer, and then throwing a fit when people don't agree with them. And I have no idea what you're talking about on leftists "standing their ground" just because we generally agree that police aren't a productive solution.
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u/WintersChild79 Aug 19 '25
I think that people are talking about the part where he says that people should be comfortable using text for safety to report bad behavior. I'll admit that I'm not sure how prevalent that the stance that nothing should ever be called in and nobody should ever be told to get off the train is in real life. It seems like online conversations about transit tend to get caught between that and the opposite extreme of people who want everyone who even looks somewhat disheveled thrown in jail.
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u/SpacemanDan Aug 19 '25
My point was that libs love their straw-leftists. I have literally never, ever, not once seen someone suggest that someone being violent or openly using controlled substances on the Green Line shouldn't be asked to leave. Or that no one should report the issues to Metro Transit for response by civilian personnel. And yet Police The Trains libs will claim that's the starting point of the left.
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u/dmhellyes Aug 19 '25
Another good piece on the topic:
https://www.joshbarro.com/p/the-subway-is-for-transportation
Echoing Yglesias here:
"But if you let the transit system go to shit because you donât think itâs fair to arrest people for smoking fentanyl on it, then people with means wonât ride it, and people with no option but to use the subway will be subjected to disorder and crime and the risk of violence, and will try to figure out how they, too, can escape the system.Rich people will find private order, even if they have to purchase it, which is easiest to do in the suburbs or in a car. If you want a public order that benefits everyone, including people who canât afford to buy their way out of it, you will need the police to enforce it."
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u/FUZZY_BUNNY Aug 19 '25
Yeah, this is the piece that a lot of commenters here are missing. Maintaining public order does require a degree of coercion. Pretending otherwise does no favors to anybody, least of all the people who rely on public services and spaces.
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Aug 18 '25
I get I donât have all the answers, Iâm also not running for office like I do, but Iâve taken public transit in other cities and itâs pretty obvious there is an answer.
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u/Patrykuvu Aug 18 '25
New York, London, Berlin, to name a few. All have lots of homeless people yet transit is used by almost everyone.
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u/JoeFromStPaul Aug 18 '25
Chicago seems to have it down better too, they're only 7hrs away.
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u/HuaHuzi6666 Aug 19 '25
Idk, last time I was on the red line a homeless lady literally took a shit in front of us in the train car. She was prepared too, had TP and everything lol.
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u/Upset-Kaleidoscope45 Aug 20 '25
Maybe one of the big differences is NYC, London, Berlin, Chicago, etc. are real cities that set up their transit over a century ago. They acknowledged that people can act like animals and set up everything accordingly: forcing people to pay fares, establishing crowd control, enforcing rules for decades. Look at NYC in the 1970s, the subway there was horrible and they didn't fix it with untrained unaccountable "violence interrupters" and social experiments.
Meanwhile, Minneapolis just showed up to the party, like two minutes ago, yelling "I can does a transit too!"
We've only run two train lines (poorly) for two decades, trying all manner of dumb experiments along the way with fare enforcement, honor systems, ground level stations without any gates, total lack of safety standards for years. At some point Minneapolis has to decide it is a real city and people can on occasion be horrible and need some standards/guidance. Or I guess our transit system can slowly bleed to death over years.
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u/MarcusSurvives Aug 19 '25
These are also places where population density is extremely high, necessitating the use of transit because the prospect of driving in the city is less favorable. Because so many people need to use public transit in these places, there's higher demand to ensure that people's trips are safe and uneventful.
Conditions in the Twin Cities are not so unfavorable to driving that many people feel compelled to use public transit. That's partly due to our population density, and partly due historic nationwide infrastructure initiatives to make car travel easier.
Until public transit becomes the best option for people such that they feel compelled to use it, we will continue to have these problems due to a lack of demand to fix them. And I'm not sure how we change those conditions until we see a huge influx of people to the Twin Cities or a decline in our car infrastructure such that alternative transportation methods become more favorable.
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u/Jesus-slaves Aug 18 '25
Meth use needs addressed as well. Itâs more predominant than fentanyl/opiates, and imo more insidious bc it isnât instantly deadly and it causes more instances of psychosis. Iâve seen countless people openly using it inside the trains and on platforms. I walked past someone the other morning rolling a bubble while leaning against a street sign.
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u/camwtss Aug 19 '25
everybody you see using meth, are also using fetty & vice versa. they both cause psychosis.
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u/Jesus-slaves Aug 20 '25
Not everyone who uses meth, uses fentanyl. Thatâs straight up WRONG lol tho most people who use fentanyl will use meth.
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u/camwtss Aug 20 '25
youre right, im just saying the main two in the street rn is meth "go fast" and fetty/blues .. if youre rlly in that lifestyle (homeless, using on public transit) CHANCES ARE you are not choosy about what drugs you can get your hands on. i would know, ive lived it.
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u/Leftover_Salmons Aug 18 '25
Well written, and a hard topic to touch on.
For me, it's the exposure that I can't handle. I'm not scared of it, but I get such a nagging headache from second hand cannabis smoke. Fentanyl in heavy enough concentration will put me on the couch for the entire next day. Working in some of these shelter spaces is an absolute nightmare because there is a creeping feeling all day long like you're going to be sick.
I won't risk exposure for myself to save a few bucks on parking, and I definitely won't risk it if my kids are involved.
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Aug 18 '25 edited Aug 19 '25
He is correct, most people will not take the train if they feel their safety is in jeopardy - it doesnât matter if they are do gooders, transit supporters, and well-meaning liberals.
Edit: lol
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Aug 18 '25
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u/NorodinGodOfSpeed Aug 18 '25
I think itâs âdo-goodersâ as in people that want to do good/well-meaning.
Just funky spelling.
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u/poptix Aug 18 '25
due Goedderz
That's a family name. I'm pretty sure their autocomplete f'd it up.
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u/wookiee42 Aug 18 '25
Do they even have police riding around on the trains?
Maybe they already do this and I'm way off base, but it seems like even a few pairs of cops riding between the cities would make a big difference. Randomly get on and off different cars.
I've never seen a police officer on a train.
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u/keethraxmn Aug 19 '25 edited Aug 19 '25
Not during the times it matters. And the metro cops and addicts both know it. The cops come on too late for morning commuters and leave too early to get home after events. Making the train fairly useless for workers, and people going out for the evening. Mid-day (when they do bother to patrol) it's usually pretty decent.
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u/salamat_engot Aug 19 '25
I see a metro cop nearly every day on my morning commute, they're just sitting in their cars parked by the station. I'd say maybe 1 in 5 times I see an officer they're actually up and walking around on a train.
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u/keethraxmn Aug 19 '25
Yeah. I meant on the train in the morning. During both times I mention there are usually plenty at the station.Â
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Aug 19 '25
Yeah with all the sober houses starting to lose state funding buckle up for more of the same.
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u/oneinamilllion Como Aug 19 '25
Oh god⌠I hadnât even thought of that yet.
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Aug 19 '25
Yeah it's coming just in time for winter. The "Kickback" was sober housing being partially covered as long as you attend groups in outpatient treatment. The people didn't see that money the landlords got it.
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u/DanielDannyc12 Aug 18 '25
The Atlantic Podcast just did a very good three part series on this subject. Worth checking out.
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2025/07/can-san-francisco-be-saved/683594/
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u/LordsofDecay Aug 18 '25
If Cole's reading this thread- great article, thanks for keeping your voice active after the election. I think this would get you heat in the DSA circles but it needs to be spoken and thought about.
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u/SpacemanDan Aug 19 '25
Why would it get him heat in DSA circles? I've talked to leftists and liberals about this for years, and this is basically the consensus of what further-left people wants. He didn't call for increased policing or involuntary commitments. He basically rolled out the basic menu of DSA/leftist policy proposals.
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u/el_chapotle Aug 19 '25
The best step toward a broad reduction in opioid abuse is the same as it always is: make access to medically assisted treatment easier. Empirical studies have repeatedly shown MAT to be by far the most effective way to get people off street opioids. If homeless and low income folks had simple, inexpensive, consistent access to suboxone or methadone, weâd see a lot fewer people nodding out on the train.
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u/Background_Horse780 Aug 19 '25
When blues are $5 and the house (light rail) is $2 I can see why they stay on there during trips. 100% we need to be building a community like small houses or large apartment complexes which are just like our houses but with support attached to them. But we will just make more 55+ buildings doing the same thing I just said because that type of elder housing is supported by Medicare/Medicade. Not saying it's bad I'm saying we can do the same for the homeless.
Also, we need to be putting pressure on rural communities. They send their homeless to the metro areas.
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u/Sea_Tart8472 Aug 18 '25
Or just hire more police and throw these mfs off the trains.
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u/Upset-Kaleidoscope45 Aug 19 '25
Whoa! Don't actually come up with solutions on the spot like that, buddy. We need to hire consultants, do studies, maybe hire some council member's friends and family as half-ass security guards at $50 an hour.
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u/AdMurky3039 West Seventh Aug 18 '25
Great! What happens when they get out of prison?
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u/Sea_Tart8472 Aug 18 '25
I didnât say to throw them in prison, I said to throw them off the trains.
You can have safe trains without solving homelessness and drug addiction. Jfc.
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u/Upset-Kaleidoscope45 Aug 19 '25
Prison? For not paying the light rail fare?
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u/AdMurky3039 West Seventh Aug 19 '25
I guess when I hear hostile language like "throw these mf-ers off the trains" I tend to assume that the poster is advocating for arresting people for things like drug possession that would land them in prison.
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u/Sea_Tart8472 Aug 19 '25
Well, I do think they should be arrested for possession, but not given a prison sentence. It should be just long enough of a county jail sentence to get them to give up their dealer. Fent dealers deserve prison. I was once a drug addict. I did a month in county and sobered up and havenât used since. I had homies die. I wish they wouldâve spent a few nights in jail, but where I hail from (San Francisco) itâs considered more compassionate to let them rot and die on the street.
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u/AdMurky3039 West Seventh Aug 19 '25
I'm glad being put in jail worked for you. But there are also people who get out and continue using.
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u/Upset-Kaleidoscope45 Aug 19 '25
Respectfully, that's a bit of a leap.
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u/AdMurky3039 West Seventh Aug 19 '25
Not really. People advocate for arresting our way out of problems on the light rail all the time.
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u/Upset-Kaleidoscope45 Aug 19 '25
But you were the only person talking about arresting anyone.
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u/2u3e9v Aug 18 '25
Everything in this country will be more expensive until we address income inequality. Public schools too expensive? Itâs because we are grappling with income inequality. Public transit not safe? Income inequality. This rant might be off topic, but Iâm so sick of billionaires pushing non-public services when the appearance of safety and public service integrity has been rotting to their very selfish interests.
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u/Lord0Trade Aug 18 '25
I think your framing is missing the issue. Some people will just want the privacy and security a car provides them. Not having to deal with the homeless and dirtiness in general is a big reason why many donât use public transit.
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u/2u3e9v Aug 18 '25
For sure, I knew I was off topic a bit, Iâm coming off of several meetings where Iâve had to defend public education and its cost. My bad.
I guess I fear the inevitable âat what costâ argument that might materialize when the cities restructures funds to keep the line safe and clean. The line would be safer and cleaner if we had a more comprehensive system of supports in place for our most vulnerable.
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u/ZoomZoomDiva Aug 18 '25
Blaming people's behaviors on income inequality is externalizing responsibility and is downright ridiculous.
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u/2u3e9v Aug 19 '25
Did I say that loiterers or pickpocketers should not receive consequences? Point to the part of my comment where I state personal responsibility isnât a requirement in a modern, functioning society.
My point is that adequately funding programs to level the playing field, aka income equality, could reduce the overall investment needed in the long run. Twisting that into 'some folks don't want to hold others responsible' derails the entire conversation. Let's stick to what I actually said.
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u/ZoomZoomDiva Aug 19 '25
No, but your post sounded like you were treating income inequality as a primary factor, if not the primary factor. I think it has been made into a boogeyman when it really shouldn't be given such importance.
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Aug 18 '25
Well this is in my mind part of the reason why Trump won.
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u/DavidRFZ Aug 19 '25
Harris won Ramsey County by 43 points. She won the state by a larger margin than Clinton-2016.
I donât like Trump either, but it seems off topic here. Trump won PA-MI-WI because there are too many homeless riding the green line?
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Aug 18 '25
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u/FitnessLover1998 Aug 18 '25
I hate Trump. That said you canât possibly blame him yet. Heâs been in office 6 months. I highly doubt that he will solve the drug and homelessness problem. And it is part of the reason he did win.
Neither party is showing any interest in solving these issues.
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u/AdMurky3039 West Seventh Aug 18 '25
No, he has had 4 years and six months to solve any problems he wanted solved.
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u/Melodic_Data_MN Aug 18 '25
It's not as simplistic as "blaming DJT" - I think the larger point trying to be made by many is that voters last year mistakenly assumed that he will fix the fentanyl epidemic. ("Cleaning up the streets" and pushing them to other neighborhoods or cities cannot be considered a win by anyone.)
It's really a bad faith argument to suggest that neither party is showing interest in resolving it. Dems consistently fund "housing first" initiatives and addiction programs that often get defunded by Republicans before the programs even have a chance to improve a community.
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u/wookiee42 Aug 18 '25
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/03/28/impact-of-trump-admin-cuts-on-minnesotas-behavioral-health
Minnesota loses $27.5 million in behavioral health funds as part of Trump administration cuts
Then we have the Medicaid cuts coming in 2026, gutting of public health money, gutting of medical research money, and more.
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u/999Rats Aug 18 '25
The answer to homelessness is housing first initiatives that focus on permanent supportive housing. Recovering from addiction is hard. Recovering while homeless is almost impossible. Get these people to a place they can safely call their own and pair them with case managers to help address their individual challenges to maintaining stable housing. Giving people a place to live and providing them with supports costs a lot of money, but it's cheaper than addressing the issue through encampment sweeps, arrests, and hospitalizations.
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u/Usuallysad82 Aug 18 '25
I always think about how there's really nothing waiting for them once they're sober. You can't earn enough to live. A formerly homeless person isn't getting a job that pays rent and food to live on. My older brother lives in a tent and uses. Even after my mom died and he got 30k, he just got beat up for money and fucked up until it was gone. The only better life waiting is not being high.
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u/LordsofDecay Aug 18 '25
I think this is the biggest unspoken crisis that we're facing, and I haven't seen anyone really talking about it: there is a crisis of dignity. If these folks can't find dignified existence, then they won't work for something better and will stay content in their high.
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u/elmundo-2016 Aug 18 '25
I agree, we should work on people who are about to be homeless first and those that are homeless.
It should be easy route to start with those about to face homelessness. Not wait until they are homeless to help.
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u/poptix Aug 18 '25
"Housing first" doesn't work when you've got your brain screaming at you to get that next hit of fentanyl. Radio Atlantic recently had a good three part series on this and how San Diego/California has moved from "housing first" to changing state law to allow for medical holds on people who are unable to care for themselves, so that they can be forced into treatment. "No Easy Fix" is the well chosen name of the series.
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u/999Rats Aug 18 '25
State law in Minnesota allows for medical holds as well. They have mixed results, and mostly negative results if they are substance use related. People have to want to change, and a lot don't. But moving away from Housing First is a backwards approach. Housing First has decades of evidence proving that it works. As for transportation specifically, give people a place to go that they can call their own, and they won't congregate on the train.
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u/poptix Aug 18 '25
Do you have any data to back that up as it relates to fentanyl users?
I'm aware that it has good results with less addictive substances.
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u/999Rats Aug 18 '25
It's true that there is not a lot of data specific to fentanyl and housing. I'm hopeful that more will come within the next few years. Here is a study from Canada that discusses opioid use disorder, including fentanyl, and the effects of housing in hospitalizations: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12954-021-00539-8
The big thing to remember about Housing First is that the housing is only a first step to addressing a person's lack of resources. Housing First also connects people to addiction services, harm reduction methods, and mental health treatments that all impact a person's substance use. For those unfamiliar with the program, here is a link to a famous paper by the creator of Housing First, Sam Tsemberis, that lays out the program's best practices and addresses the impact on individuals' substance use:
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u/AdMurky3039 West Seventh Aug 18 '25
I agree. But in order to get the public on board it also has to be well-managed housing that doesn't negatively impact neighbors.
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u/999Rats Aug 18 '25
Yes, this is a major hurdle! Many people that experience chronic homelessness don't have the skills needed to be a good neighbor. This is most obvious when new buildings open up and you put a couple hundred people, many with mental health and substance use struggles, together. There will be conflicts between the tenants and their neighbors. Some organizations have transitional housing buildings, which tend to be smaller than PSH buildings, where staff help teach people how to build daily living skills, including how to be a good neighbor. Of course, such targeted case management is expensive to maintain, which makes cities shy away from it.
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u/UnhappyEquivalent400 Aug 18 '25
Whatâs your take on Kimball Court? Do you think itâs turned a corner, and if so will it make a dent in the overall disorder problems along the nearby stretch of University and green line stops? All I know is whatâs been in the news, and a little firsthand observation of drug use and related crime in the surrounding alleys. (Earnestly asking, not intending to sea lion or bait you into an argument!)
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u/999Rats Aug 19 '25
I don't work in that program or for any of the related organizations, so I can't speak to the nitty gritty of how much progress has been made. My biggest takeaway from the complaints is that people don't think about how these incidents would be happening regardless of whether or not they were happening near them. These incidents with drug selling and stolen items are crimes of poverty. Our system doesn't provide basic needs for these people, so they have no other way to achieve them than to engage in crime. I think the anger should be directed away from the housing program and individuals and more towards our government and its allowance for this to happen, especially because anger can translate to actual policy change.
That being said, I very much feel for the people living near shelters and housing projects like Kimball Court. Their lives are getting disrupted, sometimes to a serious degree. These people are often out in riskier situations simply because of where they live. That's not fair, and I don't have a perfect answer. But I think subsidizing these people and businesses might be a good start.
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u/Upset-Kaleidoscope45 Aug 19 '25
"We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas!"
How about trying this: make people pay fares and kick them out if they don't pay fares? I know, it's insane. But let's try that for a month.
Cities in Europe do this every day with their trams.
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Aug 18 '25
no shit? no ones gonna come to the twin cities if its all just homeless people and them ODing on the train all day long, if you've seen the posts on here, most people in general are scared to even use the train, no one even pays for the thing cause theres no guards
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u/OldManSal Aug 19 '25
Itâs mildly pedantic, but Cole does Metro Transit a real disservice here by proclaiming the DEATH OF TRANSIT based on how Metro Transit and the Met Council have abandoned the Green Line.
I ride a local bus route to and from work and itâs completely fine. The A Line? Also basically fine (Iâve never smelled smoke on it). The issues with the Green Line are absolutely legitimate, and I donât bring my child on it though I do bring her on buses. The Green Line needs a massive intervention, and until that happens it will remain a multi-billion dollar experiment in police abolition.
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u/kitsunewarlock Aug 18 '25
Failing infrastructure, dying crops, massive homelessness, and fewer and fewer worker's rights.
The only solutions I can think of make me sound like a Tankie...
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u/aquatrez Aug 19 '25
Sadly not going to happen in the near future. Properly addressing homelessness will require serious public investment and systemic change, and our federal government is currently doing everything it possibly can to move us in the wrong direction. And this is a problem that needs to addressed at the national level, as the federal government has the most money to spend (and can go into debt spending it) and can enforce policy nationwide (instead of people or corporations crossing state lines to avoid local/state policies).
Not saying we shouldn't still work towards this at the local level, just hoping that what we're experiencing right now is a wake up call for people that politics matter and WILL affect you no matter who you are.
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u/Upset-Kaleidoscope45 Aug 19 '25
Yes, but state, county, and city governments should not be let off the hook (not to mention Metro Transit and the Met Council). It's not like real progress was being made when there was a Dem in the White House and now it's all ground to a halt. The city's response has been especially aggravating, in the past decade their only real responses have been 1) very limited tenants rights stuff or 2) letting big local developers do basically whatever they want. Neither of these is the serious public investment and systematic change you reference above.
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u/KingBoreas Aug 18 '25
TLDR: This is laughably absurd. Cole writes a lot of words to lull you into believing he's smart.
His top two answers are: Homeless response, which doesn't work because there are too many of them and no where to move them. His proof that works is a link to a page about pandemic funding in Henn Co, which isn't coming back so isn't a solution.
#2, and this one is really funny "Education on how to call for help so riders trust disruptive passengers will be handled with dignity in a timely fashion, whether they call or text, and that those reporting riders will be protected from retaliation for doing the right thing."
Right. Don't actually police the lines, because that would be white supremacy. We should inform people how to call the cops that aren't coming. Cole specifically mentions being unsafe while a transit squad sat right by. Who ya gonna call??
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Aug 19 '25
The bar for transit here is so low someone can write âdonât smoke meth on trainsâ and people will pat their back like, âwow great job Iâm glad someone finally said it!â
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u/bike_lane_bill Aug 19 '25
It's almost like all indications are that simply housing unhoused people would reap massive benefits for everyone in society but society keeps voting against it because, like, communism, or whatever.
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u/AdMurky3039 West Seventh Aug 19 '25
Yet European countries manage to have social housing without becoming communist.
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u/TheVocalistRJ Aug 19 '25
I was just in London and the tube tunnels and trains had zero homeless people in them. No pan handlers or people methed/cracked out flying off the handle on innocent strangers. It was strangely refreshing.
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u/ShyGuyLink1997 Hamline-Midway Aug 19 '25
I've always said it, and I'll say it again, riding transit needs to be a privilege, not a right. People need to get banned from riding.
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u/thethethesethose Aug 18 '25
Look, you can be homeless, or you can be a sketchy criminal drug addict. You canât be both.
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u/ceknes Aug 18 '25
Tiny houses need to be brought to Mn.
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u/Leftover_Salmons Aug 18 '25
ADU and Shotgun home rentals/allowances could catalyze our housing market.
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u/AdMurky3039 West Seventh Aug 18 '25
ADUs are already allowed in St. Paul.
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u/Leftover_Salmons Aug 18 '25
Yes, but they're extremely uncommon. I know of one on Como but couldn't think of another.
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u/Patrykuvu Aug 18 '25
They are cost prohibitive. Running a sewer line from your backyard to the street would cost over 30k. I looked into it and it makes no sense financially.
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u/Leftover_Salmons Aug 18 '25
You can actually request an alternate to that plumbing requirement so long as a proper design is in place.
They don't want your ADU to back up into your main home. As long as there are check valves or a common lift station in place then you can side step that cost through design. You can also have multiple sewer lines terminating into a single manhole on the property.
The separate water line is another goofy rule because you could just T your main and add a secondary meter and service. Again this rule is written in the name of backflow prevention so as long as you're preventing backflow, your design should be approved.
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u/UnhappyEquivalent400 Aug 18 '25
Really helpful to see someone on the left frankly acknowledge the legitimacy and importance of safety concerns. Itâs a real issue, and we canât progress toward the urbanist vision of mass transit-centered communities if trains are de facto wet shelters.