Twin Cities: Southwest light-rail gripe session stirs some anger [View all]

(Star-Tribune) Stalled and stung by critics, planners of the most expensive light-rail line in the Twin Cities area resumed efforts Tuesday night to sell the project to a skeptical public.

They got help from a consultant who organized a gripe session for 200 people in the Kenwood neighborhood of Minneapolis, where some residents oppose running the Southwest light rail through a recreational corridor near their homes.

“There is a lot of anger, a lot of mistrust,” said consultant Dan Cramer, whose firm is being paid $22,000 by a public agency to help calm critics.

He has a ways to go.

The session began with a dozen group meetings around tables in the Kenwood Community Center gym, where participants were encouraged to talk about specific elements of the light-rail project that irked them. But people at some tables focused their ire instead on the Metropolitan Council, the agency running the project and studying its impact on nearby lakes. .......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.startribune.com/local/239188231.html