Readus Fletcher, Sr. with Rondo Stryker Bus

Dublin Core

Title

Readus Fletcher, Sr. with Rondo Stryker Bus

Subject

Transportation
Business and Industry
Family Life

Description

Photograph of Readus Fletcher, Sr. with his Rondo Stryker Bus. He drove the Rondo Ave and Stryker bus, and he drove the street cars for Twin Cities Rapid Transit. The accompanying page discusses the debate and conversation surrounding the route of the light rail through Frogtown and relates it to the development of I-94 through Rondo Avenue.

Source

"Rondo 2K13: 30 Years Strong & United" in Rondo Days Festival magazine, page 52-53.

Date

1955
2013-07

Contributor

Fletcher Jr., Readus

Format

magazine

Type

Text

Text Item Type Metadata

Text

SELECTED FOR NOVEMBER

READUS FLETCHER

IN MEMORY OF OUR FATHER AND THE RONDO STRYKER BUS LINE
THE READUS AND FLORENCE FLETCHER FAMILY
926 SAINT ANTHONY AVENUE

READUS, LESLIE AND TOMMIE
"We were demanding this kind of investment; we were demanding some attention," Coleman said. "We need to be prepared for change, but let's make sure that change benefits the people who are already there." - ST. PAUL MAYOR CHRIS COLEMAN
Development Association hopes to rebrand this stretch of University Avenue "Little Mekong," in deference to the river that ties so many of the various ethnic entrepreneurs hailing form Southeast Asia.

But Pham would rather not see the trains come at all. He thinks the construction will destroy everything he has worked for.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman acknowledges the line will bring change, not all of it welcome. But a far worse alternative, he said, is neglect.

Coleman recounts his work as a community organizer in Frogtown, one of the neighborhoods along the light rail route.

"We were demanding this kind of investment; we were demanding some attention," Coleman said. "We need to be prepared for change, but let's make sure that change benefits the people who are already there."

While transit does spur economic development, most experts say the changes typically follow already existing patterns.

"What has tending to happen is already strong markets have gotten stronger. As in places where there hasn't been as much development, they aren't as completely transformed," said Sam Zimbabwe, director of the Center for Transit-Oriented Development in Washington D.C. "Transit alone isn't creating a market for development."

For example, the project might continue to spark development along the western edge of University Avenue in St. Paul. There are already clusters of new condos, artist lofts and a gourmet cupcake bakery.

But some of the more challenged neighborhoods, such as Frogtown, may continue to struggle without additional support, Zimbabwe said.

For all the talk about trying to minimize the impact of light rail, St. Paul City Council Member Melvin Carter III wants to do just the opposite.

"A billion-dollar investment needs to have a billion-dollar impact," Carter said.

Carter and his mother, Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter, are big supporters of the Central Corridor line. Melvin Carter and the other local officials fought for three extra stops, and he still sees big challenges ahead with the project.

Carter's main goal is to make sure longtime residents and businesses are first in line for new jobs and housing that the transit service will bring.

The 31-year-old Carter, a former track star at Central High School, wasn't alive when the interstate tore apart Rondo. But he grew up hearing stories about the neighborhood. His great-grandfather, Mym Carter, led a jazz string band in on a horse-drawn buggy down Rondo Avenue. And Carter's grandfather owned a handful of commercial buildings that the councilman says he probably would have inherited.

Carter's own father, who lost his childhood home to the freeway project, often shared his memories of Rondo on car trips around St. Paul with his kids.

"Growing up, we'd ride I-94, and just before the Dale Street bridge, he'd say, 'You're in my bedroom -- now!'" Carter recalled. "And for those folks who lived that, and even for someone like me, who grew up hearing the stories of Rondo far before I ever knew what the letters LRT stood for, and grew up with a gut, gut feeling about how horrible a tragedy Rondo was, I think it's understandable somebody can look at [light rail] and say, 'No thanks.'"

That doesn't mean residents should resist light rail, Carter said. but there is a lesson to be learned from Rondo: "It happened so long ago, but we're still in the shadow of Rondo," he said. "That's exactly what makes it so important that we choose our steps very carefully now."

Light rail can change the community as much as I-94 did, Carter said. But this time, he hopes it will correct the wrongs of history.

Copyright (c) 2010 Minnesota Public Radio.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

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magazine

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