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Bike-Walk Work Deserves its Own Season
To Minnesota's two universally acknowledged seasons -- winter and road construction -- we can add a third: bikeway openings. Bike Walk Twin Cities, the federally funded nonmotorized transportation developer, expects a record number of projects to be completed this year in Minneapolis, St. Paul and suburbs. The most long-awaited of them is the University Bike Trail from the St. Paul campus to near downtown Minneapolis via the old Northern Pacific Railroad No. 9 bridge across the Mississippi River. This project has been in the works for more than 20 years, with Metropolitan Council funding repeatedly turned back because of disputes…
Blueprints for Rural Progress: Critical Need for Federal Development Funding
Take away USDA Rural Development dollars and you start taking away small town assets, such as nursing homes, hospital expansions, access to affordable housing, wastewater infrastructure, and business development. Minnesota 2020’s latest report, Blueprints for Rural Progress highlights the importance of these community development programs in sustaining a strong rural way of life. Congress is currently rewriting the farm bill, which includes rural development funding, in a climate of sequester-induced, across-the-board federal budget cuts. Depending on how deep Rural Development cuts are in the next farm bill, Minnesota communities will have a tougher time financing these programs.
