for coming out on a snowy morning when i came early this morning to test the mikes there was no one in this room and i thought it is going to be hard to have energy speaking to empty chair so i am grateful that you  taken a little time this morning i promise you i am not going to speak for two hours even though the program was noted as a two hour program but we want to give you a chance to mingle with each other and chat and get together and i'm really grateful to ramsey county for its vision to understand why this union depot is an important multi modal high for the future of our region and thank you commissioner mcdonough friend and a colleague and thanks to all of the ramsey county commissioners that i went out on a limb originally to get this depot going into all the many partners who helped make it possible now today as we're focusing on the future trance of the really is just no better place to be than this beautiful building just think in one thousand twenty three when travelers came through here with newspapers tucked under their arms did they ever imagine the fast paced life that we have today where our bus riders our train riders have got their laptops in their bags they've got their cell phones in their pockets and they are getting twenty four hour news minute to minute we're living in such a fast paced world intransitive changing in the demand for chance that translate is changing because of the fast pace there we're all living in here today so as i think about those people who had the foresight to think about the future they probably couldn't have imagined this time and i don't know that we'll be really able to imagine what thirty years will bring for us but that's what our job is at the met council is to try to look out create a thirty year vision for our region what foresight they had i hope we'll have that same foresight as we think about what future generations will need what the demands will be and what life will be like as jim mentioned  have jefferson line buses we have three hundred metro transit buses and one year from this year we are going to have the central corridor green line open and that will be very exciting so thank you gone on for about two years now i want to tell you that we're eighty nine percent through construction which is great in a great thinks to the green line businesses we have two of them here today who are doing the catering for asha sugar rush and goldens deli so make sure you get some treats those donitz are to be eaten and thank you for sticking with us through this difficult construction period in it's all going to get better soon i really want to acknowledge the many many council members who are here today i if you would stand up and face the crowd we have some of our sixteen met council members here they do a great job for us could you give them a round  and i especially want to recognize the employees the metropolitan council i was so proud this past year that the council member the environmental services staff and the metro transit staff  had worked so hard to develop an eight million dollar energy saving initiative across the council they were given an award by governor dayton for continuous improvement and i am proud to work at the met council we have a lot of fantastic employees you can never say thank you enough to the planners the mechanics the bus operators the drivers everyone that makes it possible for us to have a great quality of life in this region so give a big round of applause for the people at the  you know trance it really matters to this region because it is the foundation for our regional economy and our region is a leader in this knowledge based economy this is a terrific place to live we have exceptional rankings for educational attainment brainpower innovation talent is what generates our region's economic growth and every business depends on people specifically the ability to attract and retain talent and that's why the business community and the met council and others have teamed up to try to move our trance it expansion sooner faster and farther businesses want to employ talented people and we have them at council we're in the business of moving people to work to school and to the many great amenities in this region and transit isn't just about moving people efficiently it also saves money it saves money for businesses and employers and it saves money surely for those employees and it keeps traffic flowing on our highways and it's not just about moving people but it's the result of it in a world where speed matters more and more and more it helps free up the space on our interstate system to move goods quickly and that saves money for businesses and that saves money for consumers so our transit system has to get going we have to move even faster in this competition for jobs and economic growth just ask greater m s p the great work they've been doing advancing and marking our region i know michael langley's here from greater m s p i saw him michael thank you there you are in all the great leaders of our business community who know that we need to function as one region one community when we tell this beautiful story about this metropolitan region but you know what our transit system just really isn't keeping pace with the demands and the growth in the region and that's a problem because the metro region really is the engine that drives them state of minnesota's economy you know that our economy in this region is actually bigger than half of the states economies in the united states and you know that our region is such a productive region we have the top workforce participation rate here people want to work here we have just such a great culture about work and community so our shared vision with the business community with local acts that elected officials as far are really a rat hot regional economy and that's the vision behind the leadership of the itasca project study where they went out and sad gee if we really study this what is this return on investment if we actually built out this tran system and we accelerated this development and what it wouldn't make sense would it make a difference in the end the emphatic answer was yes it'll make a big difference and in fact they found the benefits of investing in the system would offer a six to ten billion dollar return on investment now that is an r o i that actually we need for our region the world is changing so quickly and our region is changing so quickly today you know minnesotans want more trance that when i've been out talking with local elected officials and community members throughout the region mostly i hear from people could i have more frequent transit could i have a line to my community in my neighborhood so there's a lot of wants and desires but you know what in the next ten to thirty years it's going to be a demand it's going to be an expectation it's going to be how life is a lived so let's talk about the young adults and what they want their the future for our region they're the future growth me and their remarkable group of people a recent survey of people who are eighteen to twenty four forty six percent of them said i'd rather have access to the internet than to have a driver's license now that is a whole new world that we need to pay attention to for many of us the ability to get a head start on our work day and combine a shorter stress free commute while we have those wonderful devices that keep us logged in and linked in that's just a no brainer and that's one reason why the generation y generation really isn't so interested in driver's license they're interested in transit and mobility so this means our traditional strategy of competing for workers and talent in economic growth we have to really be smart about it we are competing for workers who are entirely mobile they can live wherever they want to do their job so workers can choose a region a city to live in and they're going to choose those based on the quality of life in the amenities and one of the things they're going to look for as whether when they step outside their doorstep they're going to have access to translate to trains to buses so they can get where they want to go so i really believe that a robust twenty first century transit system is going to help us compete for jobs and be a great region for the future father way our region is changing as we've done our forecasts great news that we're going to grow by nine hundred  people in the next thirty years that's terrific news for us but one of the challenges we're going to have is that we're going to double the senior population so think about what seniors will want and need in terms of access to translate going forward as we as we work with people who provide services to seniors what we hear is yes they want to locate next to translate so they can get to doctors appointments they can get make social connections and they don't have to drive a car so our community is changing or also getting much more diverse as we go forward so translate is a way to keep us connected and provide job opportunities for everyone throughout this region so as we think about where we are i think we're at a great point i think we have exactly the right set of people the right set of circumstances to advance this trance of financing idea so let's think of two scenario let's look at the status quo what is the status quo for transit financing well i went back and did a little work it's been on stable and unpredictable to some looking at how did we keep transept financing going for the last decade well it was a series of fits and starts six times in the last ten years we had one time to mix we had stopgap measures we had to shift our state general fund dollars and have them paid with property tax dollars and it really didn't do much to grow our system we were hardly able to fill the gaps and keep it stable the unacceptable and unavoidable consequences of unpredictable and inadequate investments are pretty clear services that don't keep pace with demand congestion that increases at a more rapid pace and a lack of development because investors and developers and the market just don't know when and where the next transport way is going to be belt and when they don't know when and where and there's no certainty they're not going to put their money on the table so many of us in this room have been working on transfer for a long time and many of us remember all the many steps in hurdles that were necessary to cobble together their capital funding for the green line central  project it was incredible work and a great heroic effort by so many people you know i first had my first conversation about the central quarter light rail line twenty years ago and i'm happy to say i'm going to be here next year when it opens it's pretty darn exciting  we've made great progress and it's so exciting to see that light rail line open next year but let's not wait another twenty years to open the next light rail line in this region when we fall behind in our region we lose out to our competitor regions that federal share partnership it goes elsewhere it goes to dallas it goes to denver it goes to houston seattle you name it it's not coming here and less we get our act together on this transfer financing long run so let's think about a new scenario because there is a new scenario that's possible today i'm very proud to work for governor mark  governor dayton has proposed a budget that's fair and it ends gimmicks and one times fixes he cares about the future and building for the future he has proposed a budget with an additional two hundred fifty million dollars annually for transit capital and operating so this funding will be used will be raised through a quarter cent sales tax in the seven county metro area and it will greatly accelerate the build out of our regional transit system and our transit ways it will expand our local bus service our express bus service and allow us to build street cars rapid bus l r t and b r t this is a significant investment in infrastructure for this region and we need to get on board to support it you know our recent survey that was lad by the three regional chambers was pretty telling a great thanks to the minneapolis chamber the st paul area chamber in the twin west chamber for really asking the tough questions if you want trance it we'd be willing to pay for it what they found is there is broad support f minnesotans to support a trance a dedicated sales tax in fact nearly two thirds of minnesotans said they would support raising revenue with a transit dedicated sales tax and a metro right sales tax is what our peer regions use and there's a reason they do it makes sense it keeps pace with demand it grows with the population and it's paid for by the people who benefit from the services both those who live in the region and those people who visit the region so what would it by if you haven't stopped by those two maps over there you can see before and after i hope you'll take a look at him so just a couple of things to no there should be something in there for everyone in this region a one percent annual expansion of our base system and that's for suburban trance of providers and metro transit providers there'd be bus rapid transit or l r t v in the new gateway quarter in the east depending on what the local alternative rock option is selected there'd be the extension of the southwest l r t quarter the extension of that green line from st paul into eden prairie well the list goes on we'd be able to build the extension of the blue line the bottom no quarter up in the northern suburbs would be able to expand b r t per let's look at lines  on highway one sixty nine or two twelve in the southwest metro and we're so excited that we are going to open a cedar avenue b r t from apple valley to hi and we could open twelve additional arterial b r t's so this is a this is really an investment in the future of our stake in the future of our region and everyone is a winner with this scenario but you know regional economic success is not just about building a trance it line as much as i do love those transit lines i don't know if anyone here has ever been a sunday school teacher i was a sunday school teacher for about twelve years it's really a fun volunteer experience you get the craziest questions you could ever possibly imagine that you cannot answer and i'm going to tell you a little story there was a little boy in sunday school and his teacher a just read story of jonah and the whale and the teacher asked the class well what is the moral of the story class move boy shot his hand up and he said swallowing people makes whales throw up well not exactly in you know what if we go around telling minnesotans that the point of the governor sales tax is to build more transit lines then we've missed the mark just like this little boy transit expansion is a means to an end that and is job growth the end is economic prosperity the and it's the quality of the life in this region it's ultimately about people it's about where they're going to live and where they're going to work we've already seen some remarkable success with development along our major transit ways along the blue line the hiwatt the light rail line we've already seen nine thousand eight hundred housing units built far exceeding our expectations along the green line and we haven't opened it yet there's been one point two billion dollars in building permits pulled along that project line that's the future that we can build in this region and the met council has been a part of this as well we granted twenty five million dollars in transit oriented development grants this past year they've had a remarkable impact we've has seen wonderful projects from across the region that will leverage private and public investment and this is how we build the future of our region later this morning when i bring our panel up i'm to ask them to talk with you about economic development how they see it how it works for communities how it works for housing and how it works for our entire region but i haven't asked for all of you right now we are at a pivotal moment in our transit system in our trajectory of transportation for the region i really want to thank the many many partners who have helped get us to where we are today and the first call a think goes out to the county's transferred improvement board and all of the commissioners who serve on that board and all of the commissioners from the seven metro counties can we give them a great round of applause and in addition to those partners there's the metro mayors there's the metro cities there's greater a misspeak they itasca project all the great business and nonprofit and public sector people who served on the governor's transportation finance advisory committee our legislative leadership our regional chambers the coelus community partners the foundations who've really been over time telling their story about why this matters for our region so today i am asking you to get on board if better express bus service is what you lov and that's what's important for your community we need you on board and if street cars are what you think is great for customers to access your businesses then we need you on board and if you would like to see light rail line serve your neighborhood and community please we need you on board and if you are tired of gimmicks and one time fixes that keep our trance system afloat but never getting ahead than we need you on board and if you believe a broad based stable funding source that grows with demand is the kind of commonsense solutions that our region needs to ensure economic prosperity we need you on board you know what there is enough seats here for everyone and it this past year we've been out in communities rocking with everyone about what kind of region do they want to see what is it they want for their children and their grandchildren we've had numerous community meetings or council members have been out and you've all been out telling us what you want it's been an exciting time and next year we're going to be rolling out this strive m s p twenty forty plan which is our thirty year vision for what our community can be like here so with that we went out to the community and we asked them what they wanted what kind of place is this to live in and i would invite our video people to roll our video  feel and the people and in terms of business in this area we are exceptionally fortunate to have the headquarters of many national successful companies members of the fortune one hundred even the fortune fifty here in town only they also have a very thriving small business community their community also supports a very vibrant cultural area that focuses on arts and music in theater so when you put all of that together plus of educated work force and a very strong work ethic we have a pretty ideal situation you feel you're part of something that you're helping build it you know obviously the work of the council does around transit is you know really integral to creating a future or not as a pennant on oil and you know have a much more multifaceted way of helping people access the city own or operate their own vehicles central to our mission is helping people find work and finding that work out in the community and without transportation and without options there we really really put people at a disadvantage i think that we have a really but the issue that we've had is that we've had some some gaps there in transportation i think we had a world class transportation system we could just make that community the business community and neighborhoods even better i believe stable housing is important to achieve all of this because if you can know that you have a place to live time and you don't have to worry where you can sleep at night or where you can eat your next meal at least you know you have a roof over your house and it's important to have clean water and have our water clean because we know that it goes back into the ever that we get our water from the river in minneapolis here and so we are always thinking options for them to travel around to ride their bikes to take the bus or take the train and more places a visit and learn about more people and cultures that aren't like them without really having to go that far just outside  the minneapolis st paul metro area is a place where there's a really thriving local economy there's people from many different backgrounds who are coming together to create a really like our panelists today have all been involved and some different aspects of doing planning for development around this region and different parts of the region and different ways that they've been engaging with the community so i think it's really going to be f to hear from them i'm going to introduce them to you immediately to my left is clean carry she is the president of the cornerstone group the cornerstone group is a real estate development and financial firm cleanness worked in  thirty years they really have a holistic approach to real estate development they have been working on some projects in along the central corridor as well as some really neat projects in richfield and cleaners served consul's little communities advisory committee so she's seen many of the grant applications that have come forward for development over the port portion of this last year and then next to clean somali immigrant community and assad has been involved and serves on the southwest l r t community advisory committee and has been involved in stationery of planning along the golden triangle station  along the southwest allergy quarter he's been a mathematics teacher before he founded new american academy and the next to assad is paul williams paul is the deputy mayor for the city of st paul paul serves on the corridors of opportunity policy board he is responsible for many things in the city of st paul initiatives on education and economic development translate in sustainability and those pesky day to day operations he has been the twin cities executive director of last he served on philanthropic organizations and a number of community organizations throughout his career so i'm just going to ask i'll start with thanks to the council for for just a lot of great work here certainly in the last couple of years i think we're very excited about all the different things that are really coming together next couple of years are going to be really the culmination of a lot of a lot of different really positive developments so we're really excited you know for st paul it's kind of twofold i think the critical linkage obviously the development of the green line in particular is an economic development and a place making opportunity the mayor said early on he said if if if all we do is build one billion dollar railroad line through the city and nothing else comes of that we will have failed and i think he's right about that so obviously the opportunity for economic development in the city the opportunity to bring some of our toughest neighborhoods to kind of create communities of opportunity in those places are all great opportunities and something that we see as really critical in terms of that and the other piece though is that it links us to the rest of the region and so the option of being able to get out to eden prairie the option for professors at the u of m to come into downtown st paul perhaps and live the connection between the state capital minneapolis eden prairie and so forth is really is really it's a linkage opportunity for us and we've got folks in our neighborhoods who are thirsty to to get out cheaper is more is much saver to travel the days like today which the weather is very but you don't have to what about kids driving all the way to downtown symbol of minneapolis the able to a good test for the train and they are able to connect to each other in an easier way and clean from your perspective as a developer what sorts of things are you thinking about looking at issue and looking at development opportunities associated well i think the thing that's most helpful about transit is what it allows us to become it's not really about moving people although that's technically what it does but it creates this opportunity for us to have a competitive metropolitan region and it creates it creates jobs it creates a tax base and in addition at the same time it creates a healthier planet and healthier people and we can create a a walkable healthy region which is what the demographic groups that you've been talking about are striving for it's i think one of the most important things that we can do to create a strong region and the beauty of it is that it has so many spinoff benefits great i wanted an ask if you follow question you know paul on talk with us a little bit about some of the transit oriented development projects that you've seen one of the opportunities what what would we lose if we weren't connected to transcend and how do we make them work the how do we make them super successful well the years of wide range of private nonprofit has other public projects going on you know along along the line  you know certainly there i think of things like the transit allows us to take advantage of perhaps like transit oriented mortgages where we're able to underwrite mortgages because we don't have to include the cost of the cards exactly what you're talking about in in the consideration of of the mortgage the transit also allows us to to reduce parking requirements in some of those developments thereby reducing the cost of the total project so so there is savings if we don't make that transit investment we continue to have to try to build these projects and they are in fact are more costly so i think the kind of the opportunity c reuse of an older industrial building exciting possibilities there for mixed income mixed use development a real place making opportunity that will also i think tie to the culture of the neighborhood strong african american history there is strong southeast asian history in those communities and again it's kind of a bit worse we're seeing a real vibrancy in terms of culture that i think is a little bit akin to what you see in some of the other great cities of the country you go to to chinatown and san francisco and you just see the explosion of culture that's a that's an economic asset in that community and i think those are the kinds of things that i that i see me being made possible through that transit invest in fact how about this one for you and we know that the engineering phase now on the southwest allergy line is probably going to be about two years how do you keep your community engaged in something that's two years away or maybe develop housing but one of the major concern our community that we would like to be connected with mr bolton council and subways to project team is to make sure that there will be a some kind of affordable  the foundation of of engaging the community and telling the importance of having a forest within the decision making table for example we are one of the  historically if you tell them like something in the future like two years or three years it's like ten years from now but you have to give them a different way you have to tell them what about two thousand and ten or two tho it was a long time ago no that was like yesterday then you explain to them then two thousand seventeen or eighteen it will be like tomorrow so we are creating a small group of who are including you included community leaders business leaders within our community to be the focal leaders of this project to make sure that engaged and be part of the p treated in africa so this child and his family came through that way he had a very rare disease in the brain very rare disease like every million people maybe clean you've been working on a really exciting project i know in the prospect park neighborhood and working closely with the neighborhood there i'm talked with us a little bit about that and contrast that experience versus your experience with your lindale gardens project prize we can probably talk all day on both of those are my favorite two topics i think the thing that's most interesting to me about the prospect park project is what i see as a possibility for transit in our region and that is this really super connectedness you talked about it with kids young people wanting wanting internet connectivity over having a car i think it speaks to the bigger need for connection in the way that we look for sites is about how we can connect and it's not just that there's a train but that there's beautiful green space in and cultural amenities parks and and that there's a connection to jobs and connection to people and prospect park is a perfect example of a place where all the stuff kind of comes together and we're able to put together a plan for a neighborhood or another important piece of our selection criteria really is a neighborhood that has a vision and prospect park does and richfield those for the lindo garden center and so when we look at opportunities for development we're looking for places that have a vision and the political will to make something happen places that want and offer the possibility for those kinds of connections that make a great place because that's what we're trying to do is create a great place it's not about a building just like transit is really about the trains it's about a livable metropolitan region so i'm going to put you on the final i think certainly all the work that's gone on along gateway is is really critical in that that is probably our for this where we are for this along looking at the different options there i think is still in discussion i mean when you think about you know the opportunity to connect all the the vibrancy out in these metro woodbury and the hudson even you know those are those are significant portions of the metro areas of the opportunity to kind of connect that into the core and eventually over to minneapolis is pretty pretty significant so i think we've got good work to do there and certainly linking metro state and some of the businesses what's going on up on the three three m sites that eventually is going to be a pretty significant business development there as well so again those linkages are important i think the second one we're actually we've made some really good progress think in part to the leadership of council member paul again i think that's an important one whether that's on east or west seventh or whether it's on shepherd road some combination there i think that's the second big one and then there's also you can tell i've been taking it with politicians you've also got t he linkage down to hastings which i think is important and perhaps some some northeast extensions as well but really if you and i think eight we are the two big ones great so there is a variation from what we can  have for our region we had a nice video talking about a variety of issues housing access to parsing the manatees concerns about quality and water what are some the other things you hear when you're out working with neighborhoods in communities i think one of the things that i hear most often is that people are anxious for us to break down the silos between these different ideas and to be able to have a more holistic approach to how we think about things and the met council has a particular job in our region and it doesn't go everywhere but it out but we need to get outside all of us need to get outside of our boxes and people are wanting us to weave together the different pieces of really livable communities and not have a narrow view of it's about a train or it's about a park it's about all that stuff and how we connected and i think we've got a great opportunity to to really recast the competitiveness of our region and find tell us about the dreams of the families that your servant new american so it was i was only two months in the united states it will take me to have a car a year so with all having that kind of public transportation it would be very difficult the new new immigrants who are who bring energy and effort to to these are the leaders and our partners as we build out this transfer to a system and i wanted you to hear their story so you can see i'm just like the story about the little boy and the whale this that throw up  that really it's about the people the transit system is is really about the future and their hopes and dreams for people to go to work to support their families and to be able to be connected with their friends their families and their neighbors in this wonderful to thank you all so much for coming today i really appreciate it please stop and get some more treats take those wonderful green line brochures if you don't know where to stop on the green line we got a brochure there's a lot of great businesses that you should visit why you here thank you for coming in have a wonderful day