Saving Route 7
by Michelle Lewis
Valorie Jones, Kris Peterson, Valerie Watson and JoAnne Walker were riding the number 7 to work one morning last summer when they first heard from their bus driver that Metro Transit planned to discontinue the route.
Our beloved Route 7
It was bad enough that weekend service had been discontinued earlier in the year, but this was too much: the four women arranged to meet and plan how they were going to save Route 7 service along Plymouth Avenue. By the end of the day, their group had added five more members: Ragland Cooper, Nancy Cooper, Rosie Lynn, Robbie Cooper, and Dorothy Robinson. a
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the petition
First, the group drafted a petition that also acted as a survey, collecting concrete data from riders about their usage of the 7, in order to back up their argument about the route’s importance to the neighborhood. Then came the hard work: the group canvassed door-to-door, collecting signatures from Penn Avenue to Xerxes, from the 900 block to the 1600 block, as well as the Rainbow Terrace senior housing development, on the other side of Penn. That’s a lot of legwork.
Jones recruited “young men who hang out on the corner” to gather signatures for the petition. “A lot of people are afraid to talk to them,” Jones says, “but I don’t feel that way--and they were really into this.” If they were talking to one of their friends who doesn’t ride the bus much themselves, they might say “your mom rides that bus.” “They felt connected,” Jones said.
Cyndi Harper, a transit planner for Metro Transit, credits the group with playing an important role in retaining Route 7 service along Plymouth Avenue: “Valorie Jones and her group collected over 200 signatures and helped us identify travel needs by asking people to mark when and where they use Route 7. We often have groups wanting us to increase bus service but they aren't usually willing to do the legwork that Valorie's group did, which really helped us, and demonstrated they were serious.” Jones points out that by the end of the petition drive, they actually had more than 350 signatures. (The petition form can be downloaded here.)
nw restructuring plan
While weekend service along Plymouth Avenue had been discontinued as part of earlier metro-wide budget cuts, Harper explains that the current proposal was part of Northwest Metro Restructuring plan, “a broader review and restructuring of all the bus routes in north Minneapolis and the nothwest suburbs.”
As part of this plan, Metro Transit a
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“initially proposed a new route [the 26] that would serve both Plymouth Avenue and Golden Valley Road and would end in downtown Minneapolis.” The proposed route would have duplicated 19 service along Penn Avenue to the 7th street garage, cutting off access to the Warehouse district, the University of Minnesota West Bank, and the Hiawatha/Lake Street area. Additionally, the new route did not allow for convenient transfer to the 16, 50, and other lines that connect with the 7 at the 5th street garage. The Northwest Transit Restructuring plan is available online at the Metro Transit website, but many riders, like Jones, first heard about the proposal through word of mouth.
the public meeting
Jones’ next step was to set up a public meeting with Metro Transit officials at NRRC to present the petition and make a case for retaining Route 7, as well as reinstating weekend service along Plymouth Avenue.
Harper says “there was a full room” at the meeting, “which demonstrated lots of interest. The group was good to work with—all of the interactions were civil, calm, and reasonable. I think both sides really listened to what the other had to say and tried to come to a solution that would meet everyone's needs—our budget realities and the desire to retain Plymouth Avenue service.”
Jones also remembers the meeting, which she describes as “a real melting pot” as being very “organized and respectful. We had seniors, students, disabled people, employees, and consumers.”
fellowship
Jones tells how a man stood up and described having to walk to his night job at the Star Tribune, since weekend service had been discontinued. A group a (cont'd, p.7)
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