Met Council Chairman Embraces Sprawl

Peter Bell, Chairman of Minnesota’s Metropolitan Council, angered many residents this week with his puzzling comments on Urban Sprawl and Traffic Congestion. His statement “CHANGE CAN BE DISCONCERTING AND GROWTH DOES CAUSE PROBLEMS, [BUT A LOT OF PLACES] WOULD GIVE THEIR EYE TEETH FOR TRAFFIC CONGESTION” seems irresponsible and makes me wonder what he is doing is such a powerful position.

I drive about 30 miles each way to work, and congestion is getting unbearable and worse every day. Not only are commuters spending less time with their families because of this, but also fuel consumption goes way up which hurts the environment and the economy. If the communist leaning Met Councils of the past would have planned properly and put in the correct amount of lanes on our freeways, the problem wouldn’t be nearly as bad, but it was their way of penalizing motorists for not using mass transit.

Peter Bell needs to understand the reason for sprawl and the resulting congestion problem. The main reason is simple, Minnesota’s welfare system and other taxpayer funded handouts. Minnesota has been widely known as “THE WELFARE STATE” for years. The City of Chicago for example used to encourage their welfare recipients to move to “Moneyapolis” and would even pay for moving expenses. Besides the problem with welfare migration from other states, we have a serious problem with third world immigrants and refugees choosing to settle in Minnesota to receive the most benefits. We have a larger population of Somali’s, Hmong, Liberians, and many other groups than any other state, not because of our warm climate, but because of our handouts. No wonder we are the third most overtaxed state in the country.

Welfare migration is the main reason why Minneapolis has been given the nickname “Murderapolis” and why crime in the metro area continues to get worse. Most of the violent crime in Minneapolis is cause by people not originally from here and I would love to hear from anybody who disputes that. With violent crime increasing and school districts getting worse, people are forced to flee the metro area to keep their families safe. This results in the sprawl and traffic congestion problem.

It’s sad to see farmland and beautiful countryside being destroyed to make room for encroaching development. Not only is this destroying our wildlife, but also we will need even more farmland if we want to increase Ethanol production and reduce our dependence on oil from Muslim fanatics. We are destroying some of the best farmland in the country every day because of sprawl.

Peter Bell’s statements were recently praised by the extremely liberal Star Tribune editorial board and by left wing nut DFL State Rep. Phyllis Kahn. This alone proves that something is wrong with his agenda. Mr. Bell needs to wake up or step down.