Readers Write: Immigration, W. 7th Street transit, light rail

Opinion editor’s note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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The March 10 article “Refugee backlash emerges in Wis.” fits American history: we’ve always been a nation of immigrants that is deeply suspicious of the next wave of immigrants (see also “Resettlement of refugees paused,” March 13).

Benjamin Franklin worried about immigrants who weren’t “purely white,” including Swedes, who he somehow perceived as “swarthy.”

Swedes were eventually accepted, as the nation moved on to resenting Irish and Italian immigrants, who were perceived as too Catholic in addition to being too swarthy. Those groups gained acceptance as the nation moved on to writing a law excluding Chinese immigrants — who were mostly not Catholic, but perceived as dangerous nonetheless.

Since we repealed that law our fears have gotten less specific — we’ve moved on to denouncing immigrants from entire continents (South America, Africa) and subcontinents (Central America, the Middle East).

“Swarthy” doesn’t come up much any more. Instead, anti-immigrant sentiment is often couched in economic terms, like the Wisconsin man in the March 9 article who said, “I don’t want to live in a third-world hellhole.”

We have about 250 years of history that shows that’s not what happens. Instead, people come to America from some of the most dire poverty and persecution imaginable and, as Ronald Reagan said, make our nation stronger. We have the strongest economy and military in human history, due in large part to immigrants, who make up a disproportionate share of our entrepreneurs and service members. Without them we would be just another aging and stagnant country, limited by our own ahistoric fears.

Andrew Marso, Lakeville

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I am appalled at Evan Ramstad’s column “Migrant influx may benefit Minnesota” in the March 10 Star Tribune on needing immigrants in Minnesota to boost our economy. I have emailed every Minnesota senator and state representative in strong opposition to the bill considering making ours a sanctuary state. Statistics prove that immigrants (illegal or not) tend to congregate, creating enclaves of people who are the same as them in culture, laws, language, religion and diets, and do not assimilate well into being true Americans. Escaping tyranny for freedom does not mean a “free for all” in welfare benefits and freedom to commit crimes as they please.

Perhaps a more useful tack on improving our Minnesota economy is to lower taxes for businesses and residents to stem the flow of those leaving the state in droves. The bleeding-heart aspect of our current state and federal government and lack of oversight (such as the Feeding Our Future scams) resulting in lots of money being bilked should be a good lesson to all of us and our government officials.

I believe in well-managed immigration, in which people are allowed to come in legally through significant background checks and education on enculturation, thus becoming good, law-abiding citizens and blending into our way of life.

Jody McIlrath, Frontenac, Minn.

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The article about opposition to allowing refugees to settle in western Wisconsin is really troubling. The argument made by the former chair of the St. Croix County Republican Party claiming the resettlement is taxation without representation is ridiculous. It is also evidence of racism and xenophobia among those opposed! City councils and county supervisors are taking action. If that isn’t representation, then what is?

Will the opponents of refugee resettlement in Wisconsin, Minnesota or anywhere else please look into how they or their families originally arrived where they now live? They were probably not indigenous to the land so some group(s) of people must have allowed them to settle there. Fortunately for them, there was not a MAGA culture stopping them from settling there regardless of their skin color, nationality or religious beliefs!

This is especially near and dear to me as my grandfather’s family emigrated to western Wisconsin in the latter half of the 19th century. Fortunately, the people already living there were not so biased and fearful as the opposition today. In spite of their religion, residents allowed them to settle and become contributing members of the community. My great-great grandparents are buried in Eau Claire!

Jay Jaffee, Minneapolis

As a resident of St. Paul, I wish the Riverview planning committees good luck in their continuing quest to resolve improved transit in the corridor (“Ramsey County debates streetcar vs. bus for W. 7th Street,” March 10, and “Rethink desire for St. Paul streetcar,” editorial, March 14).

To that end, I suggest consideration of an option that may seem disruptive at this time but that offers big advantages in the long term. That is to reconsider routing of new transit so as to include the major Highland Bridge development on the west side of the corridor.

There are good reasons why then-Mayor Chris Coleman spoke in favor of including Highland Bridge back in 2017. It will bring 3,800 housing units and 265,000 square feet of office space. That constitutes a big transportation need!

The Riverview Corridor bus (or other conveyance) could stop at Highland Bridge on its way between the Blue Line at 46th Street and Union Depot. Linkage with the current bus-rapid transit A Line will offer additional networked options to riders.

In 2017, when the Highland routing was under active consideration, planners noted that “no one lives on the site yet,” so it would score poorly in the Federal Transit Administration rankings. In the intervening years, that deficiency is being rectified.

Let’s utilize the current rethink of the Riverview Corridor to do it right.

Joel Clemmer, St. Paul

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I read the article about the possible streetcar line for W. 7th Street and how it compared to the arterial BRT that has been proposed. The streetcar line would cost $2.1 billion, and the bus line would cost $121 million.

The article stated that the bus line would be more than $1 billion less than the streetcar line. Do the math!

According to those figures, it would be $1,979,000,000 cheaper. That’s almost $2 billion. A huge difference.

The bus line makes a lot more sense at a lot less “cents”!

Jerry Burke, Buffalo

Having been on subways and trains in places like Chicago, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Taiwan, Vienna, London and many others, including NYC, I never could understand why the light rail in the Twin Cities doesn’t have turnstiles, jump-resistant gates, transit workers at the busier stations and a dedicated transportation security force. Basically, the light rail here is a system of payment and conduct that relies solely on the integrity and honesty of those using the service. Imagine if no speed limits were used on streets and highways, and we used an honor code hoping people would do the right thing. Or what about if grocery stores simply set out an open box for customers to drop their money into once they were done shopping? Hmm. Maybe not a good idea.

Of course, even with provisions in place to keep the operation safe and smooth, there will be those people who make poor decisions. NBC News reported last weekend that “crime in the New York City subway system has been an ongoing issue. To combat it, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday [March 6] she was ordering a force of nearly 1,000 people, including 750 National Guard members, state police and transit officers, to conduct bag checks at some of the busiest stations in an effort to rid the subways ‘of people who commit crimes’ and to protect New Yorkers.”

When I travel, I never have had any hesitations taking the local mass transit option, yet I wonder how many residents in the cities would strongly advise friends and relatives from out of town to hop on our own light rail? I’m going to guess the majority would tell their guests to find another way to get around town, and that’s a sad, even embarrassing, comment to all of us who live here. A whole bunch of cash was spent on our LRT; now we need to finance provisions to make it rider-friendly. Otherwise, the whole system will grind to a halt.

David Russell Larson, Farmington