10 Innovative Ideas That Propelled America Forward in 2016

The most contentious presidential election in modern history offered Americans abundant reasons to shut off the news. But if they looked past the front page’s daily jaw-droppers, our countrymen would see that there’s plenty of inspiring work being done. At NationSwell, we strive to find the nonprofit directors, the social entrepreneurs and the government officials testing new ways to solve America’s most intractable problems. In our reporting this year, we’ve found there’s no shortage of good being done. Here’s a look at our favorite solutions from 2016.

This Woman Has Collected 40,000 Feminine Products to Boost the Self-Esteem of Homeless Women
Already struggling to afford basic necessities, homeless women often forgo bras and menstrual hygiene products. Dana Marlowe, a mother of two in the Washington, D.C., area, restored these ladies’ dignity by distributing over 40,000 feminine products to the homeless before NationSwell met her in February. Since then, her organization Support the Girls has given out 212,000 more.
Why Sleeping in a Former Slave’s Home Will Make You Rethink Race Relations in America
Joseph McGill, a Civil War re-enactor and history consultant for Charleston’s Magnolia Plantation in South Carolina, believes we must not forget the history of slavery and its lasting impact to date. To remind us, he’s slept overnight in 80 dilapidated cabins — sometimes bringing along groups of people interested in the experience — that once held the enslaved.

This Is How You End the Foster Care to Prison Pipeline
Abandoned by an abusive dad and a mentally ill mom, Pamela Bolnick was placed into foster care at 6 years old. For a time, the system worked — that is, until she “aged out” of it. Bolnick sought help from First Place for Youth, an East Bay nonprofit that provides security deposits for emancipated children to transition into stable housing.

Would Your Opinions of Criminals Change if One Cooked and Served You Dinner?
Café Momentum, one of Dallas’s most popular restaurants, is staffed by formerly incarcerated young men without prior culinary experience. Owner Chad Houser says the kitchen jobs have almost entirely eliminated recidivism among his restaurant’s ranks.

This Proven Method Is How You Prevent Sexual Assault on College Campuses
Nearly three decades before Rolling Stone published its incendiary (and factually inaccurate) description of sexual assault at the University of Virginia, a gang rape occurred at the University of New Hampshire in 1987. Choosing the right ways to respond to the crisis, the public college has since become the undisputed leader in ending sex crimes on campus.

This Sustainable ‘Farm of the Future’ Is Changing How Food Is Grown
Once a commercial fisherman, Bren Smith now employs a more sustainable way to draw food from the ocean. Underwater, near Thimble Island, Conn., he’s grown a vertical farm, layered with kelp, mussels, scallops and oysters.

This Former Inmate Fights for Others’ Freedom from Life Sentences
Jason Hernandez was never supposed to leave prison. At age 21, a federal judge sentenced him to life for selling crack cocaine in McKinney, Texas — Hernandez’s first criminal offense. After President Obama granted him clemency in 2013, he’s advocated on behalf of those still behind bars for first-time, nonviolent drug offenses.

Eliminating Food Waste, One Sandwich (and App) at a Time
In 2012, Raj Karmani, a Pakistani immigrant studying computer science at the University of Illinois, built an app to redistribute leftover food to local nonprofits. So far, the nonprofit Zero Percent has delivered 1 million meals from restaurants, bakeries and supermarkets to Chicago’s needy. In recognition of his work, Karmani was awarded a $10,000 grant as part of NationSwell’s and Comcast NBCUniversal’s AllStars program.

Baltimore Explores a Bold Solution to Fight Heroin Addiction
Last year, someone in Baltimore died from an overdose every day: 393 in total, more than the number killed by guns. Dr. Leana Wen, the city’s tireless public health commissioner, issued a blanket prescription for naloxone, which can reverse overdoses, to every citizen — the first step in her ambitious plan to wean 20,000 residents off heroin.

How a Fake Ad Campaign Led to the Real-Life Launch of a Massive Infrastructure Project
Up until 1974, a streetcar made daily trips from El Paso, Texas, across the Mexican border to Ciudad Juárez. Recently, a public art project depicting fake ads for the trolley inspired locals to call for the line’s comeback, and the artist behind the poster campaign now sits on the city council.

Continue reading “10 Innovative Ideas That Propelled America Forward in 2016”

How a Fake Ad Campaign Led to the Real-Life Launch of a Massive Infrastructure Project

Donald Trump’s call for a “big, beautiful wall” along our southern border hasn’t resonated in the West Texas city of El Paso. Already connected to Mexico by the world’s largest border metroplex, local officials want to further link El Paso to its sister city, Ciudad Juarez. Last January, they started laying tracks for a streetcar line that officials hope eventually will shuttle passengers between the two countries, as it had once done for most of the 20th century.
Notably, and rather unusually, the El Paso streetcar initiative gained steam as a public and performance art project. In 2011, black-and-white portraits of a smiling train conductor started popping up around town, sometimes accompanied by the phrase Sube al futuro: Go to the future. A few months later, a wheat-pasted mosaic on an abandoned brick building featured hundreds of locals’ faces; together, the composite formed an ad for a retro streetcar, which resembled the Art Deco-ish trolley that ran 63 miles between El Paso and Juarez until 1974. At that point, conceptual artist Peter Svarzbein, an El Paso native, introduced himself as the creative mind behind the El Paso Transnational Trolley Project.
In the five years since, an even odder confluence of art and life took place. The fictional ad campaign gave a fresh face to the public transit movement, which helped turn it into a multimillion-dollar construction reality (the first 4.8-mile section is set to open in 2018). Meanwhile, Svarzbein ran for office and now sits on the nine-member city council, which provides direction to the agency responsible for the El Paso’s transit projects.
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“Border crossing is what defines us,” Svarzbein says of his city. “It’s in the best interest, for both El Paso and Juarez, to allow these people to cross over. They’re not doing it to take our jobs and our Medicaid, or whatever rhetoric is espoused. We understand our people crossing over symbolize the dreams of what this country has always been about.”
The son of an Argentine-born surgeon and a French-born nurse who moved to El Paso together in 1978, Svarzbein grew up accustomed to a border town’s cross-cultural influence. In high school, he and his friends regularly trekked next door to dine out at restaurants or take advantage of Mexico’s younger drinking age at nightclubs.
But shortly after Svarzbein moved away to attend Franklin & Marshall College, a liberal arts school in Pennsylvania, the tie between the sister cities was snipped. In 2006, the Mexican president Felipe Calderon launched an all-out assault against the country’s powerful drug cartels, an opening salvo that led to turf wars in Juarez and chaos along the border. To respond to the violence, Svarzbein began looking for a way to remind residents of both countries of the connections they shared, despite the brutality.
Researching symbols of unity, he came across pictures of El Paso’s old trolley line. For his master’s thesis at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, he decided to create a series of fake ads for the tram’s revival. Both conceptual and commercial, a historical documentary and a performance piece, the art project blurred genres — not unlike how living on the border can entwine residents’ identities.
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In 2012, Svarzbein’s fictional vision for a revitalized streetcar system started to become reality when he discovered the city planned on selling the old, rusting trolleys to San Francisco. “I said, ‘Oh, hell no,’” Svarzbein recalls. He began lobbying city officials to apportion part of a quality-of-life bond to reviving the streetcar, and he gathered over 1,800 signatures. The outpouring of support eventually won a $97 million grant from the Texas Department of Transportation.
When the first phase opens, the trolley will make 27 stops along a route from the University of Texas El Paso to the city’s downtown. It’s expected to pick up about 1,480 riders daily, topping 540,000 trips a year. The line will use six vintage Presidents’ Conference Committee cars, a tram design that became popular in 1936, around the time FDR was reelected for a third term; each is being refurbished with Wi-Fi and air-conditioning. “For some people, it taps into nostalgia. They remember when they were kids, riding the streetcar with their abuela, when it was easier to go into Mexico,” Svarzbein says.
The public-works project is a nod to the city’s history, but Svarzbein hopes that it will also create new opportunities on both sides of the border. “We have the ability in this region to not just design an idea, but to build it,” he says. “We need to make sure that people and businesses are able to cross the border in an efficient and safe way.”
That, after all, is the promise of an international streetcar, he adds, especially in a time where inflamed political rhetoric paints the US-Mexico border as an area in need of armed patrols, rather than more ports of entry. “What much of the country doesn’t understand — and what we understand all too well being in these twin cities — is that border security is economic security,” Svarzbein argues. “Providing jobs are how you make this area safe. Jobs are how the cartels don’t have as much power. Jobs are how you grow this region.”

An earlier version of this story suggested Svarsbein was the sole instigator of the project, when he was actually one of several people advocating for it, and that the cartel-related violence in Juarez had reached across the border. We regret the errors.

Homepage photo courtesy of Peter Svarzbein/mongovision.com.

The American City That’s Adopting a Pay-What-You-Can-Afford Model for Public Transit

For Andrea Smith, a Seattle resident who commutes to her job at a nonprofit theater daily by bus, the latest fare hikes for a monthly transit pass were making the trek unaffordable, particularly as business slowed after the Great Recession.
“I was paying cash, ride by ride, since I couldn’t afford a monthly pass,” she says. “I commute to work every day, often six days a week, and I was spending far more…, just because I couldn’t afford to pay all at once.”
A new pilot program launched three months ago by the King County Department of Transportation provided a fix that so many residents who rely on public transit (yet found they couldn’t afford it) desperately needed. The first of its kind in the nation, Seattle’s ORCA Lift offers fares directly tied to a person’s income. For anyone below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or $23,340, riders only need to pay $1.50 a trip — reduced from the standard $2.75 fare (though that number changes based on distance traveled and time of day). That means a person who rode the bus to and from work, five days a week at peak travel times could save up to $910 a year.
“The ORCA Lift reduced fare for low-income riders is an important step forward in making public transit affordable for everyone in King County,” says Katie Wilson, the General Secretary of the Transit Riders Union, an organization of working-class individuals who lobby for affordable and reliable public transit.
According to numbers provided by King County officials, nearly 9,000 riders have signed up, accounting for around 54,000 weekly boardings on the bus system.
While the program is a good first step, Wilson says, but there’s much more that could be done. Before the recession in 2008, standard adult fares remained stable around $1.25 — lower than even ORCA Lift’s new total, Wilson points out. “Standard adult fares have doubled since then, and on March 1, the same day as the ORCA Lift program was introduced, fares were also raised again for youth, senior and disabled riders,” she says. “The ORCA Lift program is not enough. We’re still a long way from a public transit system that is affordable for everyone.”
A New Yorker for 16 years, Smith says she loved “how you could get around so easily on public transit” in Manhattan. Even thought transportation in the Emerald City still lags, she’s telling all her friends to sign up. Though it’s tough seeing how many of her colleagues qualify for the reduced fare, at least she knows they’re all still able to get to work. “The ORCA Lift card has been a godsend for me.”

This City Fixed Its Public Transit System Without Spending a Dime

Houston just revamped its entire transit system, an upgrade that doubles the number of frequent bus lines but didn’t cost a cent.
Some 2.1. million residents live in the nation’s fourth largest city, and they’re spread over a wide geographic area. (Point of reference: Nearly eight times as many people live on one New York City block compared to Houston.) And since the Texas town is known as a place where cars are a prerequisite, this makes Houston METRO’s feat all the more astonishing.
How did the transit authority do it? By focusing on areas where ridership could be increased and people could be moved most efficiently. Duplicate routes and meandering zig-zags that were originally designed to pick up a few hard-to-reach passengers were dropped.
A small number of residents, designers admit, will have to walk further to reach service, but only 0.5 percent of bus riders will be more than one-quarter of a mile from a stop.
“The core idea of the new network is the high-frequency grid,” says planner Jarrett Walker. Downtown, for instance, this means riders will be able to catch any bus within 15 minutes and transfer somewhere else along the line. While that may require one additional stop than riders are used to, residents will be able to move around town much faster than ever before.

5 Recent, Big Transit Moves in America That Are Worth Talking About

Over the past year we’ve reported on stories about the global rise of startups like Uber and Lyft to the feasibility of driverless cars in the near future. While cities nationwide continue to innovate new ways of revitalizing transit and technology brings transportation into a new realm of possibility, CityLab’s Eric Jaffe takes a look back at some of the most recent highlights:
Self-driving car takes on the city
Last April, Google’s famed autonomous car progressed from driving on simple highways to the twists and turns of city streets. In late May, the company also unveiled a compact version of its self-driving car with a goal on the horizon of testing it in California. With such progress in one short year, Google is on track to bring those cars to a city near you.
U.S. embraces high-speed rail
Super fast trains made a splash this year after California’s state budget made room to break ground on its longstanding plan for high-speed rail between Los Angeles and San Francisco, receiving 25 percent of California’s cap-and-trade revenue each year moving forward. Some reports estimate between $3 and $5 million in funding annually. The state also announced a winning bid and set a groundbreaking date next month on Jan. 5, 2015. That’s a big commitment to moving forward. But elsewhere in the country, high-speed rail projects have gained traction including a Dallas to Houston line and the beginning of construction on the Miami to Orlando route.
Say Aloha to driverless transit
The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation is blazing the trail in the U.S. for the first wide-scale urban transit system that is automated. While driverless transit has popped up in cities throughout the world, Honolulu is the first American city to begin soliciting bids for nine stations, including designs for one at its airport. The concept, as experts point out, enables trains to run closer together and provides many safety advantages.
Bicycles go electric
Municipalities have made major advances on enhancing roads to include safe bike paths, and in Cambridge, Mass., a bike company has made strides on creating a new type of bike that could transform the industry. The Cambridge-based mobility company Superpedestrian developed and began taking pre-orders on its Copenhagen Wheel, which turns existing bikes into electric-power bicycles. As CityLab reports, experts estimate the product has the potential to put the U.S. as one of the world’s top e-bike markets within the next two decades.
New York’s “Vision Zero” safety plan
The Big Apple took a page out of Sweden’s playbook earlier this year when Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Vision Zero, a plan to bring the city’s traffic-related death and injury statistics down to zero.  The city has rolled out several regulations as a part of the plan, including reducing speed limits to 25 miles an hour. San Francisco is also pushing a similar strategy.
MORE: New York City Looks to Stockholm for a Traffic Blueprint

Colorado’s Roaring Fork Transportation Authority Brings Urban Efficiency to Small Towns

For most of us, Colorado is a staple of rural America with its mountains, crystal lakes and small communities. While getting around many towns can be managed with two feet, usually four wheels and a motor are needed for travel to most places in the state.
But with the introduction of the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA) bus line, Colorado is busting the myth that good public transportation is only found in urban areas.
Why is it so great? RFTA acts like a commuter rail station but for suburbia — running 41 miles along Route 82 and the Roaring Fork River, connecting the towns between Aspen and Carbondale. And while it may not boast the huge numbers of users that more populated areas are accustomed to, it’s by no means lacking. In 2013, RFTA gave 4.1 million rides to the 32,000 residents in the area, a four percent increase from 2012.
Even better, users don’t have to wait too long or walk too far as all stops are walking distance from any downtown. Plus, the buses run frequently. Bikers are welcome as well, as most buses have a bike rack on the front, and at some stops, your two wheels can even be taken onto the bus.
In many urban areas, those who can afford to avoid public transportation do, but the Colorado bus line appeals to locals and tourists alike, regardless of their budget.
Even though it can be a little confusing for outsiders, the benefits outweigh the bad. For visitors, RFTA can save them the $100 per day that it costs to rent a car. The tradeoff, however, is dealing with the abbreviated names of the stops and learning that the bus will not stop if there isn’t anyone waiting or if no one rings the bell to get off.
While it may not be as advanced as its urban counterparts, the RFTA is busing change to the Midwest — which means that it’s only a matter of time before other rural areas hop on the public transportation revolution.
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5 Inspiring Green Initiatives Moving America Towards a Bright Future

Stranded polar bears. Rising sea levels. Extreme weather. By now you know the devastating impacts of climate change, and it’s pretty easy to get disheartened by it.
Fortunately, there are some pretty smart cookies here in America who have come up with positive solutions that might change how you feel about our warming planet. Perhaps, you might even feel inspired to take action yourself.
Recyclebank has ranked the 10 most inspiring sustainable innovations happening from coast to coast. We’ve picked five of our favorite projects, but you should really head on over to EcoWatch for the whole list. (The polar bears will thank you!)
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1. Organic food in La Farge, Wis.
 We’ve already told you how the food industry is a big environmental nightmare in so many different ways. But at Organic Valley (aka the biggest organic farm co-op in the country) food and farmers are truly treated with respect. Its 45,000 square-foot barn (constructed from locally-sourced materials, naturally) sells sustainable food and hosts workshops and exhibits to help educate the entire community. As the company boasts on their website: “The central mission of our cooperative is to support rural communities by protecting the health of the family farm — working toward both economic and environmental sustainability.”
2. Xeriscaping in Denver
This form of water-wise landscaping might sound unfamiliar to you, but here’s why it’s important: Drought. For water-pinched states in the southwest, xeriscaping is not only a beautiful alternative to water-intensive lawns, it conserves much more water, too. As EcoWatch reports, Denver’s water board has put up free downloadable instructions so you can remodel your own yard.
3. Green building in Chicago
As we’ve mentioned before, it literally takes a lot of energy to go to work. The EPA found that commercial buildings in Chicago are responsible for 70 percent of the city’s carbon emissions. But in an effort to reduce its carbon footprint, Chicago has a Green Permit Program that promotes, expedites and reduces the cost of green architecture. In fact, the Windy City has the most LEED-certified projects in the U.S. at 295.
4. Alternative transportation in Portland, Ore.
Light rail, streetcar, bus, biking, smart cars. If there’s one place you want to be without a smog-emitting automobile, it’s probably Portland. Thanks to the Portland Bureau of Transportation and the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, it’s one of the most bike-friendly cities in the country.
5. Wind Energy in Corpus Christi, Texas
Back in 2002, Texas deregulated its electricity market, which meant that consumers could pick their own energy provider. That’s when Corpus Christi decided to pave the way for wind power. The city is now home to the county’s first on-port wind farm that ships wind turbines to all other states. By using the power of all-natural wind, Texas now saves more than 8.1 billion gallons of water and avoids 22 million metric tons of CO2 emissions each year.
DON’T MISS: Watch What a Climate Change Debate Should Really Look Like

Public Transportation Is Getting a Major Makeover

Noise, exhaustion and incredibly long wait times – all of these words are inconveniences most of us have associated with riding public buses. Seats aren’t guaranteed, and then there’s the ever present fear of the bus just not showing up. But one company is now working to make those fears a thing of the past. Say hello to Bridj, dubbed “the world’s first smart mass transportation system.”
Using the power of technology, Bridj is hoping to reinvent and rejuvenate the transportation industry. How do they plan to do this? By collecting and analyzing 14 million data points, Bridj maps out how the city moves. It finds out where most people live and work, and designs bus routes that align to create more effective and efficient travel.
While this seems a little techy for most of us, the process for users is much simpler. Patrons need only check the Bridj app to find the closest stop to their location and go there to catch the bus.
So far, Bridj has only been introduced in Boston and the Washington, D.C. metro area, but the results are positive. For one trial route in Boston, the commute is usually a 45 minutes subway ride, but, on Bridj, the commute has been cut in half and that is including traffic. The plan is to have 40 main routes in the city, with a few shorter or pop-up routes for big occasions such as concerts.
Although the cost of the ticket — $3 to $5 — is a little higher than traditional public transit, Bridj feels that the overall experience more than compensates. Amenities include free Wi-Fi, power outlets and a guaranteed seat with the purchase of a ticket.
Bridj is not taking over or disregarding the public transportation system, though. Instead it wants to work with them, setting up partnerships with public transportation authorities in cities across the country with the end-goal of decreasing the amount of cars on the road.
A little comfort and relaxation goes a long way on the morning commute, and Bridj is looking to provide that. With less traffic, less waiting and more luxury, Bridj hopes to change the image of public transportation—something that could benefit all of us and reduce a little of that commuter stress.
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Could Los Angeles Become The Next Pedestrian-Friendly City?

Survival in Los Angeles has long hinged on owning a car and enduring its punishing traffic, but a new report suggests the sprawling city has potential to become America’s next walkable urban area.
As we reported earlier this week, coalition of real estate developers and investors partnered with SmartGrowth America (a non-profit that focuses on developing and sustaining great urban neighborhoods) and the George Washington University School of Business to analyze the number of walkable neighborhoods in the country’s 30 largest urban areas and look at the potential for growth.
Though L.A. came in at 18th (just below Columbus, Ohio and Kansas City), researchers suggest its future could move it toward the top of the list.
How’s that possible, you might be asking?
Currently, the report finds that only about 16 percent of L.A.’s office and retail space is walkable, compared to three times that amount in Washington, D.C. But 35 percent of that pedestrian-friendly space exists in the city’s suburbs, which means L.A. and its surrounding communities are ripe for growth.
These walkable areas are in-demand for office and retail development, which is driving up rent costs, according to Chris Leinberger, a real-estate professor at George Washington who led the study.

“This is a pretty significant change in how we invest, how we build the country,” Leinberger said. “There will be demand for tens of millions of square feet of additional walkable urban development.”

Additionally, the city has invested more than $40 billion in developing public transit over the next decade — more than any other city across the nation — with eight new commuter, light and heavy rail lines already open. The city has also begun construction on five new rail lines while suburban cities like Pasadena and Santa Monica continue to develop plans for a more public transit-friendly community, Fast Company adds.
“That future—of a walkable, transit-friendly Los Angeles—is being built right now,” the report said. “It will allow people to drive everywhere they want, assuming they can put up with the traffic, and provide the option of walkable urbanism for those who want it.”
Despite the investment, L.A. still must clear the hurdles of circumventing zoning and regulatory policies in some of these communities, as well as find tenants who can afford the soaring costs of rent.
Challenges aside, as the report points out, achieving the futuristic transit system depicted in last year’s movie “Her” is not too far from reality.
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How Can Two Cities Develop the Area Between Them?

With all the reports of a lack of funding of infrastructure and transit projects nationwide, the Twin Cities have some good news to share.
Last Saturday, they celebrated the opening of a third light-rail line: the Green Line.
The nearly $1 billion transportation project is touted as more than just an engineering project to connect the vein that pulses from St. Paul to Minneapolis — it’s the city’s biggest foray into economic revitalization yet.
The Green Line initiative is the result of more than three decades of planning — returning the vacant lots and blighted 11-mile stretch between the two cities back into the bustling corridor it once was during the early part of last century. Known as the Central Corridor, the Green Line’s route will provide public transit from the state Capitol through the area of immigrant-owned, small businesses and to the University of Minnesota’s campus.
But the project is more than just a means of transportation. Both city mayors contend the goal is to develop the stretch between St. Paul and Minneapolis, attracting new residents and businesses, underscoring that improved infrastructure can lead to growing neighborhoods, the National Journal reports.
A variety of developers and contractors have already spent $2.5 billion in construction and redevelopment on 121 projects over the last five years within a half-mile of the Green Line, according to local planning agency the Metropolitan Council.
But community members are also pitching in with planning. The Central Corridor Funders Collaborative (CCFC), comprised of 12 local and national foundations, has spent $10 million on strategy, planning, and funding initiatives throughout the corridor. In fact, the CCFC, the St. Paul city government, and the Metropolitan Council have doled out more than $3.5 million in loans to more than 200 small businesses in the area.The CCFC is also working with developers to create affordable-housing and assist students with housing and internships along the route.
The CCFC projects the Central Corridor will require 70,000 new housing units and $7 billion in development in the next 30 years with the addition of the Green Line, CCFC director Jonathan Sage-Martinson says.
The key to revitalization is transit-oriented development, or creating self-sustainability through commercial and residential development that hinges on good public transit,  according to the MinnPost.

“The experience across the country is that creating successful transit-oriented development takes not just transit, but the real commitment to create successful places,” said Adam Harrington, director of Service Development at the Metropolitan Council. “With the Green Line, we are really living that out.”

Along with new development, the Green Line has given many communities a boost in marketing and debuting each as cultural destinations. Part of Saturday’s grand opening included different celebrations at each stop, put on by each community.

“Transit is fundamentally about connecting — connecting one neighborhood to another, one city to another, a working mom to quality child care, a college student to classes, baseball fans to the stadium, and employers to their employees, ” said Metropolitan Council Chair Susan Haigh. “Implementing a comprehensive transit vision makes us stronger, healthier and more connected metro region.”

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