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Letter to the Editor

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Letter to the Editor

Metro bus riders are about to lose the park & ride stop at Northside TownCenter.

The Bruns family, owners of the shopping center, had proposed luxury apartments in the parking lot behind Old National Bank and the city determined it wasn’t TIF eligible since it did not address blight (a condition of that funding). How did the Bruns respond? It appears by telling Madison Metro that it could no longer have a stop in the parking lot. Northsiders and others park their cars there and take the bus downtown and  to campus, thus reducing traffic congestion and pollution.

In losing the park & ride, bus riders will no longer have a place to park and will need to catch the bus — if at all — on N. Sherman Ave. heading south, which is being re-routed off of Northport Dr. and Packers Ave. This is a dramatic change and Metro will lose ridership. Just as important, Northside businesses will lose out too. Bus riders often go to Walgreens, Willy St. Co-op, Family Dollar and the library when they get off the bus at the park & ride. They will no longer be able to do this since they can’t park there. Seems like the Bruns are hurting their tenants and the Northside community as punishment for the city not giving them development money.

Additionally, the existing northbound bus stop outside the shopping center entrance still does not have a bus shelter, where two people were electrocuted and died during a  heavy rainfall seven years ago. This stop is used by TownCenter patrons bringing bags of food and goods home in all type of bad weather. Why can’t the Bruns have a shelter for their own customers?

Please contact the Bruns and let them know that hurting the community is no way to do business!

Jim Powell, Northside resident