CHOKE ON THE SMUG.

In rarified Minnesota metrofexual circles, one has to say an Act of Contrition and three Hail Hiawathas before calling attention to the obvious.

I wish I weren’t writing this. But even more than that, I wish that folks could ride the Blue or Green Line light rail trains with confidence. Without fear of being pushed down the stairs at the Lake Street Midtown Station. Without being exposed to secondhand smoke — often from substances so novel that the study of exposure risk probably doesn’t exist. I am here to tell you: Things on transit, particularly the Metro Transit system of rapid buses and light rail, are not great right now.

It's ben almost six years since I checked out the Cities' new commuter rail service and both light rail lines, which connect with the commuter trains, serve several sports arenas and stadia, and the Mall of America.

In the intervening years, though, Minnesota's feral classes have taken control of the Cities, much of the Lake Avenue business district has become Detroit with more ice, and according to Max Singer it's a thought crime to call attention to crime on the trolleys.

I’ll give you all the reasons to tune me out: I’m a young white man. I am not regularly harassed by police (nor by the antisocial or ill-intentioned folks who’ve established themselves on light rail). I come from a comfortable, mostly stable family and so I would have things to fall back on if I gave up on transit or got stabbed on the train. You can question or impugn my background. You can argue that my identity lacks credibility to opine about crime. But I am confident writing this story because I have credibility where it counts.

He's a straphanger. Have our Credentialed Elite become so besotted with Privilege Shaming that lived experience is only valid when it's the proper kind of lived experience from the proper sort of person? Egad.

After a ramble through policy thickets, he finally acknowledges that reality will reclaim transit for civilization, or claim your money and your electronics.

Minnesota state government is under unified Democratic control. Progressives have a lot of leeway to enact policy. Many of them take it as a matter of faith that progressive crime prevention policies are always right, regardless of the results. I won’t mock that faith. But riding transit and talking to other transit riders about their experiences, I know that most people want to see results. Folks riding transit are unwilling to be policy guinea pigs.

Results matter. Seeing progress — or, at minimum, change — matters. If folks want to maintain their elected power or informal influence, the people they serve need to see that they’re not sacrificing efficacy for the sake of ideology. Transit riders cannot wait on upstream social programs to end crime and other antisocial behaviors. Places with more robust social safety nets still have mechanisms for enforcing laws. Enforcement may be a dirty word, but at least it’s not a euphemism. We can add layers and layers of euphemisms upon reality, but it won’t solve the problems that everyday transit riders face.

Touchingly, he concludes his essay with a plea to his brain-brothers.

I’m prepared for this article to elicit controversy. It sits at intersections of race and policing, two open wounds in our cities, state and country. I don’t raise these opinions in certain rooms, because I am deeply enmeshed in the progressive ecosystem of belief, and have adapted to those spaces for much of my life.

But what I hear discussed in those spaces is increasingly disconnected with what’s happening when I ride the train. Ideology is for people who sit in comfortable rooms. I sit on the plastic light rail seats, watching as the burn marks multiply from errant lighters and heated foil. I’m interested in efficacy.

Please, please don't cancel me!  Urban transit weblogs are notorious for their purity tests and the sissy aesthetics of the participants, aren't they?

It's refreshing for Mitch "Shot in the Dark" Berg: "Hope springs eternal, I suppose. But that would involve admitting there’s a problem – and what the causes of those problems actually are."