East Metro Strong advances a vision of Transit and Economic Growth

ARTICLE BY WILL SCHROEER via CENTRAL CORRIDOR FUNDERS COLLABORATIVE

East Metro Strong is a partnership of counties, cities, employers, the regional chamber of commerce, and philanthropy, working to advance transit investments in the East Metro and economic development on those investments.

Sound familiar? The similarities that East Metro Strong shares with the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative (CCFC) are not accidental. Like the Funders Collaborative, East Metro Strong brings together diverse stakeholders to:

• develop a vision for growth around transit
• help stakeholders advance that vision by supporting current transit-oriented processes and doing the necessary work that falls outside those processes.

The successes of CCFC both give us hope that we can advance transit and economic development in the whole East Metro and teach us how to do that.  We are honored that CCFC has given us a vote of confidence with a grant starting in February 2015.

East Metro Strong will use this grant to:

• provide technical assistance to jurisdictions along East Metro transitways. This assistance will include, for example, helping communities think about how to use transit investments to advance their city’s goals
• improve Green Line information and wayfinding. One of the best arguments for more East Metro transit is a successful Green Line. East Metro Strong has been working with stakeholders including Metro Transit and the Central Corridor Anchor Partnership (CCAP) to help more people use the Green Line. East Metro Strong designed a transit information kiosk for the student center at CCAP member Augsburg College. With our grant from CCFC, we will make more such kiosks available to CCAP members and Green Line neighborhoods.

To find out more about the kiosks, click here.

These projects will both help East Metro communities and advance CCFC’s vision of Transit-Oriented Places and Coordination and Collaboration.