Need a better parking lot design

Starbucks needs better parking lot designers. The drive-through on Marshall and Snelling was a foregone conclusion. Now, the Davern and West Seventh Starbucks is another car accident waiting to happen. It doesn’t matter which direction you are coming from, NE, SW, or N, there is only one way in and one way out. The same way out is the way in.

On the way out, a driver cannot take a right at the stop sign into the Sibley Plaza parking lot to enter West Seventh, the light northeast of the intersection. The person panhandling on the boulevard obscures the oncoming traffic traveling north on Davern, making a left turn dangerous. How does Starbucks come up with these parking lot designs?

Leah Shiely Swenson, Lilydale

What’s down there? People

In the Nov. 9 edition of the PiPress, Marilyn Bach raised a concern for the Summit Regional Trail that recently passed the Met Council with overwhelming support. Along with notable opponents Gary Todd, the de facto head of the “SOS” opposition group and former Saint Paul Bike Coalition co- chair Andy Singer, she noted that the connection to the Sam Morgan Trail via Eagle Parkway is “perilously steep.”

True that. But the fact that the Mississippi River is flanked by two steep bluffs is hardly news.

What may be news to some (as it was to me) is that this configuration of the Summit trail, that is, Summit to Kellogg to Eagle Parkway, was not the invention of St. Paul Parks and Rec, which authored the proposal. No, this was identified as a “search corridor” by the Met Council itself, back in 2005. That is, the Council drew this specific route on a map of St. Paul, and said “We can imagine a regional trail going here.” And in 18 years, according to Met Council member Peter Lindstrom, that search corridor went uncontested. The City of St. Paul obligingly submitted that proposal, after an arduous 18-month process.

I find the steep approach to the Sam Morgan Trail to be perplexing, too. I asked myself “what’s down there, that there should be a specially designated bike trail between the Xcel Energy Center and Shepard Road?”

Then it hit me. People. Hundreds of units of apartments and condominiums stretch between the lower entrance to the Science Museum and the High Bridge. All of those people have to scale the bluffs to get to downtown St. Paul, and points beyond, one way or another. Well, once this trail is built, they will have another way to do so, by bike, or better yet, a powered e-bike.

Summit Avenue is 40 years past due for a rebuild of its road bed, sewer, water and related utilities. Hopefully, now that it enjoys this designation, the Summit Regional Trail will come with a purse; with commensurate funding from the Metropolitan Council. Had it not pursued this opportunity, the City of St. Paul might be on the hook for funding the project on its own. That would have been irresponsible, wouldn’t it?

Ed Steinhauer, St. Paul

A ripple effect of pain

A Nov. 3 report detailed the sentencing of Norman Darnell Toney who, while high on cocaine, slammed his vehicle into one driven by Daniel Schnobrich, a young physician and loving father of three. Schnobrich died hours after the crash, leaving a void that will be felt for a lifetime by his family, colleagues, and patients.

As I read the story, I braced myself for the paragraph that invariably accompanies such tragedies, detailing the perpetrator’s previous offenses. I wasn’t disappointed. The killer was previously convicted of felonies ranging from burglary to assault, as well as multiple driving-related offenses.

As always, I’m left wondering why the killer wasn’t behind bars already, and why it always takes an innocent person’s demise to dole out a meaningful sentence. Except in this case, it’s hard to claim that a mere nine years is adequate for the crime. One can’t help but suspect that Toney will be quietly released in a handful of years, free to kill again.

If anything positive is to come from this tragedy, let it be that our citizenry finally wakes up to the misguided compassion in our judicial system and Legislature that frees up career criminals to take innocent lives. It’s the only way to ensure that future Norman Darnell Toneys don’t murder model citizens like Daniel Schnobrich, causing a ripple effect of pain that will be felt for generations.

Thomas L. Bonnett, Mendota Heights

Phones, sides, celebrities

I have just completed my Sunday morning (Nov. 12) read of the Pioneer Press and want to do a shout out for the following articles:

“It’s not the kids,” a column by Pamela Paul, is a well written and honest appraisal of cell phones in schools. I think they should be checked in at the office or left at home for the full school day. I had wished corporations had outlawed them in meetings while I was still working, as so many of my colleagues were unapologetically rude and unrepentant with their phones.

A call out to the GOP — … “which side is the GOP on?” by Trudy Rubin — is exactly what millions of us who are independent voters have been asking since 2015, and especially after the Jan. 6th attack on our Capitol and our democracy. The “silent majority” of those who continue to be loyal to a party that is a daily danger to our nation need to review their priorities. Do you really want to be held accountable for supporting suppression and violence against so many people here and abroad?

Closing out my three great pieces today was a report on “FTX” celebrities who do need to be held accountable for promoting and encouraging naïve folks to invest in something these “stars” had no loyalty to. When you are given a prominent place in a culture, you are expected to retain great responsibility for all your actions. Sadly, in America, we rarely hold people accountable if they are rich enough to buy their way through the system. It’s time to make people liable for their words.

Jerry Carroll, Roseville