Our History

Like many good ideas, the idea for Transit for Livable Communities was hatched at a lunch.

It was January 1995. Another draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) had been completed for the Central Corridor light rail transit line, but it wasn’t clear if the train would be leaving the station anytime soon. Funding for transit was again in decline. As always, there were plans for more highway expansion.

In other parts of the country, St. Louis debuted a highly successful light rail system in 1993, and the Seattle region passed a $4.5 billion transit referendum in 1996.

Barb Thoman, a planner and a regular transit rider, wrote a letter to the Highland Villager asking why Minnesota wasn’t funding a viable transit system. John DeWitt, a financial systems analyst and community leader, read Barb’s letter in the paper and gave her a call. Barb and John met for lunch in early January 1995. They discussed how regions with successful transit systems also had successful transit advocacy groups and noted that the Twin Cities region needed a more organized citizen voice for a transit system.

A month later, Transit for Livable Communities held its first public meeting at the Hamline Library in St. Paul. As a result of these discussions, Transit for Livable Communities was incorporated in 1996 and certified as a 501c3 nonprofit organization in February 1997.

In the early years, Transit for Livable Communities’ phone rang in Barb’s dining room, the good computer was in John’s home office, and the two picked up the mail at a post office box on University Avenue in Saint Paul, MN. The organization’s annual budget in 1997 was $2,000; its first grant came from the Environmental Law and Policy Center in Chicago. The grant was used to purchase a slide projector and to print off Transit for Livable Communities’ first newsletter, The Gridlock Gazette, at Kinkos.

In 1998, Transit for Livable Communities received a three-year, $100,000 grant from the Ford Foundation. Transit for Livable Communities hired its first staff members—Barb Thoman and John DeWitt—as half time employees. In 1999, Transit for Livable Communities moved into an office – two cubicles at the newly created Neighborhood Energy Consortium office, part of the award winning Mississippi Market Co-op building, where Transit for Livable Communities still has its office.

In 2001, Transit for Livable Communities hired Lea Schuster as its first full-time Executive Director. The organization undertook an ambitious expansion of its staff, budget, and programs, including creating an action network to link local transit and land use advocates from around the region. Today, Transit for Livable Communities employs 11 permanent staff and has developed a network of nearly 10,000 people who can be counted on to speak up for transit, bicycling, walking, and smart development in their communities.

Transit for Livable Communities has grown over the past decade, but it remains true to the spirit in which it was founded: refocusing transportation priorities toward people by helping more people participate in transportation and development decisions with sound information and analysis.