Minneapolis man sues Met Council for discrimination, citing light-rail station accessibility issues

A Minneapolis man who said a brain injury and chronic arthritis have left him unable to drive is suing the Metropolitan Council for discrimination against people with disabilities.

Michael Fiorito, who lives near the Blue Line Lake Street/Midtown Station and has relied on taking the light-rail train to get to doctor’s appointments and job interviews, said access to the station is often blocked for people unable to climb its long flights of stairs.

Frequent breakdowns of the station’s two elevators and its turned-off escalators leave people who use wheelchairs, canes and walkers without access to the train, he said in the lawsuit filed earlier this year in U.S. District Court.

“I’ve got signed affidavits from people who’ve had a stroke, from people who need a wheelchair, from security guards who’ve seen the elevators down for weeks,” Fiorito said in an interview Monday. “I have pictures.”

Asked to comment on the lawsuit, officials with the Met Council, the regional planning body that operates the Blue Line, said earlier this week that they cannot discuss ongoing litigation. But in court filings in response to Fiorito’s accusations, they characterize his claims as “unsupported allegations and scant argument.”

There is no record of the several elevator outages he claims occurred last year and earlier this year, they said. He provides no documentation, they said.

While acknowledging continuing issues at the station following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, officials wrote: “Metro Transit saw an increase in drug use, crime, vandalism, and other forms of abuse — much of which has been at the hands of individuals who are not Metro Transit riders—which has resulted in damage to the facility and at times has affected riders’ experience.”

The Lake Street/Midtown light rail station is one of the Blue Line’s busiest stops — and one of its most troubled. Yet, the transit agency has said improvements are on the way.

In a 2024 story in the Minnesota Star Tribune, officials said they’d awarded a contract to a St. Paul firm for up to $3.5 million to craft a renovation plan for the nearly 20-year-old elevated station at the intersection of Lake Street and Hiawatha Avenue. Construction is expected to begin soon and dovetails with nearby roadwork and track improvements now in progress or just completed.

The station has two enclosed towers on either side of Lake Street, each with an elevator, escalator and stairway. Plans call for the escalators to be removed and a pedestrian ramp added on the south side of Lake Street, along with new and larger elevators that will be closer to Lake Street’s bus stops.

Planned improvements also include space containing a sink and power source for employees who clean the station, as well as staff-only restrooms for police and private security guards.

Fiorito’s lawsuit was recently moved from state court to federal court. While officials acknowledge that like all machinery, elevators and escalators at the station “malfunction from time to time and require maintenance” they said they are responsive to reports of breakdowns.

“In many cases, elevators can be returned to service within a few hours, unless the repair is especially complex or special parts are required.”

But Fiorito, who is representing himself in the case, disputed those claims. “They’re lying,” he said.

While the elevators are working now, over the past two years they’ve been inoperable for weeks at a time, he said. And, on Monday, his claims were bolstered.

As Fiorito was talking to a reporter inside the ground floor lobby of the station’s north tower, Ben Herbold walked up and shook his hand. Herbold, who works as a security guard for Allied Universal and has been assigned to the Lake Street Station for more than two years, said the elevators have indeed been out of order for months at a time.

While they’ve been working better for the past several months, Herbold said “before that, it’s been pretty bad.”

From January 2005 to March 2007, Fiorito stole almost $500,000 in equity from nearly 20 homeowners across the state while he was a mortgage broker at three different companies. He devised a scheme to go after homeowners who were behind on their payments or facing foreclosure.

On Monday, he acknowledged his past and his “debt to society.” He said his lawsuit now is intended to fight for people who don’t know how to take on the system and preserve their rights. His suit also seeks $150,000 in punitive damages.