Finding a Green Way to Govern

Today, the Council voted to abolish the Minneapolis Public Library System and merge it with the Hennepin County system. I was the one Council Member to vote against this. Given the unanimous votes of the Library Board and Hennepin County Board, I am the only person in local government to vote against this, and I thought I should explain my vote. I don't talk about this very often, but there is a list of principles that I look towards when I'm faced with a difficult decision. This list is the ten key values of the Green Party . When I examined this proposed merger against these core political principles that guide me, two of them seemed especially germane: grassroots democracy and decentralization. Decentralization demands that power and decisionmaking (political, social and economic) are in more hands, not fewer. Centralization always, always promises efficiency, whether the efficiency of a totalitarian state or a multinational corporation. This efficiency is often a mirage, b...

Minneapolis City Clerk Merry Keefe, one of the most helpful, warmest, ablest City staff members we've had the pleasure to work with over the last two years, is retiring. She helped us acclimate to the rules, procedures and culture here in City Hall , and under her leadership the Clerk's office has become one of the very best departments in the City. Among Merry's many accomplishments: this blog . When our office floated the unprecedented idea of a Council Member blog early in 2006, we met with significant resistance from various parts of the City, especially the Attorney's Office and some of Cam's colleagues who are uncomfortable with too much free speech. Emblematic of her can-do attitude, Merry immediately understood why we would want to blog - to conduct an in-depth discussion with our constituents about the policy issues facing the City - and supported us strongly every step of the way. She never questioned whether we could or should use this communication mediu...

Today, the Council took a very important and positive step for the future of Minneapolis neighborhoods and the Neighborhood Revitalization Program , which has been one of my top priorities this year at the Committee of the Whole Meeting . The NRP Work Group (made up of Mayor Rybak, Council Members Ostrow, Hodges, Lilligren and Johnson, and NRP director Bob Miller) came to Committee of the Whole with a " Framework for the Future of NRP " report that shows broad and growing support for three key stances I have been strongly advocating: 1. Neighborhood groups should receive adequate, reliable financial support to maintain their basic infrastructure (like staff) 2. The City should provide better support and coordination for organizations working to engage their communities, including neighborhood groups 3. Neighborhood groups should receive discretionary funding that they can target towards their priorities and concerns This growing (and, to be honest, pleasantly surprising) cons...

I am delighted that the Hard Times is set to reopen this weekend. I wish them great success and look forward to eating there again and holding my open office hours in the ward there the first Tuesday of each month (from 9:30 - 11 AM). I can hardly wait to see all the new improvements and taste the familiar dishes. I know that the extended closing and renovations have resulted in a significant loss of income so a big boost in business in the weeks ahead would be greatly appreciated I am sure.

We need your help! The City currently is advertising 7 vacancies on the Civilian Review Authority (CRA) board, and we have not received the response we would like. The CRA has great potential to be a vital part of how we improve police practices and hold police accountable for misconduct. It is very important that we have a diverse, committed and effective CRA board. Please consider applying and help us pass the word to anyone you think would be interested in this important and challenging volunteer opportunity! Find information on the vacancy here .

The Council has adopted the 2008 budget. Among the most interesting last-minute amendments were the following: - An unsuccessful attempt by CM Remington to take $300,000 from the police overtime budget to hire two more cops (which I was sympathetic towards but did not vote to support) - An unsuccesful attempt by CM Samuels to take $10,000 from the highly successful Energy Challenge Micro Grant program for non-germane bike lanes on the northside (which I strongly opposed) - A successful, convoluted motion to undo the Mayor's recommended $100,000 cut to the Minnesota Telecommunications Network (MTN) by funding Wireless Portals (to whom the Mayor had given MTN's $100K) from the self-insurance fund, which itself will be funded from the Minnesota Airports Commission settlement agreement (which I strongly supported - MTN should not take this sort of massive hit to its meager budget) - A successful motion to keep the City's community engagement positions in CPED rather than trans...

For some fun pictures of the very snowy groundbreaking of the new Seward Coop project, see here . In terms of the time my office has spent and the sheer amount of community interest and time, this project is far and away the major redevelopment of my term thus far. Robin and I met with the Riverside Market Task Force for months last year and this year, worked for still more months on various site plan issues (especially the now-infamous "T" alley), and enthusiastically supported the multiple strands of City funding that have gone into the project. It was good to come together and celebrate embarking on this project's next phase with other people who care about it, including Coop staff and board members, neighbors, City staff (including CPED Director Mike Christensen), Seward Redesign staff and board members and others. I look forward to the next ceremony on this site to celebrate its grand opening.

The Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (MPIRG) has contacted my office, along with the Mayor's office, asking the City to ban children's products containing Bisphenol-A and certain phthalates , as San Francisco has done, in order to build momentum for possible future statewide and nationwide bans. My office has also received constituent correspondence on this matter. San Francisco took a similar action in 2006, California recently banned some phthalates in children's toys, and the European Union has banned three phthalates in toys and child-care products since 2005. There is a range of options the City could pursue towards the long term goal of eliminating these toxins from the environment, including, but not limited to: passing a resolution against these toxins, calling for the legislature to ban them and retailers to voluntarily phase them out; banning these toxins in certain products; banning these toxins in certain products pending statewide action or at some p...

Prompted by some high-profile dog bite incidents and an impression that a certain sort of people are increasingly "weaponizing" dogs and using them as tools for intimidation, mostly on the Northside, City staff and Council Members Samuels, Hofstede and Johnson have proposed a new ordinance that would severely crack down on dog owners in Minneapolis. Among their proposed changes: 1) Rather than simply fining owners who are found to have unlicensed pets (both dogs and cats), Animal Care and Control (ACC) staff would be empowered to impound unlicensed pets. 2) Pets (both dogs and cats) could be declared "potentially dangerous" for doing any of the following: causing a person to take a "defensive action," offering a "physical threat" or having a "known propensity or tendency" to be dangerous. If a cat hisses at someone, it could be a potentially dangerous animal. If a campaign volunteer runs out of a fenced yard when a dog runs around the h...

As you can read here , Minneapolis has been selected to receive a $2 million grant to build a 600 kilowatt solar installation on top of our Currie Maintenance Facility. This is bigger than any existing solar project in the upper midwest. It's a unique and interesting deal, which I hope we can replicate elsewhere. Here's how it works: Xcel Energy's Renewable Development Fund, which they were required by the Prairie Island agreement to create, will provide $2 million towards this project. The City will lease space on top of our facility to a third-party solar developer. This developer, unlike either Xcel or the City, will have access to federal tax incentives for solar. The City will enter into a power purchase agreement with the solar developer, paying a little more than we do per kilowatt-hour off of the normal Xcel grid. This will generate a large portion of the demand of the Currie facility, the equivalent of about 80 single-family homes. It also affords us a unique...

Two important Central Corridor Light Rail West Bank Station Location meetings are coming up in December. The Metropolitan Council has indicated that they will make a final determination about the location of the station early in January. Both these meetings will present plans and gather community input to help influence that decision. West Bank Community Coalition Land Use Committee Wednesday, December 12, 6:30pm at Brian Coyle Community Center *** Public Meeting Convened by the Metropolitan Council and Minneapolis Council Member Cam Gordon Monday, December 17 7:00-8:00pm at Brian Coyle Community Center

Minneapolis declared a Snow Emergency yesterday, December 2. Today (Monday), from 8am-8pm, do not park on the EVEN side of non-Snow Emergency routes, or on EITHER side of parkways until the street is fully plowed. Tomorrow (Tuesday), 8am-8pm, do not park on the ODD side of non-Snow Emergency routes until the street is fully plowed. For more information on Snow Emergencies in Minneapolis, go here , or call the Snow Emergency hotline at 612-348-SNOW. Information is also available in Spanish (673-3819), Somali (673-2141), and Hmong (673-2933). You can look up your street to see parking rules here . For future snow events, you can sign up to receive an email or text message to your cell phone here . Lastly, folks in the University area can park for free at one of the four U-area SnOasis parking ramps during the first night of a Snow Emergency.

A newly-formed tenants union under the auspices of Children and Family Services has brought a problem to my attention, and I have been working with my colleague Ralph Remington to address it. Under the City's current ordinances and policies, certain unscrupulous landlords have been allowed to get away with not providing adequate heat for their tenants, especially in autumn. The current ordinance is a convoluted mess. It requires that landlords begin providing heat when the temperature stays below 60 degrees for 24 hours or more. At this point, a 72-hour clock starts, at the end of which landlords face a small fine of $200 and risk having their property condemned. However, if the temperature goes above 60 degrees during that 72-hour period, the clock restarts. Landlords who wish to save money by not providing heat have learned how to play this game with the City, leaving their tenants cold for much of October. Ralph and I have already succeeded in convincing staff to change the...

One of the concerns my office has heard from victims of auto theft is that when the auto is found and towed to the City's Impound Lot, the victim must pay the towing and storage fees. This understandably places an even greater burden on folks who have been victimized by criminals. I'm happy to announce that the Council on Crime and Justice is one of ten recipients of the Auto Theft Impound Fund, established by the Minnesota legislature in 2007. The purpose of the fund is to provide auto theft victims assistance with towing and storage fees incurred due to impoundment of a recovered stolen vehicle in Minnesota. In order for a victim to receive funding they must have simply filed a police report and have had insurance on the vehicle at the time it was stolen. To apply for funding, auto theft victims can call the CCJ hotline at 612-340-5400 between the hours of 8am and 4pm, Monday through Friday. For more information, you can call the above number or the Minneapolis City Attorn...

I encourage Minneapolis residents to consider supporting a school board election reform proposal (known as the “Davnie Bill”) that will be coming to the School Board next month and possibly, if they do not approve it, to the voters in 2008. I believe that this proposal offers us a way to improve representation, help hold elected officials accountable and make them more responsive, simplify our government structure, improve possible collaboration between jurisdictions and open up the system to political diversity. If enacted, it would change the School Board from the current 7 at large seats to 9 seats voted in by 3 at large seats and 6 district seats. Those six districts would mirror the Park Board districts (although district lines could be redrawn after 2010). The enabling legislation states that the School Board can implement this law or let it go to on the 2008 election ballot. The School Board is scheduled to vote on this issue during their December 11 meeting.

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) is proposing a "biomonitoring" pilot project in the South Minneapolis Arsenic Contamination Site. Biomonitoring basically means measuring the amount of a chemical in people's bodies to determine how much exposure to that chemical they have had. It's a good way to determine exposure to a chemical because it indicates the amount of the chemical that actaually gets into people, rather than the amount that could potentially get into them. By statute, the scope of the pilot project is to measure arsenic levels in 100 people. MDH is proposing to measure arsenic in children, as they are most likely to be affected by arsenic exposure. Children will be selected by MDH based on eligibility criteria and invited to participate in the pilot project. With their caregivers’ informed consent, these children will be asked to provide a sample (such as urine or hair) so that the level of arsenic in their bodies can be measured. The measurements w...

I am starting work on an amendment to the Administrative Review process for new housing under four units. The current process features a list of 24 design standards of quality housing, and requires builders to get at least 15 points. It has quite a bit of support on the Council and among Planning staff, because it significantly streamlines review of the most common, and usually least controversial structures in our communities: new single family homes and duplexes. However, some neighborhoods, especially those with substantial student populations, object to the type of single family home construction going on. In these neighborhoods, there are some well-documented examples of very large houses with inadequate numbers of windows, incomplete porches and other structures, clearly built as cheaply as possible to extract maximum profit from student renters. The Administrative Review process does not include any opportunity for formal comment by neighborhood groups. The downside to the effic...

On November 6, Morningstar Coffee appealed four different administrative citations issued by Minneapolis Environmental Management: two $400 fines issued in August and fines worth $800 and $1,600 in September and October. Environmental Management Supervisor Dan Huff and Inspector Anne Stahn did a great job of laying out facts and complaints underlying the citations. Jose Vido, owner of Morningstar, presented three main arguments against the fines: 1) he was not given enough time to come into compliance, 2) the odor is not that bad, and not very many people are bothered by it and 3) the neighborhood is interested in redeveloping the piece of land on which his business sits as part of the Bystrom Brothers site. I also spoke, to share the breadth and intensity of concern among residents of west Seward about the negative impacts Morningstar has created, and to rebut Mr. Vido's three defenses. Staff pointed out that the violation orders were written in January of 2007, giving the comp...

The work started with the resolution recognizing youth violence as a public health problem that I introduced last November is approaching completion. The resolution called for the creation of a 30-member Youth Violence Prevention Steering Committee to develop a comprehensive plan to address youth violence. The group, made up of City, County and community experts, has drafted an impressive a multi-year approach, coordinating education, outreach, funding and policy across the City and County. First, I want to let you know I am very proud of all the work we have done so far and very excited about seeing our plan moved forward for approval and implementation. But, I am writing primarily to let you know that we have decided to bring the Violence Prevention Plan into the Council Process a little sooner then expected. There will be a report to the Health Energy and Environment Committee on Monday. I apologize for this short notice, but during discussion with the chair of the committee, Scott...

The National Association of Town Watch gave Minneapolis its “ National Night Out 2007 Award ” for cities with a population greater than 300,000. This summer, more people than ever participated in NNO events. 62,000 Minneapolis residents gathered at more than 1,117 confirmed NNO celebrations citywide. I’m proud of the work done by the Second Ward Interns along with block leaders to help organize additional NNO parties throughout the Second Ward. I strongly believe that the relationships created and strengthened by events like NNO are among our best crime prevention tools.

One of the recommendations of the Civilian Review Authority Work Group I helped form and lead last year was that the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) conduct an external audit of the City's other organization charged with holding police officers accountable: the Internal Affairs Unit . Earlier this year, the MPD came to Council with a proposal to give a no-bid contract to the Everett Law Firm from Buffalo, MN. The reasoning at that time was that Everett had a good working relationship with the MPD from past collaborations and Everett understands the Minnesota Driven by objections that I raised, along with Council Members Glidden, Hodges, Schiff, and Remington, the Council rejected that proposal. We frown on no-bid contracts, and the closeness of the two organizations called into question the extent to which Everett could conduct a meaningful external audit of the IAU. The Council directed the MPD to put out a Request for Proposals and go through the formal process. Today, th...

Construction has begun on the replacement I-35W bridge. Workers will be demolishing concrete and drilling test shafts Monday through Saturday, 7am-4:30am. Pile driving will begin on November 5, but due to the noise of this work, it will only occur between 7am and 5:30pm.

Normally we don't put "constituent service" issues on this blog. It's tended to be more for policy-level ideas and events. But what I'm finding is that the majority of my day-to-day work (and a large chunk of Cam's work as well) is on these "little" issues that don't feel so little if they're on your block. In the spirit of showing more of this in-the-trenches side of the office, therefore, here's the story of the streetlights on 17th Ave SE. Back in early 2006, a house was moved into a lot on 17th Ave SE (it was constructed elsewhere, I've heard). This necessitated that the overhead line connecting the streetlight directly in front of that lot to its power service in the alley be cut. Unfortunately, the new house interfered with that line, making a simple replacement impossible. The streetlight - one of just two on that block - went dark. An active and concerned neighbor brought this to our office's attention. I contacted C...

Today, the Intergovernmental Relations committee took up the issue of the Employee Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which is working its way through Congress right now. A simple summary of this complicated issue is that certain forces within the national Democratic Party have moved to substitute the original ENDA bill (H.R. 2015) with another version (H.R. 3685) that is stripped of any protections against discrimination on the basis of gender identity . A coalition of GLBT organizations has come together to demand that protections for transgender people be put back in the bill, either by going back to H.R. 2015 or by an amendment to H.R. 3685 put forward by Wisconsin Democrat Tammy Baldwin . One of the arguments used by the opponents of extending employment discrimination protections to transgender people is that this is somehow a new issue. However, the City of Minneapolis disproves this notion: we've had protections against discrimination based on gender identity in our Civil ...

At least partly in response to the City Pages article on staffing in the Sex Crimes Unit, the Minneapolis Police Department today gave a presentation to the Public Safety & Regulatory Services committee on their staffing and case clearance rates. This article and conversation have strengthened my resolve to resist the pressure to commit a larger and larger portion of our police resources to patrol. Officers on the street are extremely important, but investigations are no less important. Right now, 75% of our officers are assigned to patrol. I am interested in having an open, public discussion about whether that's the right balance. Chief Dolan is fond of saying that "a crime prevented is worth 10 times as much as a crime solved," (and he's quoted to this effect in the City Pages article). I agree with him wholeheartedly, but where I start to disagree with both the Chief and some of my colleagues is when we try to put this idea into practice. I'm not convinced...

The Public Safety & Regulatory Services committee has signed on to a pledge to reduce domestic violence in Minneapolis. I was fully supportive of this action. Domestic violence is a huge issue and is inseparable from the work currently underway to prevent youth violence. In the committee discussion today, I asked for more clarity on our goals. What do we mean, when we call for a reduction in domestic violence? How will we measure our success, or lack thereof? I will continue to push for concrete goals, as well as the resources to meet them, on this absolutely critical issue.

Yesterday the City Council, in our Committee of the Whole, took two small but significant steps forward in our effort to make decisions about the present and future of the Neighborhood Revitalization Program and public support for neighborhood organizations. Thanks primarily to the excellent report on the history and present condition of NRP that came back as a result of the staff direction we passed in May, we took the next step towards discussing and defining our City Government's position on NRP. The first step we took was to help assure a level of funding for the remainder of Phase II. I would have liked us to at least explore funding at 100% of the projections we had in 2004, but was happy to second and support Council Member Ostrow's motion to direct staff to develop options for assuring funding at the 70% level. Here is the staff direction we passed on that matter: "Development Finance Staff is directed to work with CPED and other appropriate City staff to review ...

The City's Street Maintenance Division is about to start fall street sweeping. Posting of streets will begin on Monday, October 22, with sweeping beginning on Tuesday, October 23. The City's website will feature the “ Street Lookup ,” where you can see the sweeping schedule online to learn exactly when your street is scheduled for cleaning. It will be available by Monday, October 22 at the latest. The schedule dates shown on the web based mapping application can sometimes change due to weather or other unforeseen factors. Public Works does its best to keep these schedule changes to an absolute minimum. Residents are always responsible to be aware of any parking restrictions, and move their vehicles when needed. Vehicles parked on city streets in violation of temporary no parking signs will be towed to the Minneapolis Municipal Impound Lot. Call 311 to find out whether or not a vehicle has been towed. The Impound Lot is located at 51 Colfax Avenue North; this is west of Lyndale ...

The powers that be have decided to imrpvoe the situation on the 10th Avenue bridge. Thanks to folks who contacted me about this. I supported these changes in discussions with staff and also would have accepted getting it all back to how it was before before the bridge collapse (with the added fence remaining). Here are the specifics: " A second northbound lane is now carrying traffic on the 10th Avenue Bridge, helping ease traffic congestion. The bridge, which was closed right after the I-35W Bridge collapse, reopened on Aug. 31 with one northbound lane, one southbound lane and a pedestrian viewing area added to the upstream side of the bridge. Since there are now fewer people wanting to see the I-35W site, the pedestrian area was narrowed to allow the southbound bicycle lane to be moved to that side of the bridge. This created room to reopen the second northbound lane, which will significantly ease the traffic backups that have been occurring headed northbound. Southbound traffi...

As you may have heard (here, for instance), the September 28th Critical Mass was peaceful and almost completely without confrontations between riders and police. I consider this a significant accomplishment of the meeting Robert Lilligren and I organized on September 19. But most of the credit is due to the MPD, who handled last Friday's Mass with great constructiveness and professionalism, and individual Critical Mass riders, who helped 'self-police' their own behavior. I have heard quite a few great stories from last Friday's ride. On Hennepin, the group went out of its way to let a northbound bus proceed, amid cries of "let the bus through!" and "busses are great!" On East Franklin, a just-married couple had the fantastic idea of making their way into the middle of the Mass to have pictures taken - a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I've heard multiple stories about MPD officers helping defuse situations with frustrated drivers, and of at least...

I was surprised to read in today's Katherine Kersten article that I was one of the 19 people arrested in the August 31 Critical Mass ride. To quote the Strib's conservative, fact-challenged columnist: "In August, after some of the ride's rougher elements provoked a confrontation with police, and 19 people were arrested, Gordon, whose aide was one of those arrested , called foul." [Emphasis mine.] Needless to say, I was pretty shocked. I don't remember being arrested on August 31 - heck, I wasn't even on the ride that day. Maybe Kersten meant that Cam's intern was arrested August 31, as you can read here or here . It's just not that hard to get these little details right. All Kersten had to do was contact one of her fellow Strib employees, Randy Furst, who managed to get his facts straight by the time-honored process of talking to those he was talking about. But one of the more amusing aspects of Kersten's laughable sloppiness was that, hours...

This summer, my office put together a Welcome Packet for new student renters in Southeast Como. See a copy here . These were distributed door to door by the Second Ward Interns. I've heard since, at the Como Cookout, that some renter households awarded the Packet that most coveted of indoor real estate: the refrigerator door. It was such a resounding success that my office has since prepared a version for the "Motley" section of Prospect Park, which will be distributed soon. We got a great deal of help putting these together from our 4 summer interns (3 of whom are U of M student renters themselves), University of Minnesota neighborhood outreach staff Kendre Turonie, 2nd Precinct Crime Prevention Specialist Carol Oosterhuis and Student Legal Services attorney and Southeast Como resident Bill Dane. It's my hope that the packet will help student renters feel welcome and be able to fit safely and harmoniously into the wonderful neighborhoods they're joining.

This is big news and something we have been working for for a while. I wanted to share it with you all. One of the very important decisions we have to try to influence at this point is the level of arsenic in soil that the EPA will deem "background" for this site, which I have heard could be anywhere from 10-17 parts per million. *** CONTACT: Mick Hans, 312-353-5050, hans.mick@epa.gov FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 07-OPA161 EPA adds South Minneapolis arsenic site to Superfund National Priorities List CHICAGO (Sept. 19, 2007) - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today named the South Minneapolis Residential Soil Contamination site in Minneapolis, Minn., for addition to the Superfund National Priorities List. The site was proposed for addition to the NPL in September 2006, followed by a 60-day comment period. The South Minneapolis site encompasses a number of neighborhoods near the intersection of 28th Street and Hiawatha Avenue, where the CMC Heartland Lite Yard was located fro...

There is an idea for increasing bicycle mode share that seems to be catching on in this country. Of course, we're just catching up - it's been used in European cities for years. I've been calling it the " Copenhagen Model ." The idea is to change the location of bike lanes on streets. On many Minneapolis streets, the layout is: sidewalk, parking lane, bike lane, driving lane, driving lane, bike lane, parking lane, sidewalk. In the Copenhagen Model, the bike lane moves between the parking lane and sidewalk, for a layout like this: sidewalk, bike lane, parking, driving lane, driving lane, parking, bike lane, sidewalk. New York City, again trying to catch up with Minneapolis, has recently proposed to install a very similar system as you can read about in this New York Times article . I believe that this layout offers some important benefits. It removes bicyclists from direct contact with moving cars, prevents conflicts with cars parking or pulling from parking spaces...

Some months back, Regulatory Services staff noticed an interesting, odd lack in the ordinances regulating grocery stores in Minneapolis: they don't require the store to sell any food. This came about as part of the Grocery Store Task Force that my Northside colleague Don Samuels has been working on, mostly as a response to some problematic corner "grocery stores" in his Ward. When staff first came to the Public Safety and Regulatory Services committee, however, their recommendation left something to be desired. They recommended that the Council add the following requirement to the ordinance regulating grocery stores: "All grocery stores shall stock, and have available for sale, a variety of non-expired staple food items." This did not include a definition of "staple" food items. In committee, I asked what this would entail. Specifically, due to my work on "food deserts" through the Local Produce Market initiative, I was interested in whether...

On Monday, the Health, Energy and Environment Committee voted to "receive and file" the report from staff on their policy changes creating the new Local Produce Market process. At my urging, committee members rejected Council Member Diane Hofstede's attempt to introduce a substitute motion sending the report back to staff for more work. Diane objected to the fact that the process will not fully recover the estimated staff costs - the new process will cost the City $165 per market the first year and $91 per market every subsequent year. As I pointed out, this is a significant improvement over the cost recovery in the standard Farmer's Market process, which loses the City $386 the first year and $114 every subsequent year. My office will be working with staff from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and City staff in the Regulatory Services, Zoning and Health and Family Support departments to set up meetings with interested Council Members to discuss where...

The Community Engagement Task Force I worked so hard to form has drafted a report detailing its recommendations for improvements to the City's Community Engagement processes. I have decided to hold my October roundtable discussion on the topic of Community Engagement, using the report as a starting point for a larger conversation about the broad topic of how the City can better activate, support and empower its increasingly diverse populations. This meeting, specifically focused on Second Ward residents, but open to everyone, will be held: Monday, October 15, 7-9pm Augsburg College Christensen Center Minneapolis Room, 2nd Floor 22nd Ave S & 7 ½ Street There will also be a series of more general City-hosted public meetings to discuss the report: Tuesday, October 9, 6:30-8:30 pm Windom Park Recreation Center gym, 2251 Hayes St NE Wednesday, October 10, 6-8 pm North Commons Park gym, 801 James Ave N Tuesday, October 16, 11am-1 pm (open house format) Central Library board room, ...

The meeting between Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) administration officials and Critical Mass participants that I organized and I facilitated was, in my opinion, extremely successful. It seemed to be very fruitful for the MPD and CM riders to sit down at the same table and simply talk. Among the outcomes of the meeting, everyone was in general agreement that if the MPD committed to the following it would be helpful: To gather information about the route of Critical Mass and incidents within it by means other than helicopters. To task bicycle police to Critical Mass, to understand where it is going and be on hand to deal with issues that come up (confrontations between drivers and riders, for instance). To keep squad cars following the mass at a safe and respectful distance from bicyclists, 10-15 feet rather than the one-and-a-half feet many riders report from the last Mass. To refrain from the regular use of sirens by the squads following the Mass. To share the contact information...

We've had what I consider to be a significant victory for locally grown, healthy food. The Department of Environmental Health and Zoning Administration have together created a new permitting processes for small farm stands selling locally-grown food. These new "Local Produce Markets" will only require a Temporary Use Permit (from Zoning) and a Plan Review (from Environmental Health). They can have no more than 5 vendors, all of whom must be selling local food that they grew themselves. Under this new process, each market will only cost $154 to permit the first year, and will be free every year thereafter if their plans don't change substantially. This is a significant reduction from the current process, which costs more than $400 for the first year and over $100 per subsequent year. The purpose of this change is to provide better access in all parts of our city to nutritious, whole foods. This issue originally came to my attention when one of the Minneapolis Departme...

Check out the summer '07 " Healthy City, Thriving Families ," the quarterly newsletter of the Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support.

Council Member Robert Lilligren and I have scheduled a meeting for senior MPD Administration officials to get together with Critical Mass participants to try to craft an MPD policy that will avoid unnecessary and counterproductive confrontations like what occurred on 8/31/07. The meeting will take place on Wednesday, September 19, 4:30-5:30pm, in City Hall room 319. This meeting is specifically not to discuss the specifics of what happened at the 8/31 Critical Mass, but to plan for a more constructive police policy regarding future Critical Masses and other similar nonviolent instances of civil disobedience. If you regularly participate in Critical Mass and are free next Wednesday, please consider attending. If you know others who regularly participate, please pass this invitation on to them.

The Thunderhead Alliance is a national bicycling and walking advocacy organization. They have recently completed a benchmarking report that compares bicycling and walking conditions throughout the country in all major cities. Minneapolis scores in the upper third of most bicycling surveys and there is a section dedicated to bicycle parking in Minneapolis. Per capita the city has more bicycle parking spaces than any other major city in the nation and there are numerous references to the high bicycle usage in the city.

There has been an interesting series of opinions printed in the Star Tirbune regarding the proposed ordinance amendments that would prohibit the use of wild animals in circuses in Minneapolis leading up to the Public Hearing on this issue that will be held on Wednesday afternoon. It started with a letter of the day written by Christine Coughlin on September 5th. Then, on the 6th, Council Members Hodges and Paul Ostrow crafted a peice advocating for their approach that would allow for circuses but require for more inspections. Finally, Ralph Remington and I got a counterpoint published on the 8th This is going to be an interesting discussion.

There was a significant incident at last Friday’s Critical Mass monthly group bicycle ride. Nineteen people were arrested, many more were pepper sprayed. The arrestees included an intern working for my office. I have serious concerns about the police’s response on Friday, and am pushing for a formal review of both the specifics of the event and the Minneapolis Police Department’s (MPD) plans for dealing with future nonviolent protests, especially during next year’s RNC convention. My office will be organizing two separate meetings over the next few weeks. First, in conjunction with Council Member Lilligren’s office, we will convene a meeting between Critical Mass participants and Police Administration officials, to discuss what police policies could ease tensions and reduce confrontations at future Critical Mass events and nonviolent protests. Second, I will be inviting eyewitnesses of the incident to come and share firsthand experiences and concerns, and connect to City resources such...

See here for the Bridge Newspaper story on this topic. Morningstar Coffee has received two $200 fines from the City's Environmental Management staff. Until the afterburner that Morningstar's management committed to install on July 16 is installed, they face fines that will double every two weeks ($400, $800, $1,600, up to a maximum of $2,000). The good news is that the fines seem to be working. I have heard from Environmental Management staff that they have been in communication with a contractor that Morningstar has hired to install the odor control equipment next week. Note that this is later than the date of August 31 that Morningstar owner Jose Vido gave Bridge reporter Liz Riggs for when the equipment would be "up and running." Our office's experience with this issue prompted a meeting earlier this week with high-level staff within Regulatory Services, to talk about possible improvements to their enforcement processes. I believe we're making progress...

From the Minneapolis Bicycle Update e-list: On Tuesday, September 11th, the Department of Public Works will be conducting bicycle and pedestrian counts, and we need your help! Volunteers will be asked to count the number cyclists and pedestrians at several mid-block locations in the downtown area, in 2-hour shifts from 6:30 am to 6:30 pm. The purpose of the counts is to assess the historical trend of non-motorized travel in the downtown core. This year, for the first time, the Department of Public Works will exclusively count bicyclists and pedestrians. These counts will help to measure the effects of the Non-Motorized Transportation Pilot Program (NTP), a $21.5 million federal program which was created to increase biking and walking in Minneapolis. The City of Minneapolis is partnering with Transit for Livable Communities, who will be organizing similar counts on the same day. If you are interested in volunteering please choose from a 2-hour time slot below. We need volunteers ...

The Department of Public Works are proceeding with a plan to open the 10th Ave Bridge by end of day Friday, August 31 . The bridge will open to peds, bikes, and two lanes of traffic. A decision has not yet been made about opening to transit only or to general traffic but Public Works will decide soon after one more conversation with MetroTransit. They are installing a supplemental fence on the railing on the upstream (35W) side to raise its height to meet standards, to improve safety for the pedestrians that will undoubtedly come to view the 35W site, whether or not we permit them to be there. Concrete barriers will be installed to separate pedestrians on the upstream side of the bridge from the traffic lanes. Concrete barriers will remain in place until demand for viewing slows down to a point that opening the bridge to four lanes of traffic will not cause a safety hazard due to peds in traffic lanes. The total cost is estimated to be not more than $120,000. The minimum safe option o...

This just in from Public Works: "We are proceeding with a plan to open the 10th Ave.SE bridge by end of day Friday, August 31: The bridge will open to peds, bikes, and two lanes of traffic. A decision has not yet been made about opening to transit only or to general traffic but we will decide soon after one more conversation with MetroTransit. We are installing a supplemental fence on the railing on the upstream (35W) side to raise its height to meet standards, to improve safety for the pedestrians that will undoubtedly come to view the 35W site, whether or not we permit them to be there. Concrete barriers will be installed to separate pedestrians on the upstream side of the bridge from the traffic lanes. Concrete barriers will remain in place until demand for viewing slows down to a point that opening the bridge to four lanes of traffic will not cause a safety hazard due to peds in traffic lanes."

MnDOT will hold 3 public open houses in the next two weeks about the design of the proposed new I-35W bridge over the Mississippi: •Tuesday, Aug. 28 at the McNamara Alumni Center on the east bank campus of the U of M from 4:30 - 7 pm. The open house will be held in Al Johnson Room. •Thursday, Aug. 30 at the Humphrey Institute Atrium , west bank campus, from 4:30 - 7 p.m. The open house will be held in the Atrium. •Wednesday, Sept. 5 at the IDS Center in the Crystal Court from 11 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.