Finding a Green Way to Govern

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...