Finding a Green Way to Govern

Each year I identify key priorities to guide my work. So far, I have identified 11 areas I plan to focus on and would like your input about what is most (1st choice) and least (last choice) important. If you want to share your thoughts please feel free to cut and paste the list below into an email, rank as many as you like in order of your preference and email it back to me at cam.gordon@ci.minneapolis.mn.us . Also, feel free to add your own ideas. ( ) Close the racial disparities in poverty and employment ( ) Increase affordable housing and reduce homelessness ( ) Fight climate change and work to clean up our soil, water and air ( ) Improve community policing and police-community relations ( ) Prevent youth violence and increase youth employment and health ( ) Enhance civilian oversight of police and end racial profiling ( ) Manage public dollars wisely and keep taxes and fees down ( ) Support small businesses ( ) Create green jobs ( ) Ensure that there is funding and support for neig...

I voted against a move to take the City’s audit functions away from the Board of Estimate and Taxation and move them to a newly-created (and redundant and unnecessary) “Audit Committee” made up of three Council Members and three citizen appointees, one from the Council, one from the Mayor and one from the Park Board. This was, in my opinion, an ill-advised action for the Council to take, for three main reasons. First, I believe that it is preferable to have our auditors report to a more independent body, like the Board of Estimate, rather than to what will be, in effect, a completely Council-controlled body (the Council will, in effect, control four of six seats on this body). Second, the voters just rejected, less than two months ago, a proposal to scrap the Board of Estimate. One of the main arguments used by the pro-BOE side was that it houses the City’s external audit function. The (large) Council majority appears to have chosen to disregard the will of the voters in this regard. T...

The 2010 budget that we approved in December has been the most difficult I have had to consider since taking office in 2006. Faced with significant cuts from the state, we were forced to balance a desire to keep taxes from escalating while still providing essential city services. On top of this, we learned late this year that the Police Department had overspent its 2009 budget by a staggering $3 million, increasing the deficit we had to fill. Unfortunately, we were forced to cut almost 100 City jobs from nearly every department including 25 police officers, 30 civilian employees of the police department. The police cuts were especially hard for me because the Police Department had made great progress in terms of recruiting a diverse class of new officers, and these are among the first who will be cut. I will be paying closer attention to the 2010 Police Department budget, to prevent a repeat of this year’s poor fiscal discipline. Fortunately, since passing the budget we were able to mo...

Winter storm "Dell" has reintroduced Minneapolis to the joys of winter, including the Snow Emergency. Parking restrictions go into place at 9pm tonight - go here to find out where you should park to avoid being towed.

As the Council considers the 2010 budget, there are some changes to the Mayor’s proposed budget that I will be seeking to make, and some principles that will guide how I respond to other Council Members’ proposals: - Recertify TIF Districts at the highest possible level . Neighborhood groups depend on and deserve a reliable, long-term funding source. I will fight to increase the recertification from the Mayor’s proposed 50% to something higher, and better balance neighborhoods with Target Center debt relief. - Continue supporting restorative justice . I believe that the City’s investment of $75,000 in restorative justice programs in the past several budgets has been very wise, both reducing repeat livability crime and ultimately saving the City money. The Mayor’s budget cuts this support. I will fight to put it back in. - No loss of Crime Prevention Specialists . I do not agree with the Police Chief’s proposal to balance the MPD budget by laying off our successful and necessary CPS sta...

You may recall that last year, there was some controversy about artistic water fountains being built by the City in various locations around town. The first of these fountains has been installed at Ancient Traders Market on East Franklin Ave and 11th Street. As you can see, it's a beautiful piece of functional public art. I have always supported this initiative, which Mayor Rybak took a significant political risk to push forward - and for which he continues to be attacked. It's become a standard right-wing talking point that Minneapolis "wastes money" on crazy , unnecessary things like artistic water fountains. I couldn't disagree more with this perspective. Public art makes our City livable for our residents, attractive to people thinking about moving here, and enjoyable for our visitors. Functional public art - like this lovely sculpture that also happens to distribute, free of charge, one of every human being's daily necessities - is even better. More impor...

The Profile Music Center, which was the site of this year's only homicide in Ward 2 to date, has applied for a lower license class . They have had a "Place of Entertainment" license for about ten years. This allowed them to host private events like wedding receptions, but also events open to the public - sort of like a nightclub without alcohol. These "teen nights" became notorious for the behavioral issues and conflicts that ensued, including several fights and the fatal shooting earlier this year. The Profile's owner Patrick Kellis, recognizing that he had a problem, has applied for a "Rental Hall" license. This will still allow wedding receptions, fundraisers and other private events, but will no longer allow nightclub-like shows. This should help reduce the spillover effects that this business has had on the surrounding community, especially the violence. There have also been parking concerns in the nearby Glendale public housing complex, and t...

Today in the Health Energy and Environment committee, we discussed an amendment to the Sustainability Indicator on "Employment and Poverty," which responds to a staff direction I moved last month. It establishes a new target indicator for reducing the gap in poverty rate between Minneapolis minority and white residents. According to the latest statistics (2008) 12.9% of white Minneapolis residents live at or below the federal poverty line, while 36% of non-whites in Minneapolis live at or below the poverty line. The 2009 Poverty Guidelines level depends on the number of people in your family. For a single adult it's $10,830; for a couple it's $14,570; for 3, $18,310 and for 4 it's $22,050. While our goal should be, and mine is to Here is the new goal that hope will pass the full Council on December 4. "Reduce the percentage of Minneapolis minority residents living in poverty from the 2008 Census Bureau reported average of 36% to that of the 2008 metropolitan...

Minnesota Public Radio has worked with Larry Jacobs from the Humphrey Institue on a post-election poll asking voters (and non-voters) what they thought of ranked choice voting. I've had the opportunity to review the report that was written based on this survey. (There are two things I should state for the record: first, I am a strong ranked choice voting advocate and serve on the board of FairVote Minnesota; second, Professor Jacobs applied for the contract to conduct the City's post-election poll, which was awarded instead to Saint Cloud State University.) Here are some of the key take-aways: - 56% of voters prefer ranked choice voting. - More than 90% of voters understood how to effectively cast their ballots. - 68% of voters think we should use ranked choice voting for Gubernatorial races. - Ranked choice voting saw a significant bump in popularity (13%) among people who voted on November 3. - More voters ranked a second choice than didn't (52% to 47% for Mayor) - 10-18...

A co-owner of the Hard Times Cafe brought an issue with the new Riverside bike lanes to our office's attention, and I'm happy to report it's been (mostly) resolved. 19th Ave S used to have two southbound left turn lanes onto Riverside - but after the 4-to-3 conversion, there's only one eastbound travel lane on Riverside. This forced drivers who turned from the righthand left turn lane to either merge during a turn (never a good idea) or drive in a bike lane until they could merge (also inadvisable). We alerted Public Works staff, who went out and changed both the street markings and the sign at 19th and Riverside, turning that right lane into a right-turn-only lane. Thanks to alert small business owners and Public Works for getting this taken care of. There's one other issue that needs to be addressed: a bus stop very close to the corner, on the right side of 19th. I suspect that buses will have some difficulty merging into the left lane to follow their route down R...

Public Works staff has striped bike lanes on Riverside Avenue and 4th St S, all the way from 15th Ave S to Franklin. This was made possible - with no loss of off-street parking - by converting the road from a 4-lane to a 3-lane for much of its length.

One of the few appointments I get to make directly is to the Public Health Advisory Commission (PHAC). For the last few years, that position has been filled by former Council Member Paul Zerby. Paul has decided to step down, and I thank him for his great service, bringing forward issues such as binge drinking and responding to Council areas of interest including phthalates. I have been letting residents know that I'm looking for a new appointee, and applications have started coming in. I've committed to make a decision in December, so if you're interested in serving on PHAC, please fill out an application as soon as possible and send it into the City Clerk's office.

There's been a lot of complaining both in the cycling community and from drivers in the local media about the changes to Hennepin and First Avenues. Those changes include allowing two-way traffic on both streets (which had been one-ways since the '80s), removing the middle-of-the-street bike lanes on Hennepin, installing new bus/bike/right turn lanes on Hennepin, and implementing an exciting, innovative new form of bikeway on First. This bikeway consists of a bike-only lane that hugs the curb. During peak hours, it's next to two lanes of moving traffic. During non-peak hours, parking is to the left of the bike lane. I am basically supportive of this project, especially the lanes on First. I think some of the concerns we've heard have to do with the incomplete roll-out of the project (for instance, it was opened to traffic before the bike stencils were painted), and some of them are just folks reacting negatively to change. However, some of the concerns are more specifi...

State Representative Phyllis Kahn, who represents a major part of Ward 2 (Prospect Park, Southeast Como, the West Bank and parts of Seward), has been named one of Governing Magazine's 2009 Legislators of the Year . Congrats, Phyllis!

From all reports I've heard and read, it sounds like the first ranked choice election in Minneapolis history has gone very, very well. You can read more here , here , and here . It sounds like the ballot error rate is quite low, most voters had enough knowledge about how ranked choice voting works, and our Election Judges were more than capable of handling the new system. It seems the advocates for ranked choice voting were right, and the naysayers were wrong: voters can figure out how to use this system without significant difficulty and our elections staff are fully capable of implementing it. I give tremendous credit to interim Elections Director Pat O'Connor and his able staff. They took on a major, historic task, and met and exceeded all expectations. I also want to recognize our staff's partners from Tipping Point Strategies and FairVote Minnesota , who worked on the campaign to educate voters. The familiarity of Minneapolis voters with this new system is a testament...

By a margin of about 65% to 35%, the Minneapolis voters have rejected the ill-advised attempt to abolish the Board of Estimate and Taxation. I advocated for folks to vote no, for a number of reasons: - The Board plays a vital role in balancing the financial relationship between the City and the independent Park Board. - It strengthens our democracy by including two members elected city-wide to our City government who can assist the City Council, Mayor, and Park Board in crafting and guiding financial policy. - It creates a formalized space in which the City and the Park Board can negotiate about budgets, bonding and tax levies and is an excellent place to initiate and review audits of the City’s finances. Most importantly, as we begin the constructive discussion next year about how to improve the ways that the City Council works with the Park Board, we should do so with the BET in place and ready to be reformed and more fully utilized to help make our City government more responsive, ...

I have been elected to a second term as Second Ward Council Member, receiving 84% of first-choice votes. While this blog isn't a place for any sort of campaigning, I feel that I'd be remiss not to thank the voters of Ward 2 for again giving me this honor, and this opportunity to serve. I look forward to working with you over the next four years to make Minneapolis the just, democratic, nonviolent, and sustainable city we all want to live in.

After literally years of wrangling with a company called EyeOn Energy that was increasingly obviously incapable of finishing a major solar project, the City has gone out for open bids on the solar project on the Convention Center. I'm extremely supportive of this move. The most important thing is that we get this project - which will be the largest solar installation in Minnesota - back on track, and start powering our Convention Center with clean, renewable solar energy.

As we're working on increasing the City's support for local foods through the Homegrown Minneapolis Implementation Task Force, it's great to be able to communicate an important and symbolic success: local food is coming to City Hall . The old food vendor in City Hall (the Clock Tower Cafe) has chosen not to renew its contract. This created an opening to get both healthier options and more local food into that space. Along with my colleague Betsy Hodges and staff from the Department of Health and Family Support, I strongly advocated to the Metropolitan Building Commission (or MBC, the City/County organization that actually controls City Hall ) that they write support for healthy, local foods into their Request for Proposals. They did so, and my office helped connect them to the folks in the local food community who participated in Homegrown Phase I. Then we crossed our fingers and hoped that some local food entrepreneur would send in a good proposal. Earlier this month, we ...

The Minnesota Daily has an informative article on NRP and future funding for neighborhoods that people might find helpful. I does a good job of explaining and presenting different sides about a rather complex issue. Let me know if you have any questions.

I wanted to call people's attention to a report coming up at the Executive Committee this Wednesday. Unlike years passed this committee now meets in the chambers and the meetings are televised and saved for web viewing. The only agenda item is our Affirmative Action Plan and it is full of good information about well and how poorly we are doing in terms of diversifying our own City of Minneapolis work force and plans to improve. There are some interesting charts showing how each department and job classification does in comparison to the Relevant Labor Market (qualified folks who live around here). We seem to be doing worst in terms of the lack of females in a number of job categories (this is shown most clearly in some of the charts around page 40 and then clearly outlined in the next 5 to 10 pages.) I will also be looking into how this compares to the make up of the City's population.

The 2008 Census data on commuting has been released, and Minneapolis has retained our second-place slot in terms of bicycle mode share. We increased our ridership by about 12%, going from a 3.8% mode share in 2007 to a 4.3% mode share in 2008. However, our chief rival for the title of "bike friendliest major US city," Portland, increased even more rapidly, from 3.9% to a full 6%. That's a pretty staggering one-year increase of more than 50%. To put Portland's achievement in perspective, it helps to look at our proposed new sustainability indicator for bike mode share, which calls for us to reach a mode share of 6% by 2014 , with a milestone of 5% in 2011. If we keep that goal, we'll catch up with Portland's 2008 achievement five years later. Perhaps this means that our goal isn't high enough. My staff has looked at the trend line over the last few years, and it's pretty clear that the increase we've seen is actually faster than our goal - if we ke...

A date has been set for the conversion of Hennepin and First avenues into two-way streets: the weekend of October 10-11, weather permitting. This change will take some getting used to for all road users - drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. Drivers going through downtown from north to south will be able to stay on Hennepin for their whole trip. Cyclists will have options. The old bike lanes in the middle of the road on Hennepin will go away, having been replaced by two, significantly more attractive, bike facilities. For certain riders, a shared bus/bike lane both northbound and southbound on Hennepin, right on the curb, will work just fine. For less experienced riders, the City is installing a truly innovative set of bike lanes on First, that I'm pretty excited to see in action. They will run along the curb, which in my opinion is the ideal place for bike lanes. During peak hours, they'll have a traffic lane to their left. But during off-peak hours, that next lane will be for p...

Despite reports that the University and Central Corridor project (with help from the City and the County) have been nearing an agreement on vibration, noise and electromagnetic disruptions to U research on Washington Avenue, the U has decided to sue the Metropolitan Council over the project. They claim that this is due to the timing – if they don’t sue now, they’ll lose the chance, along with whatever leverage it brings. The University appears to be the most significant potential obstacle to this important piece of environmentally sustainable transportation infrastructure. While I find it especially problematic that the University chose not to communicate with any of its partners on the Alliance – the City, the neighborhoods, or the business community – before taking this extraordinary step, I have asked for a meeting with a University Vice President to better understand the U’s perspective. I will continue to work to be a cooperative partner with all the neighborhood, community, busi...

Conservative Republican state legislator Steve Drazkowski, who represents Steve Sviggum's old seat in rural southeast Minnesota, has filed a Freedom of Information Request for some that's got me wondering why. I wonder what he is after anyway. Here's some text from his request: "Dear Mayor Rybak, "This is a formal request under the Minnesota Data Practices Act, Minnesota Statutes Chapter 13, for access to inspect all memos, documents, files and emails in your or the City of Minneapolis' possession related to any expense reimbursements over the past five years, since January 1st 2005, to you as mayor and also to your chief of staff and any or all city council members. "In addition, I wish to inspect any and all public data related to Community Planning and Economic Development grants to any nonprofit entities during those years. "Finally, I am requestiong access to inspect any and all data related to the 'climate change grants' referenced in...

On Tuesday the 15th, voters across Minnesota went down to their polling places to vote in municipal primaries. In many of these primaries, turnout was at its usual abysmal level (an appallingly low 5% in St. Paul), allowing a tiny minority of voters to winnow the choices for the general election. But not in Minneapolis. Instead, the people of Minneapolis have decided to use (and the City has worked very hard to implement) ranked choice voting, which combines the primary and general election into one event on November 3. Every candidate who filed gets to run all the way to the general, and voters get to choose among the whole field. In order to prevent minority (or plurality) winners, voters may rank up to three candidates for single and multiple seat municipal offices. When polls close, the first choice votes for all candidates are sorted and counted. If no candidate receives the required number of votes to win in a particular race, a process of eliminating candidates and considering s...

Earlier this week, the green roof on the Target Center was officially unveiled. Every year, these 2.5 acres of native plants will capture a million gallons of storm water and prevent it from entering the storm sewers and Mississippi river. This green roof is the fifth largest extensive green roof in the US, at the time of design, and the largest in Minnesota. It's also the first green roof on a sports arena in North America. In addition to storm water drainage prevention, the roof will also help in mitigating the heat island effect in downtown Minneapolis. The roof is planted with a variety of Sedums and Minnesota prairie plants, including Columbine, Prairie Coreopsis, Wild Strawberry, Dotted Blazing-Star, and Lupine. It includes lupines to target the Karner Blue Butterfly, a federally listed endangered butterfly that needs lupines to survive. I'm proud to have made the motion in Community Development committee to pursue only green roof options for the Target Center, and I'...

For about a year now, my office has been working on issues relating to the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) policy manual. It came to my attention last year that the MPD had made at least two changes to the manual that, in my opinion, reduce the safety of Mpls residents and make it harder for us to hold officers accountable. The taser policy that the Council, MPD and Civilian Review Authority (CRA) crafted together in 2006 was basically unilaterally scrapped by the MPD in 2007, and replaced by a reference to the training manual (which does not seem to include the language that was deleted from the policy manual). Later, in September of 2008, a new policy was added that essentially prohibits MPD supervisors from using evidence on squad car videos (like the beating of Derryl Jenkins in February of 2009) to proactively start disciplinary investigations. It is unclear to what extent the City Attorney's office had a role in assessing either of these changes before they were made, and...

The retirement of Deputy Chief for Investigations Valerie Wurster (who ably commanded the Second Precinct during my first year in office) has set off a cascade of promotions within the police department with some significant effects on the Second Ward. Deputy Chief Rob Allen will take the Investigations position Wurster is leaving. First Precinct Commander Janee Harteau , whose work on crime issues on the West Bank I have appreciated very much, has been promoted to Allen's old job as Deputy Chief of the Patrol unit. She will be replaced as Inspector of the First Precinct by Kristine Arneson , who has headed the Fifth Precinct in Southwest Mpls. Janee will be a tough act to follow, but I'm hopeful that Kris is up to the challenge and look forward to working with her. In other MPD staffing news, longtime Crime Prevention Specialist (CPS) for the First Precinct Luther Krueger is moving to the MPD's Strategic Information / Crime Management unit. It's a good fit for him; ...

This morning, I voted against a motion to keep a charter amendment off of the ballot this fall. The amendment, if placed on the ballot and passed by the voters, would have likely given the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board independent taxing authority, contingent on being granted that power by the State Legislature. I voted against keeping this off of the ballot for a number of reasons, none of them having to do with the merits of the charter amendment itself. As I said this morning, I am not sure that I would vote for this charter amendment if it was on the ballot. More importantly, I am a strong supporter of the agreement, reached by Council Members Benson and Johnson, Mayor Rybak and Park Board President Nordyke, to establish a blue ribbon commission next year to study the relationship between the City and the Park Board. In fact, I had put forward a very similar suggestion earlier this spring calling for further study before any amendments considering the elimination of our ele...

On September 8, a major initiative started by the City's work on youth violence prevention will begin: the City and the public schools will launch a new youth hotline, 1-800-SPEAK-UP , where youth can report (completely confidentially, via voice or text) weapons possession or potential threats. We're making good progress on youth violence. We've had only one youth homicide so far this year, of an infant who was killed in July and whose father has been charged in the case. In general, juvenile violent crime arrests are showing a clear downward trend, even more substantial than the overall drop in crime. Comparing this year to 2007, we see a 30% citywide reduction in violent crime arrests while total violent crime reports for juveniles are down 37% during the same period. See here for more information.

In late July, I had the opportunity to weigh in on an important but complicated issue that faces small businesses in my ward. It has to do with a seldom-discussed but very expensive fee called the Service Availability Charge . This fee is imposed by the Metropolitan Council (but collected by the City) on new businesses that will generate an increase in sewer waste. It amounts to more than $100 for every new chair a restaurant puts in place. I believe it's a sensible way to ensure that, as we grow as a region, we continue to fund our sewer infrastructure. However, the Met Council has, within the last few years, begun imposing this fee at its full value to new outdoor seating. This does not make sense to small businesses in my ward, and it doesn't make sense to me. A new seat in an indoor space will be used year-round, in all types of weather. On the other hand, a new outdoor seat will be used only in the warm months of the year, and typically only in non-inclement weather. No...

A tornado hit the City last week, damaging some buildings in midtown and downtown, including the convention center. One of the more devastating effects has been the loss of over 250 trees in the public right of way. I'm proud of the City's response to this incident. Public Works and the Park Board cleared the tree debris to reopen streets and alleys, street and sewer crews checked storm drains and catch-basins to ensure they were clear to prevent potential flooding, the police instituted extra patrols in the area as a preventive measure, Regulatory Services staff went out to ensure that tree companies and contractors were properly licensed and building repairs were being done correctly. The City has also jumped in to try to mitigate the loss of trees. The CityTrees program earlier this year did not sell all 1,000 trees, leaving some excess capacity. The City has decided to make these trees available (for $25) to only those residents in the blow-down area. It will be some time b...

The Central Corridor light rail project is making significant progress. Last week, the Federal Transit Administration handed down a positive " Record of Decision " on the project's Final Draft Environmental Impact Statement. This is the first time that the federal government has made a formal commitment to fund the project. It's a major step forward. Then, yesterday, the Central Corridor Management Committee received a “Letter of No Prejudice” from the FTA. Together with last week’s Record of Decision, this allows utility construction to begin shortly. The last piece of positive news is that the CCMC has approved an Agreement in Principle on how to allocate additional funds under a newly increased Cost Effectiveness Index (CEI). This allows an additional station in St. Paul, which is great news. It will also fund some streetscape improvements in Minneapolis. Negotiations are ongoing between the University and the project (with the City and the County acting as support...

On Friday, the Council decided to establish a sister city relationship with Najaf, Iraq , our first sister city in the Middle East. This is something I've been working on for the past few months, and I'm happy to see it come to fruition. There are many good reasons to take this step. Here are just a few. We have engaged and enthusiastic partners in a group called the Iraq and American Reconciliation Project (IARP). This nonprofit organization consists of retired teachers, University faculty, and other professionals, and has been independently functioning for two years. It's already doing much of what would be expected from a sister city relationship, including academic, educational, business and cultural exchanges. Najaf’s City Council has already indicated their interest in formalizing this ongoing relationship. A group of people from Najaf will be visiting Minneapolis this September. It won't increase any costs to the City. In fact, we anticipate that this relationsh...

This morning the Council chose to neither renew the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts which fund our neighborhood groups, nor to leave the question of whether or not to renew them to the discussions about the 2010 budget this December. Instead, we chose a middle path proposed by Council Member Colvin Roy: to send the issue back to the Ways and Means committee for further review and information gathering. After my motion to postpone this decision for two Council cycles failed by a 6 - 6 vote, I voted for this compromise, though I continue to feel that by refusing to renew the districts now - when we said, in the budget process last December, that we would take this up - the Council is signalling our willingness to step away from the commitments we made to ourselves, neighborhood groups, the State Legislature and the public at large that we will continue to fund the work of neighborhoods. During this morning's debate, several of my colleagues made clear that they are quite ope...

Good morning. Now that filings have closed, with 95 candidates for 25 seats and one, possibly two ballot questions, it is a good time to let you know what’s happening in our office and provide you with some useful information as you plan for National Night Out. First, regarding RCV information for your constituents, the excellent staff at 311 have undergone RCV training and this is a good number to call for general information. The operators will also collect feedback information from the callers as well. Also, for those wishing to contact us regarding RCV, they can reach us at: rcv@ci.minneapolis.mn.us . Finally, tomorrow, Friday, the Minneapolis RCV website will be up and running with information as well. The web address is: voteminneapolis.org. For the National Night Out, we will have our initial brochure available. The PDF of the brochure is attached for your convenience. You, and all candidates, may pick up quantities of these printed brochures, as well as sample instructional bal...

To my surprise (and without my vote), earlier this week the Community Development committee forwarded without recommendation the proposal to renew the Tax Increment Financing districts that would enable us to pay for the new phase of NRP and retire the Target Center’s debt. After hearing from three former elected officials, including former Congressman Martin Sabo, who opposed the plan, my colleagues seemed to be less supportive of this hard-fought compromise than they previously had been. Recall that we fought hard for legislative authority to extend these Tax Increment districts just last year and, when we approved the budget, we passed a resolution supporting this funding plan. I think we should approve this plan now, so I (unsuccessfully) moved it forward with recommendation but some Council Members apparently weren't so sure. Robert Lilligren was the only committee member to vote with me with the other four preferring to refer it to Ways and Means for consideration and/or t...

There's a new state-sponsored program for Twin Cities area employers to foster teleworking. It's called eWorkPlace , and it's got some real potential to help businesses allow their employees to work from home. This can save businesses money, increase employee productivity and retention, and save workers from unnecessary transportation time. Teleworking also has great benefits for the community at large: by reducing unnecessary trips, we reduce congestion, air pollution and carbon emissions. For a limited time, eWorkPlace will be providing free consultation services to local employers, including on-site training, e-learning, IT advice and troubleshooting. The program also offers customizable tools for policies, implementation advice and metrics for measuring success. The initiative is holding a breakfast informational meeting on July 28th, 8:30-11am at the Humphrey Center, 301 19th Ave S.

The West Bank Business Association has just put up a great new website: http://www.thewestbank.org/ . You can find entertainment for any night of the week, including music, theater and dance. You can find a restaurant for any palate (as long as you like Thai, Mediterranean, Ethiopian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Somali, Indian, bar food, hot dogs, vegetarian cuisine, Polish, Mexican, Italian, or good coffee) and any number of places to wet your whistle, if that's your thing. You can fix your bike, gear up for a backpacking trip, buy a futon, peruse radical leftist books, find international videos you won't find anywhere else and spices you've likely never tried. All in one great neighborhood, and on one great website! Check it out.

As you can read here , the successful Minneapolis Blueprint for Action on preventing youth violence is becoming a model for similar initiatives elsewhere in the state. I commend the other jurisdictions for following our lead, and wish them as much success as the 37% reduction in violent crime committed by youth that we've seen in the last few years. I'm proud to have gotten this initiative started by sponsoring the resolution several years ago redefining youth violence as a public health crisis and of all the work so many of us have done drafting and implementing the plan. That resolution dedicated the City to addressing youth violence the way we do other public health crises: identifying risk factors and intervening with kids who start to slip into risky behaviors. The City agreed, when passing the plan, that dealing with youth violence cannot be left just to law enforcement - once the police are forced to respond to an act of violence, it is in many senses already too late. ...

Last week, the Council passed a compromise that my staff and I came up with, between small businesses and pedestrians in the city. Months ago, Planning staff presented their proposed changes to the City's zoning ordinance dealing with signs. One of their proposals regarded A-frame sandwich board advertising signs; the rule had been that these were allowed basically anywhere, but required an obstruction permit from Public Works. Planning staff had learned that this was never followed, because Public Works does not give out obstruction permits for impermanent objects placed on sidewalks. Their proposal would have allowed these signs anywhere in town, as long as the sign doesn't block the sidewalk. Council Member Lisa Goodman, who represents downtown, has heard quite a few complaints about these signs, especially on Nicollet Mall. I could understand her position: between sidewalk cafes, newspaper boxes, planters, light fixtures, signs and parking meters, downtown sidewalks can get...

Last Friday, the Council passed a resolution that I authored both recognizing the contributions of the Minnesota Fringe Festival to the local arts scene and declaring July 30th " Fringe Day. " The Fringe has a large number of locations in the Second Ward, including Augsburg College, Bedlam Theater, Mixed Blood Theater, Nomad World Pub, the Playwrights' Center, Southern Theater, and the U of M's Rarig Center. Here's the text of the resolution: Resolution of the City of Minneapolis By Gordon, Benson, Colvin Roy, Glidden, Goodman, Hodges, Hofstede, Johnson, Lilligren, Ostrow, Remington, Samuels, Schiff Recognizing the Minnesota Fringe Festival and Declaring July 30th Fringe Day Whereas, the Minnesota Fringe Festival is an annual eleven-day festival of unleashed performance; and, Whereas, since it was founded in 1993, Minnesota Fringe has brought thousands of artists to metro-area stages in performances ranging from shows created by teens to radical politics, from cl...

This morning, the Council unanimously passed a resolution my office wrote, along with Council Member Glidden's office, commemorating the Minneapolis trucker's strikes of 1934 - which helped usher in the modern labor movement and the rise of the American middle class - and recognizing the events planned for this 75th Anniversary. Before the vote, several Council Members talked about their personal connections to the strikers. It's amazing how much the events of 1934 still matter to people on a personal, family level. I was honored to be a lead author on this and to have the privilege of reading it at the Council meeting this morning. Here's the text of the resolution: Whereas, seventy-five years ago this summer, in grim economic times, a strike by Teamsters Local 574 shut down all truck traffic in Minneapolis; and, Whereas, the business community’s Citizens Alliance, backed by Minneapolis police and its own forces, used violence to try to break the strike; and, Whereas,...

The proposal to establish a new tax increment financing (TIF) district to help pay off Target Center debt and fund neighborhood revitalization activities will be coming up for a public hearing and possible amendments on Tuesday. You can read the plan here. This is made possible by the legislation many of us worked to get passed in 2008. I’m a strong supporter of the TIF district and believe that it is essential to future funding of neighborhood controlled planning and revitalization efforts in Minneapolis. I support funding Target Center debt relief (which will help our general fund and lighten the load on property tax payers) and neighborhood revitalization equally and will fight hard to ensure the neighborhoods get their share. The official public hearing for this will be at the Community Development Committee at 1:30 pm on Tuesday, July 21, in Room 317 City Hall. It is important the Council hears loudly and clearly that residents expect us to follow through with our commitment to f...

Last week, I had a rare treat: a committee meeting that can best be described as hilarious. The action before the Public Safety and Regulatory Services committee was a staff proposal to allow more comedy in the City. We currently require that an establishment have a class A license – the most expensive and difficult to receive – in order to feature live comedy. The proposed changes that passed the committee unanimously will allow solo live comedians to perform in venues with class D, C, B and A licenses. Class D licenses already allows solo musicians, so this seems like a simple question of fairness. I think this is a great move for both comics and the cultural landscape of Minneapolis. The fringe benefit for committee members was that a number of local comedians came in to testify in support of the change. As you might guess, they used all of the considerable comedic skills at their disposal to make their case. Council Member Samuels, no stranger to the world of entertainment, joined ...