Finding a Green Way to Govern

This morning, I was able to convince my Council colleagues that the City shouldn't take an action that could have led to the unnecessary deaths of dogs in Minneapolis. Last Wednesday, Animal Care and Control (AC&C) staff brought a proposal to the Public Safety and Regulatory Services committee. One of its provisions would have prohibited owners of dogs that have been declared either dangerous or potentially dangerous from transferring ownership of the animal to someone else. Given how onerous and expensive we've already made it for folks to own declared dogs, I was concerned that the proposal would have led to a large numbers of dogs being impounded and killed by AC&C. I also know that in some cases, dogs that have been declared potentially dangerous can thrive in a different setting. A dog that has threatened or even bit someone when living in an abusive or neglectful setting - or even just a home with no yard, no one to walk him or her or with one or more agreesive ca...

The University District Alliance Progress Report for 2007 - 2009 is now available here . The report offers an overview of the work that has been done by Alliance over the last 16 months and make recommendations for the future. The report will be coming to the City Council's Intergovernmental Relations Committee this Tuesday morning and then to State Legislature sometime in the next few months. I hope that the full City Council will approve it on Friday. One of the things the Alliance has been working on is getting more people who work in the District to also live int he district. To help to that we have developed a website - http://www.livenearyourwork.net/ - to help match homes that are for sale with potential buyers.

As you can read here , the Minneapolis Police Department is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in last summer's murder of Joe Sodd III on the West Bank. Despite having put hundreds of hours into the case, MPD has yet to make arrests or determine a motive for the crime. If you have any information, please call CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS or Minneapolis police at 612-692-TIPS .

I realize it sounds like information from another time, but surprisingly enough there has been a bed bug epidemic in the University neighborhoods for the past few years. The parasites often make their way into homes with infested used furniture. The University has put together a program to educate folks about these pernicious little pests. Here's the notice: Learn how to recognize an infestation and what to do about bed bugs. Dr. Kells , a Ph .D. in Entomology, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota, with extension and research responsibilities in Food Processing and Structural Entomology. This includes studies in biology and control of bedbugs. Dr. Kells served for five years as Technical Director, leading the Quality Assurance and Technical Services Department for Abell Pest Control, Inc. He has published numerous articles on the subject and continues to speak across the country as the problem expands. DATE: Thursday, March 12, 2009-02-12 PLACE: Coffman Unio...

There was a story on WCCO yesterday about Binge drinking, and I wanted to let people know that despite how it may have appeared on the segment, I am not necessarily supporting banning happy hour or drink specials in the City of Minneapolis. What I am willing to do is follow up on the recommendations of our Our Public Health Advisory Committee and our Health Department, to create a task force to look into the problem of binge drinking and related City regulations and explore possible things we can do. They brought this idea to the Health Energy and Environment Committee in December and we decided that before taking any action they should meet with industry representatives and then return to the committee so we could consider this further. I am inclined to think that education is a better way to approach this, but I am also willing to see if there are some things we can regulate. I know some bars have some games and specials that other cities have banned. I also suspect that the vasts ma...

The good work of my office and others has paid off: as you can read here , the bike lanes on Hennepin and First Avenues in downtown will be connected together as one corridor for less-experienced cyclists. Read here for more history on this issue. The short version is that First Ave will have a wonderful new two-way bike facility. The lanes will be a different color pavement, and run right along the curb. In off-peak hours, parked cars will form a barrier between cyclists and traffic. These lanes will be highly attractive to less-experienced riders. Hennepin will also feature a bike facility, but it will be a shared lane for bikes and buses and, on every other block, right-turning cars. Some people (like my Aide and other regular bike commuters) will feel comfortable enough in these lanes to use them, but many will not. The issue was that, especially at the south end of the two projects, near 11th and 12th Streets South, there wasn't a good way in the first staff plan for cyclists...

The taser-related death of Quincy Smith, which has been ruled a homicide by the Medical Examiner, has highlighted an increasingly important issue I have been working on for some time: the Minneapolis Police Department's Policy and Procedure Manual . This document lays out the rules that Minneapolis police officers are to follow. Both the MPD's Internal Affairs Unit (IAU) and the Civilian Review Authority (CRA) hold officers accountable chiefly to this document. The problem is that MPD has, over the past two years, made at least two major changes to this document that, in my strongly held opinion, are bad for residents and bad for the City as a whole. I am also concerned about the process that is being used, or not being used, to make these changes, especially those changes that have to do with the Use of Force. In partiocular I am concered that changes are not first brought to the Council or CRA in any formal way. The first of these changes that was brought to my attention wa...

The Twin Cities Daily Planet has run an interesting story about the proposed Bike Sharing program. You can read the full story here . Near the end they focus in on one of the major concerns I have had with the program, which I am enthusiastically supporting overall. The concern has to do with the fact that there is no plan to provide helmets. I suspect that what I will do is try to have a spare helmet at work that I can use for bike sharing excursions, but I am not sure if that is the best answer. I would like to see some helmet rental option added to the program, but also wonder if there aren't other creative ideas or options that might help. It is interesting to note that many European cities with high bicycling mode shares have extremely low rates of helmet usage, and their fatality rates are significantly lower than here. I think we need to recognize, however, that we don't yet have the critical mass needed to make each cyclist as safe without a helmet as they are in Copenh...

Last week, I got a surprise visit from David Strand, a good friend and a great activist on GLBT issues both within the Green Party (David helped form the Lavender Greens) and elsewhere. He had come down to City Hall to talk to me about a bill currently before the Legislature: the Marriage and Family Protection Act . I encourage you to read it, especially the findings, which are powerful, beautiful and, in my opinion, unquestionably true. If enacted, this bill will prevent Minnesota from discriminating against GLBT members of our community by preventing them from marrying their partners of choice. It will also require that the gender-neutral term "spouse" replace all instances in law of "husband" and "wife." I share David's enthusiasm for this bill, so when he asked me to check if it was currently on the City's Legislative Agenda as a support item, I was surprised to find that it wasn't. When David stopped by City Hall I made sure he had some ti...

After a great discussion yesterday at the Elections Committee, the Council took a solid (12-1) vote of support for 2009 implementation of Ranked Choice Voting today. While we did direct staff to develop contingency plans in case the lawsuit makes implementation impossible, the clear message from both the Council and the mayor was "full speed ahead." Staff will now be working on completing and implementing an education plan. We will also complete other elections training work that will include a mock election to test our procedures later this spring. You can read the Election Committee staff reports here and a Star Tribune article here if you would like more information. I wanted to geive a speacial thanks to all the citizens who attended the committee meeting to show their interest - many were familiar ward 2 constituents. Thanks and please keep me posted about your thoughts, concerns and ideas for how we can keep this moving forward.

I'm excited to announce that Public Works is exploring setting up the second curbside organics collection program. This one may be in the Seward neighborhood. Last year, they began a similar program in Linden Hills neighborhood, and after some good organizing work by Seward residents - especially Seward Environment Committee Chair Carol Greenwood - the Solid Waste and Recycling department head has indicated that Seward will be next. The Seward Neighborhood Group board has taken a formal position asking for this project, and I have also formally indicated my support. Under the pilot, Seward residents will be encouraged to separate their organic waste (vegetable trimmings, for instance) from the rest of their garbage. A special bin will be provided. After being picked up, the waste will be composted and reused by agriculture, rather than being incinerated. And not only will organics collection reuse the nutrients from our waste, but the garbage burner in downtown will work much more ...

As you can read here , thanks to the good work of the University Police Department and the Minneapolis Police Department, the 41-year-old man who groped at least ten young women on the University East and West Bank campuses has been arrested. He has been identified by two of his victims, has confessed, and will be charged. It's heartening to see this rapid and successful response by law enforcement. Sexual violence, no matter who perpetrates it, has no place in the Second Ward.

As the Star Tribune reported this weekend, phone book companies have started offering opt-outs to residents who don't want to receive physical copies of the phone book anymore. I welcome this initiative by the industry. I'm also encouraged that the Legislature is poised to require this sort of opt-out offer. My office often receives complaints from residents just after phone book delivery dates. Folks are concerned about the amount of paper that is used to make each book, especially when a household uses electronic lookup services rather than hard-copy versions. If you're concerned about the ecological impact of receiving phone books you don't need, I encourage you to opt out using the following contact info (from the Star Tribune article): "To make changes for Dex phone books, go to www.dexknows.com and click on "directory options" at the bottom. You may also call 1-877-2-GET-DEX. For Yellowbook, call 1-800-YB-YELLO. For Verizon Yellow Pages (Ide...

This week Council Members Ostrow, Remington and Samuels announced that they intend to move forward with three significant charter amendments that they hope will be put before the voters in November. One would eliminate the Board of Estimate and Taxation, one would create a more centralized City Administrator and one would eliminate the independent Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. Of these three I am most concerned about eliminating the Park Board and especially concerned that we are taking this drastic step without first having had a complete and inclusive community conversation about other alternatives to address the concerns Council Member Ostrow, and others, have raised about the current governance. In response the Park Board idea and in preparation for a first vote to forward this to the Charter Commission set to come up February 6, Park Commissioner Annie Young and I released the following statement on Friday: Green Party Elected Officeholders Cam Gordon and Annie Young Opp...