Finding a Green Way to Govern

For the past couple months I have been involved (and Robin has been very very involved) in working on one of the most interesting and exciting (and potentially controversial) initiatives happening in City Hall. It's called Homegrown Minneapolis and the group working on it will be going public with some its recommendations in May. The basic concept is to find more ways to get fresh, locally grown food sold, distributed and eaten in Minneapolis. For the past few months a group staff, residents and others have been working on ways we can do a better job getting good, fresh, locally produced food to the people who live and eat in Minneapolis. Food grown locally is good for your health and promotes a stronger local economy and protection of our environment. Homegrown Minneapolis recommendations are expected to include: Using public and private land for community gardens and food production, Increasing access to farmers’ markets or mobile food delivery services, Encouraging restaurants, ...

The Council took another great action this morning. This one allows more low and medium-speed “neighborhood electric vehicles” such as the ZENN to be sold in more locations in the City. Before today, we treated these vehicles the same way we treat used cars. After this morning, they will be able to be sold in more and less-dense commercial zones. I made a slight change to today’s action, which may have an important impact in terms of preventing confusion down the road. The original ordinance defined neighborhood electric vehicles as having a top speed of 20-25mph. However, the State Legislature, led by Representative Jim Davnie, has recently pushed the top speed up to 35mph. My change makes our definition of neighborhood electric vehicle consistent with the State’s, so that they can grow and evolve together. I hope that people will take advantage of this Council action to start offering these innovative, zero-emission vehicles in more locations around town.

Bees in the City This morning, the Council ended a decades-long prohibition on keeping bees in our city. I strongly supported this ordinance change, for a few main reasons. We are in the middle of the Homegrown Minneapolis initiative, which is pushing the City to look at how we can be more supportive of growing food in the City. Local honey produced by local honeybees and consumed by Minneapolis residents is a great start. Bees are also prolific pollinators, and can help to dramatically increase the yields of vegetable gardens. The one issue I’ve been hearing about from prospective beekeepers – who are mostly very excited about this new direction from the City – is that the staff recommendation included a requirement that all permitted beekeepers indemnify the City for any lawsuit that might occur. I agreed with them that this was unnecessary, an example of the City trying to minimize our risk in a way that undermines our stated policy goals – in this case, allowing and even encou...

My office, and specifically my extremely capable intern Annie Welch, is in the beginning stages of an important new initiative: a diversity audit of all official City Boards and Commissions. This includes advisory groups like the Citizen's Environmental Advisory Committee, various appeals boards, special service district boards and other groups. The idea is to do a survey of all members of these boards and commissions to find out how well we're doing at appointing people who match Minneapolis. We're including lots of different demographic data: race, gender, age, geography, disability status, sexual orientation, etc. The hope is that this information, once we've compiled it all, will give us a 'baseline' against which to measure future efforts to increase the diversity of our boards and commissions. This will fit into the broader, ongoing work of the Coordinator's Office to improve the appointments process to these important facets of the City's communit...

One of the issues the Council took up at the last Council meeting was a controversial legislative support item regarding a Trader Joe's store on Lyndale. Representative Karen Clark has sponsored a bill at the State Legislature exempting this specific proposed store from a rule that limits how close a new liquor store can be to another existing liquor store. Current City ordinance states that a new liquor store must be at least 2,000 feet away from an existing store. At this location, Hum's Liquor is just down the block. It seems that Trader Joe's business formula requires that they have a beer/wine component to their stores. For them to open a store at this location, the Legislature will have to pass Rep Clark's bill exempting them from our rules. I did not support signing onto this bill, for a variety of reasons. First, I do not believe this is a good way to make policy. There are at least sixteen places in Minneapolis that are at least 2,000 feet from an existing liqu...

The Minneapolis Arts Commission (MAC) is looking to honor the best of the 2008 Minneapolis public art experiences at the first annual MAC Awards this June. To qualify, nominations must be of artwork installed or occurred in 2008 and located within Minneapolis. Works commissioned by Art in Public Places are not eligible. MAC awards will recognize contribution in the following categories: Community Involvement in Public Art Celebrating the City through Public Art, and Integration of Public Art in Private Development Nominations may be submitted by artists and art organizations for their own work, or may be submitted by a third party. For more information or to download nomination applications, visit the Minneapolis Arts Commission Web site , or call (612) 673-2597.

Does your organization have a creative idea for preventing and cleaning up graffiti? If so, the City wants to help fund it. Micro grants of up to $10,000 per project are being made available to communities and community-based organizations that target graffiti in innovative ways. Totaling $75,000, these micro grants are intended to act as seed money for manageable projects that will eventually lead to larger, more ambitious initiatives. To get an application for micro grants, visit the City’s graffiti website . Questions can also be submitted in writing prior to the meeting by email or by faxing them to (612) 673-2250. Completed applications are due no later than 4:00 pm on April 24, 2009.

From a recent City press release: The City is seeking applications for 100 “Wireless Community” accounts. These free wireless Internet accounts are intended for nonprofit organizations that provide free computer access to the public. Agencies selected to receive the free accounts will also receive free monthly subscription vouchers that they can use to recruit volunteers who can assist with staffing and training in their community technology centers. In total, $15,000 in free service vouchers will be distributed, in addition to the 100 free accounts. Accounts will be given to agencies that provide public computer access, technology literacy training, and/or technology support for underserved communities. Applications are due by Monday, May 18. Applications will be reviewed by the City of Minneapolis staff and the Digital Inclusion Advisory Board, which will make recommendations to the City Council on which organizations will receive free accounts in 2009. The accounts will be good thro...

The City is jumping on the Twitter bandwagon. You can now get info on all news and events happening in City government that can be summed up in 140 characters or less (which pretty much excludes any news from my office!) by following Minneapolis' Twitter account . From the City's press release: "Twitter is a popular, free, social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send and read short (140 characters in length) updates that are also known as “tweets.” When the City of Minneapolis sends out a “tweet,” those who choose to follow the City will receive the headline of the story and also a link back to the full story on the City’s Web site. To follow the City of Minneapolis on Twitter, you must first have your own Twitter account. Once you have one, click the “Follow us on Twitter” link on the City’s home page, or visit www.twitter.com/CityMinneapolis and click the “follow” button underneath the City of Minneapolis logo. Users can then set their preferen...

Council Member Hofstede's proposed ban on upholstered furniture on porches was defeated at the Council today on a 9-4 vote. Interestingly, only those Council Members who voted for it when it came before the Public Safety committee (Hofstede herself, Samuels, Johnson and Ostrow) were supportive today. CM Hofstede read a letter of support from the family of one of the students who died in the well-known 2003 house fire in Southeast Como. It was difficult to oppose such a heartfelt request for the City to act, but I still could not in good conscience support the ordinance as proposed. The data provided to the Council by our Fire Department makes abundantly clear that upholstered furniture on porches is not a major driver of fires in our city: less than one-third of one percent of the fires in Minneapolis over the last three years have had anything to do with upholstered furniture outside. As importantly, there has been at least one fire caused by upholstered furniture manufactured for...

According to a nationwide " Least Wasteful Cities " study by Nalgene that evaluated waste reduction – including adaptive reuse, recycling, using public transit, and energy conservation – in the nation’s 25 largest cities, Minneapolis came in seventh least wasteful in the nation. Interestingly, especially when considered in the context of the “upholstered furniture” ban being considered by the Council, Minneapolis ranked third in buying second-hand items, including clothing, electronics, and... furniture. Other areas in which we scored high: We're second in the nation in borrowing books from the library. We're fourth in using reusable containers in place of disposable food storage containers (plastic bags, tin foil, etc.), and in saving leftover food.

This year, the Council will update the City's Sustainability Indicators . Looking through them, it struck me that there were two problems with the only indicator regarding bicycling , which commits the City to "add 44 miles of bicycle lanes and trails to 2004 levels by 2015, 14 miles of on-street lanes and 30 miles of off-street trails." First, the City is poised to far exceed these targets much earlier than 2015, in part due to the Non-motorized Transportation Program. Second, while bikeways are important, what we care about more is our bicycling mode share. When we talk about being the second bike-friendliest city in the country, we're talking about our bike commuting mode share of 3.8% (second only to Portland's 3.9%). I brought this opportunity to the City's Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) two months ago. They agreed that we should change these targets, and a group of interested people met and corresponded with me to create a proposal. We brought it ...

I want to clarify my position on an ordinance proposed by council member Hofstede regarding furniture in yards and on porches. The specific proposed amendment adds the following language: Any upholstered furniture not manufactured for outdoor use, including upholstered chairs, upholstered couches, and mattresses placed in any front yard, side yard or rear yard abutting a street or on any opened porch exposed to the elements, shall constitute a nuisance condition .” According to discussions at the committee an exposed porch includes any porch that has a roof and railings but it not fully enclosed with windows or screens. I have listened carefully to the concerns and reasoning behind this proposal and can appreciate the good intentions of those who are supporting and bringing this idea forward, but I can't support this proposal as presented. I am willing to support the portion that restricts the use of upholstered furniture (not specifically manufactured for outdoor use) on lawns an...