Finding a Green Way to Govern

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 ...

Over the next few weeks, Senator Al Franken's staff will be holding office hours in various locations throughout the state. There are several opportunities to talk to the Senator's office in Minneapolis on Thursday, July 30th : 8:00am-10:00am: Corcoran Neighborhood Association, 3451 Cedar Ave South 11:00am-1:00pm: Capri Theater, 2027 W Broadway 2:00pm-4:00pm: Linden Hills Library, 2900 W 43rd St 5:00pm-6:00pm: Northeast Library, 220 Central Ave NE Nice idea, I hope people show up and that their comments and ideas are taken seriously.

Public Works staff has scheduled two public meetings to give input on a proposed street lighting fee. Currently, the $3 million a year needed to keep the street lights on in the city comes from the general fund, which gets around 20 percent of its money from LGA. As I've said previously, our LGA has been cut by $21.3 million . One option being considered is a street lighting operations fee for all property owners of around $20 a year. The meetings are on Tuesday, July 14, 6:30-8:30pm at Farview Park, 621 29th Ave N; and Thursday, July 16, 6:30-8:30pm at Martin Luther King Park, 4055 Nicollet Ave S. I have serious reservations about the idea of adding a new fee for what I consider to be a basic City service. I would strongly prefer raising the same revenue - if we must - from property taxes. I'm very wary of the current trend in government to call a tax a "fee." A commenter on the Minneapolis issues list has given a great practical reason to resist this trend: proper...

Congratulations to the Southeast Como Improvement Association (SECIA) on getting a Minneapolis Pollution Control Agency Environmental Assistance Grant of $25,769 for a Solid Waste Reduction and Reuse Project. It's been clear for some time that there's a better way to handle the furniture and appliances that student renters discard than our current practice of putting them into the waste stream. My staff and SECIA have talked in the past about putting together a program like what SECIA has gotten funded, and it’s great to see the state supporting an effort to make progress on this. Programs like these have helped give SECIA a well-earned reputation as one of the most ecologically conscious neighborhood groups in Minneapolis, and there are lots of examples of their good work, including: A Green Village program, launched this April. A Good Neighbor Agreement with Greatbatch Globe Tool which aims to reduce Trichloroethylene air pollution more than 70%, and two other similar agreem...