Finding a Green Way to Govern

The Urban Agriculture Topical Plan that community advocates and I have been working on for months may be in trouble. This plan is a key recommendation of the Homegrown Minneapolis initiative and an important step towards creating a more sustainable, healthy, and community-based economy in Minneapolis for the future. Last week, the Zoning and Planning (or Z&P) committee postponed the Plan for two weeks, to give committee members time to craft amendments that threaten to weaken it. The Plan will come back before Z&P on April 7th, at 9:30am . Judging from the questions and comments from committee members, it appears that some Council Members might be aiming to undermine the Plan, and erect unnecessary barriers to the growing more food in Minneapolis. Continuing to prohibit Market Gardening on residential parcels. One of the key recommendations of the Plan is to allow commercial, or market, gardens of the same small size and low intensity as community gardens to be put on residen...

The City is preparing for potential flooding this spring: This has been one of the snowiest winters for Minneapolis on record. As that snow accumulation melts, some properties will be at an increased risk of flooding. City of Minneapolis Emergency Management and Public Works staff have been working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as well as local watershed management organizations to prepare for the situation. Residential & Business Properties Many factors influence flooding, including the rate of snow melt and precipitation received as the weather warms. All property owners near the creeks or other water bodies should assess the risk to their land and buildings. Increased risk properties. Based on the best information available from FEMA and the local watershed districts, the City has identified roughly 30 homes and businesses at an increased risk for flooding. The City is contacting those property owners directly. Properties located in the "100‐Year Floo...

Whew! Winter parking restrictions are officially over, at least for this snow season: Effective immediately, Minneapolis has lifted the Winter Parking Restrictions. The restrictions went into effect on Dec. 17, 2010 after snow accumulations narrowed many streets, making it difficult for fire trucks, ambulances, and other emergency vehicles to navigate in some neighborhoods. Limiting parking to one side of most neighborhood streets created more reliable access for emergency responses. Our recent mild temperatures and sunnier days have melted snow along city streets, widening them far enough that the Fire Chief, Public Works officials, and other public safety officials have determined the restrictions can be lifted. With this melting, we are now seeing better conditions on most city streets. Beginning March 21, normal parking rules again apply on city streets. Signs added to some narrower Snow Emergency routes that limited parking to one side of the streets will soon be removed, howev...

According to the just-released preliminary results of the 2010 Census , between the year 2000 and the year 2010, the population of Minneapolis went from 382,618 to 382,578, a decline of just forty people. This stability in our population is extremely interesting, given the number of new housing units that have been built over the past ten years. We now have 178,287 housing units, up more than 9,000 from the 168,606 we had in 2000. So why not more people? The answer becomes apparent when you look at the change in the housing vacancy rate. In the booming economy of 2000, only 3.7% of housing units were vacant. In 2010, during the Great Recession that was caused in large part by the collapse of the housing and financial systems and the ensuing foreclosure crisis, the vacancy rate had more than doubled , to 8.7%. The raw numbers are just as striking: in 2000, only 6,254 housing units were vacant, and in 2010 that number had jumped to 14,747. One thing that can be ruled out relatively safel...

Today I attended a Mayors Against Illegal Guns press conference where the Fix Gun Checks truck was visiting Minneapolis. Omar Samaha, whose sister died at Virgina Tech, spoke at the along with other victims of gun violence. Samaha is traveling the country advocating better background checks before gun purchases. This morning he let us know that he went undercover recently with a television crew and was able to buy over 20 handguns as easily as he would normally buy "a bag of chips or a candy bar" at a gun show. For more information, visit http://www.fixgunchecks.org/ You can also click http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5610/c/237/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5564 to urge your legislator and Governor Dayton to keep our state background check system for gun purchases. A bill that would eliminate Minnesota's state system, HF 161, has passed the House Public Safety Committee. An average of 34 Americans are murdered everyday with guns.

The Council has voted on a list of requested " betterments " for the Central Corridor project. These are improvements to physical infrastructure that may be funded by the project if the contingency funds not all be needed for construction overruns. Some of the most exciting asks: Squaring off the intersection of Bedford and University Undergrounding Xcel power lines in Southeast Upgrading the fencing on the Cedar and 19th Ave S bridges and the Cedar Ave streetscape In addition, my office worked with the Mayor's office, Council Member Colvin Roy and Public Works staff to draft a resolution requesting a seat on the project’s “Change Control Board,” the body that will make decisions on which betterments to fund. This discussion does not include large-scale, standalone projects such as the work that has taken place at Franklin, East River Pkwy and 27th Ave SE, or Granary Road. It is important to note that Public Works and CPED staff have already been very successful in convin...

This morning, the Council passed an watered-down version of the Green and Healthy Housing ordinance. I voted for it, because it's a step in the right direction, but I'm disappointed in the final ordinance. When compared to the original proposal by staff, it's clear that it's been significantly scaled back. The initial proposal included the following requirements: energy audits for every single family home and duplex rental, with a requirement to reach a certain level of air sealing a furnace or boiler check every two years radon testing lead clearance testing for all rental units Receiving pushback from both policymakers and rental property owners, this was scaled back even before the ordinance language was drafted. It required only the following when first brought to the Regulatory Energy and Environment (REE) committee: energy audits only for single family homes, with a requirement to reach a certain level of air sealing a furnace or boiler test every two years lead c...

There's an interesting side-note to the Council's conversation about liquor store spacing rules this morning. I share it because it confirms my broader point that the Council made a decision this morning without even an adequate understanding of the facts. This morning, one of the Council Members reported confidently, on at least two separate occasions, that there were no more than three sites in the whole city of Minneapolis that were eligible for new liquor stores, due to the requirement that new liquor stores be at least 2,000 away from each other. This point was raised to say that this this issue was "much ado about nothing," because the number of potential sites for liquor stores is so extremely low even absent this change. Well, it turns out this information wasn't correct. According to a document that Regulatory Services staff sent this afternoon, there are currently sixteen sites that could accommodate new liquor stores per the 2,000 foot spacing requirem...

I thank everyone who shared their thoughts and views about the liquor store spacing decision I faced late last week. It was very helpful to hear from so many of you. The responses were quite mixed, with some strongly opposed, some strongly in favor and several leaning one way or the other. I ended up voting against the ordinance amendment at the Council meeting, but it passed by 7-6 margin. Unless there is a mayoral veto, Council Member Tuthill's proposed ordinance changing the spacing requirements for liquor stores from schools and religious places of assembly will soon become law. The old rule was that new liquor stores couldn't go in within 300 feet of a school or church, as measured from the front door of the liquor store to the front door of the school or church. What passed last week changes the way that the 300 feet is measured to be lot-line to lot-line. I want to be clear that there were several things about the proposal I found attractive. I basically support cha...