Finding a Green Way to Govern

The Star Tribune is out with an editorial calling the hiring of a Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator "tone deaf." I find it incredible how tone-deaf the Star Tribune can be. Scant days after a heart-rending letter to the editor on their own editorial page from the father of a bicyclist killed on Minneapolis streets, this once-reputable paper runs an editorial indicating that, though a bicycle-safety related position is not "fluff," (or that calling it that is "too harsh," anyway) it should have been delayed indefinitely because... wait for it... the optics are wrong. Some Tea Partier may be offended and use this position, which exists in many other comparable cities, created with no new dollars, in the same timeframe as potential layoffs in another department as fodder for a substanceless attack on Minneapolis. But wait, the Star Tribune has already done just that! Has the Minneapolis Star Tribune become a mouthpiece of the Tea Party? Is our city well...

This morning, the Star Tribune ran three letters on the bicycle coordinator kerfuffle they created yesterday. The most striking was from Harry Hull, Audrey Hull's father. It's heartbreaking: My daughter, Audrey Hull, was recently killed by a truck while riding her bicycle at the corner of 15th Av. and 4th St. in Minneapolis. If the city had hired a bicycle and pedestrian coordinator years ago -- a position that exists in many comparable cities -- the changes now proposed for that demonstrably dangerous corner might have been in place on April 21, 2011, and Audrey might still be alive. I urge Minneapolis to proceed with its plans to hire the bicyclist and pedestrian coordinator so that fewer families will have to bear the emptiness that I now carry in my heart. Jim Skoog, the Minneapolis Bicycle Advisory Committee member representing Ward Four, called the Strib on its shoddy, sensationalistic coverage: The article misleads readers into thinking that the firefig...

On Tuesday, August 23 rd , at 11pm, 39-year-old True Thai employee Anousone Phanthavong was hit and killed by what State Patrol officers believe was a Mercedes SUV on the Riverside ramp up from I-94.   The driver fled the scned.  If you know anything about this incident, please call the Minneapolis Police Department at (612) 692-TIPS.

The Star Tribune has run an article  regarding an apparent conflict between funding for firefighters and for a new Bicycle and Pedestrian coordinator in Public Works.  I don't see it.  I support having both an adequately staffed fire department and an adequately staffed Public Works department that includes a new bicycle and pedestrian coordinator within our transportation team.  I believe that transportation services, including maintaining streets, traffic signals, parking services and related infrastructure in a core essential service the City provides. I am concerned that the article presents a false choice between this coordinator position and public safety.  In fact, the bike/walk coordinator position  is a public safety position.  According to the records from our Public Works department, there were 46 bike/ped fatalities in Minneapolis between 2000 and 2009, and 5,509 ...

Last Friday, at one of the most contentious Council meetings I've experienced in some time, I joined seven of my colleagues in voting for a plan to save 10 Minneapolis firefighters from being laid off. How did we get here? The dilemma we faced Friday was a direct result of the State Legislature's decision not to provide the City its allotted $87.5 million for 2011, as part of the State reallocation of the local property and sales taxes it collects from Minneapolis and other cities throughout the state.  Instead, for no defensible reason other than an incapacity to balance its own budget, the State allocated only $64 million.  That's a cut of $23.5 million, to a general fund of $392 million, 46% of which is dedicated to Police and Fire.  There's no way around it - the Legislature assured that we'd be making painful cuts to balance this year's budget. Because we knew this was a possibility earlier this year, the Council ...