Finding a Green Way to Govern

Amy Senser has been charged with a felony in the hit-and-run that left True Thai chef "Ped" Phanthavong dead. I am glad to see charges brought. It is absolutely unacceptable to leave the scene of an accident, any accident, much less one involving a pedestrian. It is entirely possible, given the close proximity of Fairview Hospital, that Ms. Senser’s decision to flee contributed to Mr. Phanthavong’s death. My heart goes out to Ped’s family and friends at True Thai.

There is a heartfelt editorial in the Star Tribune about the recent hit-and-run on the off-ramp from I-94 to Riverside, written by one of the co-owners of True Thai restaurant.  She praises and shares some of her eulogy for the victim, "Ped" Phanthavong. I realize that this must be a difficult time for the Senser family.  But the Ped and his family have suffered even more.  It is simply unconscionable to flee the scene of an accident, especially one in which someone may have been seriously hurt or killed.  I hope that the Sensers will attempt, in some way, to make amends.

Mahdi Hassan Ali, the person most responsible for the triple slaying in Seward in January of last year, has been found guilty .  I hope that this gives the families of the victims some peace. I will continue to work on youth violence prevention policies and programs, to try to keep tragedies like this from occurring in the future. Apparently, this young man wanted to get his car out of the impound lot, and his terrible decisions have ensured that he will spend the rest of his life in prison, in addition to ending three innocent lives. We must find a way, as a society, to intervene in the lives of young people before they come to believe that violence is a legitimate way to solve their problems.

Yesterday, the City unveiled major improvements to the bike lanes on 15th Avenue Southeast.  The "conflict zones," where cars and trucks making turns cross the path of bicyclists going straight, are now colored green approaching the intersections with University Ave, 4th St, and 5th St.  At University and at 4th, the green coloration goes all the way through the intersection.  Most of the twin cities media covered the event: Fox 9 , KARE 11 , KSTP , WCCO ( twice ), the Daily , and the Star Tribune . This installation merited a public event for two main reasons.  The first is that the intersection of 15th and 4th is where University student Audrey Hull was hit and killed by a truck earlier this year.  The additional attention to these intersections is in part a response to that tragedy. Second, this installation is innovative in a number of ways.  While Minneapolis has experimented with green bike lanes in a few locations, this treatment is still rather...

Today, I received an email from Fire Department staff indicating that Life Time Fitness, the company that holds a City contract for health club memberships for Police and Fire staff, has reversed itself and will now cover domestic partners, both same-sex and opposite-sex, in their benefits program. I can't help but think this is, at least in part, a reaction to the difficulty that the Council had back in April in waiving our Domestic Partnership ordinance to continue to do business with Life Time.  Here's what I wrote back then: Waiver of Domestic Partnership Ordinance. I voted against granting a waiver of the City’s domestic partner ordinance to Life Time Fitness. This ordinance requires City contractors to provide the same benefits to same-sex domestic partners that they provide to married employees. Life Time Fitness does not provide these benefits. The City’s current contract with our Police and Fire unions obligates the City to provide health club memberships to these ...

The commercial recycling ordinance I authored that passed the Council unanimously back in June is going into effect.  Read more here . My office has been working with staff in several City departments - Regulatory Services, which oversees the commercial building inspection program, Communications, Sustainability and others - to make the ordinance's roll-out as smooth as possible.  There is a page for the City website under construction, and resources for both our inspectors and the affected property owners. Here's the City's news release on the ordinance going into effect.

The Managed Natural Landscape or "tall grass" ordinance I authored passed the Council unanimously this morning. This action represents the City's formal rules catching up with both the current best practices of our staff and the evolving aesthetics around yards in Minneapolis neighborhoods. Prairie plantings, whether native or not, have a number of real advantages over standard turf grass lawns.  They have deeper roots, which means they more effectively wick storm water into the ground, helping the City's goal of decreasing storm water quantity and improving storm water quality.  They typically require fewer artificial inputs, such as pesticide, fertilizer, and the energy required to mow.  They sequester more atmospheric carbon, and create more biodiversity and habitat for beneficial species like monarch butterflies. Many purposeful prairie plantings already exist in Minneapolis.  As of today, they have legal standing.  Our inspections staff...

As you can read here, there is a move afoot to improve the Pedicab ordinance in Minneapolis. A public hearing on this proposed ordinance will be held on September 12th, at the Regulatory Energy and Environment committee. The last such tweak was just a few years ago. It's a great example of how a change in the rules can make it possible for a new type of business to flourish - that last ordinance revision sparked an explosion of pedicabs in Minneapolis, especially in downtown. There are a few changes being requested both by City regulatory staff and by pedicab owners and operators, including making operators (rather than owners) responsible for traffic code violations, improving the safety requirements for the pedicabs themselves, and more. To my mind, however, the most important ask from the pedicab owners and operators is for the City to lift the prohibition on pedicabs in downtown during rush hour. The Minnneapolis Bicycle Advisory Committee has formally supported this idea...

This morning, the Council unanimously voted to create Minneapolis's first Food Policy Council. This was one of the key recommendations from the Homegrown Minneapolis initiative, all the way back to the first phase, in which we went out and heard from the community about their ideas for how the City could help the local food movement. This Food Policy Council will carry on the City's work on those of the other recommendations from Homegrown Minneapolis that have not been completed as part of Phase II.  In addition, it will be in place to advise the Council and Mayor on other food-related issues - trans fats, calorie labeling, etc. I am very pleased that the Council has taken this action, especially with such a strong show of support.  I look forward to working with the Mayor and others on finding the right people to serve on the first 'class' of this group. I want to thank the fantastic staff for the Homegrown Minneapolis initiative, June Mathiowetz, for ...

This was an exciting, difficult morning and early afternoon in Council chambers. The top-line actions: The Council failed to override the Mayor's veto, on the same 8-5 vote as the original motion. We voted for a compromise motion put together by the Mayor and Council Members Hodges, Samuels, and Goodman, that saved four firefighters through 2012. We voted not to take away the funding for the Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator.  I strongly opposed the attempt to take this funding, for the reasons you can read here.  I should note that I also heard loud and clear from the bicycle community that there is strong support for this position.  Within less than twenty-four hours, my office heard from over two dozen bicyclists and pedestrians in support of this position.  This is a testament to the good organizing of the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition,  The final vote was extremely lopsided: all of my colleagues ended up joining me in supporting the bicycle...