Finding a Green Way to Govern

This morning, the City's Director of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, Gulgun Kayim, presented a very interesting and helpful report on the City's Creative Vitality Index . The CVI is a tool that measures annual changes in the economic health of highly-creative industries using information about organizational revenue, jobs, and other measures from creative businesses and nonprofits.   The Twin Cities metro area is sixth in the nation for our CVI score, or four and a half times greater than the national average.   Some other key metrics: the creative economy is responsible for over $700 million in local economic activity; charitable giving to arts organizations in the Twin Cities is thirteen and a half times greater than the national average; approximately 5% of Minneapolis residents work in a creative occupation, and 21% of creative jobs in Minnesota are located in Minneapolis.    The five creative occupations with the most jobs, in order, are photographers...

In addition to this morning's changes to the City's legislative agenda on guns, the Council tackled another incredibly important issue: immigration reform.  You can read the action here , see a powerpoint on education policy here , and see the full recommendations of the City's Latino Engagement Task Force here . The Committee of the Whole unanimously approved two changes to our legislative agenda.  The first makes clear that we support allowing all students - regardless of immigration status - who graduate from Minnesota high schools to pay in-state tuition to attend Minnesota public colleges and universities, and to apply for scholarships from the U of M and Minnesota State College and University system.  This puts Minnesota kids who happen to be undocumented immigrants in the same position as other students (including kids from Wisconsin) when it comes to paying for college. The second action makes clear that we support modifying the M...

This morning, the Council's Committee of the Whole voted to support a new slate of priority and support items for the City's state and federal legislative agendas on guns.  I strongly supported this action.  This is the time for Minneapolis policymakers to stand up and defend our community from gun violence, and I'm proud that we are responding to the tragedy of Sandy Hook - and the tragedies that occur on an ongoing basis in Minneapolis neighborhoods, like the death of Neengco Xiong. It's important to understand that some of the items on this new gun-specific part of our state agenda are in the current agenda; they're just spread out within the public safety section.  We are getting clearer about our focus on guns by putting all of our existing and new positions in one central location. We're also taking a stand on federal gun policy by explicitly supporting President Obama's “ Now is the Time: The President’s plan to protect our children and our commu...

It looks like the federal government and national historic preservation experts may be more in line with our own Minneapolis Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) than the City Council is. This week MPR reported  that the federal government has listed Peavey Plaza on the National Register of Historic Places. When this came before the Council last year, I was the only council member who voted in support of the recommendation of our HPC to preserve the plaza, at least until after a formal study of its historical significance was completed. 

I am working to identify effective actions the City can take to reduce gun deaths and injuries in Minneapolis.   This will include, first, a set of state and /or federal legislative initiatives the City formally supported through the Intergovernmental Relations Committee in late January and, second, items included in a resolution that will come to the Public Safety, Health and Civil Rights Committee in February. I am working closely with the Mayor’s office, Council colleagues, the Police Chief, City Attorney, the Minneapolis Commissioner of Health and the Intergovernmental Relations staff. I welcome feedback. Ideas so far include the following: 1)     Legislative agendas a.     Repeal or amend the state preemption statute to allow local innovations, b.     Ban on semi-auto, c.     Ban on high-capacity magazines, d.     More discretionary power to municipalities to grant or deny gun permit...

This morning, the Council's Transportation and Public Works (TPW) committee passed a motion directing staff to develop a strategy for self-managed special service districts . F or more than two years now, the West Bank Business Association has been working on a process to form a self-managed special service district, known as the West Bank Improvement District.   Unfortunately, the City has not had a clear policy for responding to requests to form self-managed service districts.  There is interest from City staff and policymakers (including me), but there is no clear guidance.  The one self-managed service district in Minneapolis is the Downtown Improvement District (DID).  Early on in the process, folks on the West Bank (and elsewhere in Minneapolis) hoped that it would provide a template, but that wasn't a safe assumption.  The DID is huge, has a lot of money, has considerable political clout, and received exemptions from City ordinances that might not be e...

A few weeks ago, Janee Harteau was sworn in as the new Police Chief for the City of Minneapolis.  In Chief Harteau's inaugural speech she presented her core values and a clear vision for teh department in the years ahead. As I listened, I wished more people could have heard it, so I asked her for the text.  She sent it to me, and I have posted it below. Much of what she said inspires hope for an even better, more community-centered police department.  I e specially appreciated the lens she said she expects all MPD officers to use to judge their performance:  " Did my actions reflect how I would want a member of my family to be treated? " I think that's a great standard for all of us in government, including but certainly not limited to police officers, to hold ourselves to.  I'm glad that the Chief has laid it out so clearly and emphatically, for the public to hear and understand that this is the police department's aspiration. ...

This morning, the Council's Transportation and Public Works committee received a very informative report and presentation from Simon Blenski in the Public Works Bicycle and Pedestrian Office on bicycle crashes in Minneapolis.  The report is drawn from ten years of crash statistics in Minneapolis, and provides three key takeaways: Most crashes are occurring at intersections along major arterials. Motorists are not seeing or yielding to bicyclists. Bicyclists are not riding in a predictable manner. Item 1 is very interesting, and speaks to a need to do more projects like Public Works did on 15th Ave SE, where we clearly identified conflict areas between bicycles and turning vehicles.  Most of the motor vehicles involved in crashes are making turns, especially left turns.  This confirms my interest in the "Copenhagen Model" of cycle track facilities, in which bicyclists are physically separated from cars and intersections are treated very carefully to reduce ...

Congratulations to Minneapolis Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator Shaun Murphy for being named the seventy-fourth most influential person in the Twin Cities  by Minnesota Monthly!  He beats out every declared candidate for Mayor and every Council Member but Council President Johnson. In all seriousness, Shaun and his staff are doing a great job, as today's report on bike crashes again makes clear.  Creating his position was one of the most important things the Council has done for bicycling in the past ten years, and it's paying great dividends.  I'm proud that Cam helped lead the fight (against the Star Tribune , among others) for the position, and that we won that fight so resoundingly (11-2).  I'm glad to see Shaun getting some recognition in the media - it's good for bicycling in Minneapolis.

Representative Gabby Giffords was shot while speaking to her constituents two years ago today.  With her husband, she has launched a new organization to provide a counterbalance to the NRA: Americans for Responsible Solutions . From my perspective, the more organizations we have out there arguing for common-sense gun legislation, the better.  Giffords is in a very strong position to do this work, as a survivor of one of the far too many gun massacres this country has seen in the past few years. As we have seen in the aftermath of Newtown, the NRA is incapable of changing, unable to compromise, impervious to common sense.  They will oppose any and all regulations on guns, no matter how carefully crafted or how popular among the general public.  Their response to every massacre caused by military-grade weapons and indefensibly capacious magazines is to call for  more  guns in our society. The NRA cannot be convinced, reasoned with, or negotiated with. ...

2012 was a busy year for the Second Ward.  It was a year of some intense debate, some difficult losses, and great progress in many areas.   With the New Year upon us, Robin and I recently reviewed the past year’s work.  Here is summary of major accomplishments, projects started but still underway, as well as other initiatives we supported and a few we worked hard to oppose.

Kao Chongsua Xiong has been charged  with second-degree manslaughter in the accidental shooting death of his 2-year-old son, Neenjco.  This shooting occurred in Ward 2 . I don't envy Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman the decision he had to make on this case.  This man has already suffered the worst outcome possible from his reckless storage of his guns, the death of his child.  However, the reports I've read make clear to me that the way he stored not only the gun used in this fatal shooting, but at least some of the many  other  guns in the house as well, was not only reckless but illegal . It sounds like the guns have been removed from the family's home, and that the father has come to the conclusion that guns do not make his family safer . I hope that this case, and the publicity it generates, will make Minneapolis gun owners reconsider having these dangerous weapons in their homes.  I hope that it will also generate a larger conversati...