Finding a Green Way to Govern

This is big news and something we have been working for for a while. I wanted to share it with you all. One of the very important decisions we have to try to influence at this point is the level of arsenic in soil that the EPA will deem "background" for this site, which I have heard could be anywhere from 10-17 parts per million. *** CONTACT: Mick Hans, 312-353-5050, hans.mick@epa.gov FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 07-OPA161 EPA adds South Minneapolis arsenic site to Superfund National Priorities List CHICAGO (Sept. 19, 2007) - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today named the South Minneapolis Residential Soil Contamination site in Minneapolis, Minn., for addition to the Superfund National Priorities List. The site was proposed for addition to the NPL in September 2006, followed by a 60-day comment period. The South Minneapolis site encompasses a number of neighborhoods near the intersection of 28th Street and Hiawatha Avenue, where the CMC Heartland Lite Yard was located fro...

There is an idea for increasing bicycle mode share that seems to be catching on in this country. Of course, we're just catching up - it's been used in European cities for years. I've been calling it the " Copenhagen Model ." The idea is to change the location of bike lanes on streets. On many Minneapolis streets, the layout is: sidewalk, parking lane, bike lane, driving lane, driving lane, bike lane, parking lane, sidewalk. In the Copenhagen Model, the bike lane moves between the parking lane and sidewalk, for a layout like this: sidewalk, bike lane, parking, driving lane, driving lane, parking, bike lane, sidewalk. New York City, again trying to catch up with Minneapolis, has recently proposed to install a very similar system as you can read about in this New York Times article . I believe that this layout offers some important benefits. It removes bicyclists from direct contact with moving cars, prevents conflicts with cars parking or pulling from parking spaces...

Some months back, Regulatory Services staff noticed an interesting, odd lack in the ordinances regulating grocery stores in Minneapolis: they don't require the store to sell any food. This came about as part of the Grocery Store Task Force that my Northside colleague Don Samuels has been working on, mostly as a response to some problematic corner "grocery stores" in his Ward. When staff first came to the Public Safety and Regulatory Services committee, however, their recommendation left something to be desired. They recommended that the Council add the following requirement to the ordinance regulating grocery stores: "All grocery stores shall stock, and have available for sale, a variety of non-expired staple food items." This did not include a definition of "staple" food items. In committee, I asked what this would entail. Specifically, due to my work on "food deserts" through the Local Produce Market initiative, I was interested in whether...

On Monday, the Health, Energy and Environment Committee voted to "receive and file" the report from staff on their policy changes creating the new Local Produce Market process. At my urging, committee members rejected Council Member Diane Hofstede's attempt to introduce a substitute motion sending the report back to staff for more work. Diane objected to the fact that the process will not fully recover the estimated staff costs - the new process will cost the City $165 per market the first year and $91 per market every subsequent year. As I pointed out, this is a significant improvement over the cost recovery in the standard Farmer's Market process, which loses the City $386 the first year and $114 every subsequent year. My office will be working with staff from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and City staff in the Regulatory Services, Zoning and Health and Family Support departments to set up meetings with interested Council Members to discuss where...

The Community Engagement Task Force I worked so hard to form has drafted a report detailing its recommendations for improvements to the City's Community Engagement processes. I have decided to hold my October roundtable discussion on the topic of Community Engagement, using the report as a starting point for a larger conversation about the broad topic of how the City can better activate, support and empower its increasingly diverse populations. This meeting, specifically focused on Second Ward residents, but open to everyone, will be held: Monday, October 15, 7-9pm Augsburg College Christensen Center Minneapolis Room, 2nd Floor 22nd Ave S & 7 ½ Street There will also be a series of more general City-hosted public meetings to discuss the report: Tuesday, October 9, 6:30-8:30 pm Windom Park Recreation Center gym, 2251 Hayes St NE Wednesday, October 10, 6-8 pm North Commons Park gym, 801 James Ave N Tuesday, October 16, 11am-1 pm (open house format) Central Library board room, ...