Finding a Green Way to Govern

You may recall that last year, there was some controversy about artistic water fountains being built by the City in various locations around town. The first of these fountains has been installed at Ancient Traders Market on East Franklin Ave and 11th Street. As you can see, it's a beautiful piece of functional public art. I have always supported this initiative, which Mayor Rybak took a significant political risk to push forward - and for which he continues to be attacked. It's become a standard right-wing talking point that Minneapolis "wastes money" on crazy , unnecessary things like artistic water fountains. I couldn't disagree more with this perspective. Public art makes our City livable for our residents, attractive to people thinking about moving here, and enjoyable for our visitors. Functional public art - like this lovely sculpture that also happens to distribute, free of charge, one of every human being's daily necessities - is even better. More impor...

The Profile Music Center, which was the site of this year's only homicide in Ward 2 to date, has applied for a lower license class . They have had a "Place of Entertainment" license for about ten years. This allowed them to host private events like wedding receptions, but also events open to the public - sort of like a nightclub without alcohol. These "teen nights" became notorious for the behavioral issues and conflicts that ensued, including several fights and the fatal shooting earlier this year. The Profile's owner Patrick Kellis, recognizing that he had a problem, has applied for a "Rental Hall" license. This will still allow wedding receptions, fundraisers and other private events, but will no longer allow nightclub-like shows. This should help reduce the spillover effects that this business has had on the surrounding community, especially the violence. There have also been parking concerns in the nearby Glendale public housing complex, and t...

Today in the Health Energy and Environment committee, we discussed an amendment to the Sustainability Indicator on "Employment and Poverty," which responds to a staff direction I moved last month. It establishes a new target indicator for reducing the gap in poverty rate between Minneapolis minority and white residents. According to the latest statistics (2008) 12.9% of white Minneapolis residents live at or below the federal poverty line, while 36% of non-whites in Minneapolis live at or below the poverty line. The 2009 Poverty Guidelines level depends on the number of people in your family. For a single adult it's $10,830; for a couple it's $14,570; for 3, $18,310 and for 4 it's $22,050. While our goal should be, and mine is to Here is the new goal that hope will pass the full Council on December 4. "Reduce the percentage of Minneapolis minority residents living in poverty from the 2008 Census Bureau reported average of 36% to that of the 2008 metropolitan...

Minnesota Public Radio has worked with Larry Jacobs from the Humphrey Institue on a post-election poll asking voters (and non-voters) what they thought of ranked choice voting. I've had the opportunity to review the report that was written based on this survey. (There are two things I should state for the record: first, I am a strong ranked choice voting advocate and serve on the board of FairVote Minnesota; second, Professor Jacobs applied for the contract to conduct the City's post-election poll, which was awarded instead to Saint Cloud State University.) Here are some of the key take-aways: - 56% of voters prefer ranked choice voting. - More than 90% of voters understood how to effectively cast their ballots. - 68% of voters think we should use ranked choice voting for Gubernatorial races. - Ranked choice voting saw a significant bump in popularity (13%) among people who voted on November 3. - More voters ranked a second choice than didn't (52% to 47% for Mayor) - 10-18...

A co-owner of the Hard Times Cafe brought an issue with the new Riverside bike lanes to our office's attention, and I'm happy to report it's been (mostly) resolved. 19th Ave S used to have two southbound left turn lanes onto Riverside - but after the 4-to-3 conversion, there's only one eastbound travel lane on Riverside. This forced drivers who turned from the righthand left turn lane to either merge during a turn (never a good idea) or drive in a bike lane until they could merge (also inadvisable). We alerted Public Works staff, who went out and changed both the street markings and the sign at 19th and Riverside, turning that right lane into a right-turn-only lane. Thanks to alert small business owners and Public Works for getting this taken care of. There's one other issue that needs to be addressed: a bus stop very close to the corner, on the right side of 19th. I suspect that buses will have some difficulty merging into the left lane to follow their route down R...