The Cities Category Archive: Livability

Wheelchairs get a lift for bus travel

Posted at 2:01 PM on May 22, 2012 by Tim Nelson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Transportation

Mark Hughes may not be fleet of foot -- he uses a wheelchair, after all. But he got ahead of Greyhound.

The disability advocate says he tried to take the bus to Chicago two years ago, only to discover that the bus didn't have a working lift to get him on board. The bus left without him, so he took action and filed a formal complaint with the state's Human Rights Department.

Now, he's won a $4,000 settlement and a pledge from the carrier to do better. He released the settlement with Greyhound this morning.

"We got training for all the state of Minnesota Greyhound drivers, training to help handle the lifts and handle the disability travelers needs," Hughes said.

It's a big deal for people who need specialized transportation, Hughes added. "Of course gas is what, $3.62 a gallon I guess it is now. That's an expense that the disabled community has to incur, and when your vehicles get 12 to 15 miles a gallon, if you're taking any distance trip at all... Greyhound is pretty important."

Hughes attorney, Justin Page, says incidents like this aren't common, but that there have been a few others across the country. But he says its a big deal for those directly effected: "For people with disabilities, you show up at the Greyhound station, you think you have a lift-equipped bus, and you don't... you're stuck."

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The bain and blessing of surface parking lots

Posted at 3:20 PM on May 17, 2012 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Livability, Minneapolis

Welcome to my downtown Minneapolis neighborhood in a photo from 56 years ago, courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society.

Surface parking lots are nothing new.

A Google Maps photo of this Warehouse District block shows a building has sprouted there.

But the Google photo also shows a breathtaking array of newer downtown surface parking lots.

How many? An estimate was floated over libations the other night with my friend Bill Clements, a former Finance and Commerce newspaper reporter who studied the question.

The answer? Bill's estimate, calculated a few years ago, is that a third of downtown Minneapolis is devoted to surface parking.

You don't need to take Bill's word for it. Google, "downtown Minneapolis." Zoom in a bit and count 'em. An amazing number of blocks are devoted to parking gas burners.

An excellent piece of reporting on the issue is here.

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Vote for how to build bridges across faiths and cultures

Posted at 10:55 AM on May 15, 2012 by Laura Yuen (2 Comments)
Filed under: Immigration, Livability, Race, Religion

A contest asking the public to pitch their best ideas on how to work across ethnic and religious lines is now open for a vote.

An eight-judge panel for the Minnesota Idea Open picked five ideas that it believes rose to the top of a field of more than 600 submissions. They finalists include:

- "Multicultural barn raisings" in which armies of volunteers would bring together people of various backgrounds to build playgrounds or work on home projects for the less fortunate (see YouTube video clip above);

- An oral history project featuring immigrants who have come to Steele County over the past 75 years;

- A kid-friendly dialogue in which children can share face time with Minnesota leaders from all walks of life;

- A seven-step challenge led by young Muslim women encouraging conversations about Islam through activities ranging from church-hopping to handing out free pink hijabs;

- An exhibit of 8-by-12 tents, fashioned after those used in refugee camps, that tell the story of a different group persecuted because of its race, religion, ethnicity or national origin.

You can learn more about the submissions and cast your ballots here.

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Maine a preview of MN's marriage vote?

Posted at 7:00 PM on May 11, 2012 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts , Livability, Marriage amendment, Minneapolis, Politics, Religion

Anyone interested in Minnesota's vote on a constitutional amendment defining marriage this November will find the documentary Question One intriguing.

Filmmakers Joe Fox and James Nubile got extraordinary behind-the-scenes access to both sides of the debate over Maine's 2009 referendum on marriage. In an interview from his office in New York, Fox explained he "wanted to tell the human story of the people caught up in the fight that would change their lives."

Fox will be in Minneapolis for screenings of the film May 14-19 at 7 p.m. at the Mall of America Theatre as part of the Twin Cities Film Festival.

For three months, the film crew embedded "war-room style" as Maine voters considered whether to repeal a state law that had legalized same sex marriage. (Spoiler alert: Maine voters repealed the law, but it's headed for a rematch this November.)

So what are the lessons for Minnesota?

Fox says to expect the same playbook. The Yes on One campaign was run by Frank Schubert, a Sacramento-based PR consultant who also led successful campaigns for Prop 8 in California, in North Carolina last week and is working with Minnesota for Marriage.

Even knowing the outcome, the film is dramatic. Right up to the vote, the No on One side was polling ahead. Why did they lose? The No on One campaign director wonders in the aftermath, "People lied in the polling, and that's been eating away at me."

Looking back, Fox remembers a portend. In the phone bank room, Fox overheard Yes callers telling people who were supporting gay neighbors or friends that gays and lesbians already had their civil rights and they didn't need marriage. "When I heard those calls, there was something in my gut--and the person changed their mind during the course of the call--that I felt perhaps the No side would not win."

Lesson number 2:

"Never underestimate the passion of people," said Fox. "I went into this thinking the passions would mostly come from a religious base and yes, that was true, but the passions went beyond that," said Fox, reflecting on the winning side. "These were people that felt they were being ignored, their voices weren't being heard and there was a rage that was brewing inside of these people that their leaders weren't listening to them."

Lesson number 3:

Conversations matter. "I saw how people's minds were changed through one knock on the door and the hello that followed," said Fox. "You're not fighting an issue. It's all personal."

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Lutheran Catholic Frenemies?

Posted at 12:30 PM on May 4, 2012 by Sasha Aslanian (11 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Marriage amendment, Minneapolis, Religion

This weekend, the Minneapolis ELCA celebrates the installation of Ann Svennungsen as the new bishop of the largest Lutheran synod in the United States.

The Lutherans are pulling out all the glam for this event at Central Lutheran Church Sunday afternoon: pastors processing in red vestments, the St. Olaf College Choir and the Augsburg College Woodwind Quintet.

Dignitaries include the presiding Bishop of the ELCA, Mark Hanson, and a Lutheran Archbishop from Nigeria.

It will no longer, apparently, include Archbishop John Nienstedt, of the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Although his name was on the ELCA press release as an ecumenical guest, he cancelled his appearance on Tuesday. A spokesman for the Archdiocese confirmed the Archbishop had "a change in plans."

From reading Rose French's excellent piece in the Star Tribune last fall (Minnesota Bishops, Catholic, Lutheran share common ground), we know Catholic and Lutheran leaders have enjoyed a 35-year dialogue and friendship.

But they are also notably far apart on such issues as the ordination of women, and the marriage amendment on the November ballot which would define marriage as between one man and one woman. The Minneapolis ELCA voted to oppose the amendment, while the Catholic Bishops have made its passage a top political priority.

The Archbishop's no-show at Svennungsen's installation brings to mind an earlier chapter in Lutheran-Catholic relations.

In 1998, a tornado tore through St. Peter, Minnesota, destroying the Catholic Church of St. Peter.

(Photo of Catholic Church of St. Peter courtesy of St. Peter Kiwanis)

First Lutheran Church offered the use of its building for the two years it would take their Catholic neighbors to rebuild. First Lutheran administrator Paul Aasen recalled the deep friendship that grew between the two congregations. A sign was even erected out front, "First Lutheran Catholic Church", that Aasen said elicited some double-takes.

According to Aasen, Father Harry Behan, the Irish priest at St. Peter's, good-naturedly wished the Lutherans a "happy Reformation Sunday." Reformation Sunday marks Martin Luther's break with the Catholic Church nearly 500 years ago.

Father Behan and First Lutheran Pastor Mark Solyst held separate worship times for their flocks on Sunday mornings, but Maundy Thursday, Christ's Last Supper with his disciples, presented a special challenge. Both congregations were used to an evening service. According to a 2007 history of First Lutheran Church written by Donald Gustafson, "A logical but improbable solution was suggested--a joint Lutheran-Catholic communion!"

Mass with the Lutherans apparently proved too much for Behan's Bishop, Father John Nienstedt, then Bishop of New Ulm. Behan was reprimanded, and shipped off to serve two small parishes in the southwestern Minnesota. He's since retired in his native Ireland.

I emailed Behan to ask about Nienstedt's censure of his ecumenical work with the Lutherans. He wrote back:

"The people of St. Peter, in the aftermath of the tornadoes, prayed together, worked together, shared resources and worship spaces, cared together for those who lost property, their health and even a child, to such an extent that it was ecumenism in action. Many of the barriers between different churches disappeared and we were uplifted and joyful as a result. There are so many great stories from that period that 'that all may be one' (Ut unum sint) that we treasure the spiritual progress to this day. This was one of the silver linings in the tragedy that happened. I do not wish to speak about the differences with Bishop John Nienstedt except to say that although 'That all might be one' is his motto, he seemed to need to control everything rather than pastorally make the motto happen."

According to Archdiocese spokesman Jim Accurso, relations with the Lutherans are "good" and the Archbishop had another unspecified engagement.

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Seeing the forest for the trees

Posted at 4:19 PM on April 27, 2012 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Minneapolis City Council member Diane Hofstede and state Rep. Bobby Joe Champion, center, share a shovel as they help plant the first of 3,100 boulevard trees to replace the damaged tree canopy in north Minneapolis. Last May's tornado downed about 2,400 boulevard trees and 3,425 park trees. Also joining in are City Council members Don Samuels and Barb Johnson and state Rep. Joe Mullery. Holding the tree is forestry worker Bee Yang. My colleague Laura Yuen took this photo April 9.

My little tree-hugging heart swelled yesterday when I arrived home.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board crews have planted new trees on the boulevard to replace the ones that died from some kind of bug.

Tomorrow, April 28, the non profit Tree Trust group will host two free workshops on proper tree planting and care 10 to 11 a.m., April 28, Powderhorn Park and 7 to 8 p.m., May 1, UROC (the University of Minnesota's Urban Research and Outreach Engagement Center at 2001 Plymouth Ave. N.). To register, contact Tree Trust's Forestry Department at 952-767-3886.

The workshop is aimed at folks who have asked to have trees planted. City and park officials say 7,500 trees have been planted in the past five years.

When St. Paul city officials took stock of their tree situation they came up with these facts:

Tree canopy covers 32.5% of the total land area of Saint Paul

66.2% of Saint Paul is suitable for tree canopy cover

Residential, single-family parcels offer the greatest area for increased canopy cover

If you want the big picture for the state of Minnesota's tree story, there's a dandy discussion in the newest issue of the University of Minnesota's CFAN's magazine.

Couple of points emerge: There are too many maples, and urban tree life expectancy is relatively short because of stress.

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Thirty days of biking

Posted at 1:57 PM on April 18, 2012 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: History, Livability, Minneapolis

We're midway through the group's call for pedaling somewhere everyday during the month of April.

Sadly, my machine isn't even off the garage storage rack.

Part of the reason is I spend too much time at the computer looking at old cycling photos including my favorite courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society.

All the MnHS caption says is Bessie Ingersoll on a bicycle about 1900. I like it for a number of reasons, not the least of which is Ms. Ingersoll made a smashing fashion statement while cycling - note especially the jaunty feather in her hat.

More serious students of cycling history than I know that back in the old days two wheelers were a big part of life. Cars were way too expensive. Roads were, well, not much more than ox cart trails. Here's a photo courtesy of the MnHS titled, "Interior, Frederick Roach Bicycle Shop, 519 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis.1904" Very cool.

Bike clubs were all the rage even then. Here's the MnHS Flour City Bike Club photo from 1890.

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Minnesota Idea Open announces semifinalists

Posted at 11:30 AM on April 18, 2012 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts , Education, Food, Immigration, Livability, Race

A statewide call for creativity on how to build relationships across faiths and cultures produced a staggering 600 ideas.

That set a new record for the Minnesota Idea Open, which is in its third year.

Which ideas rose to the top? An interactive food truck, a charity flash mob, multicultural barn-raisings, and a mobile app for "culturally curious Minnesotans" were among the 25 semi-finalists announced today. You can read about the individual pitches here.

An eight-judge panel of media professionals and community and faith leaders will whittle the finalists to five in May. Then the competition will open to the public for voting, "American Idol"-style. Three winners will each receive $15,000 to implement their ideas.

Created by the Minnesota Community Foundation, the challenge aims to engage the state's residents to learn about critical issues and develop new solutions. This year's challenge is working across ethnic, racial and religious lines in a state that's becoming increasingly diverse. Our three-part series "The Outsiders" grew out of this initiative.

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Minneapolis expands recycling

Posted at 5:02 PM on April 5, 2012 by Madeleine Baran (2 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Add milk cartons, juice boxes, yogurt cups and takeout containers to the growing list of items you can recycle in Minneapolis.

The city is expanding its recycling program to include "nearly all of the frequently used containers that used to end up in the trash."

From the city's news release:

Customers can recycle cartons - that includes milk cartons, juice boxes and soup, broth and wine cartons - and plastic containers including yogurt cups, cottage cheese containers and deli and takeout containers. Minneapolis recycling crews will pick up these additional items with the regular recycling. Cartons can go in the same bag with the paper.

Customers can now recycle the plastic caps and lids on plastic containers and should leave them on the container (after rinsing, of course) or they will literally slip through the cracks of the recycling machinery.

The city's website has the details.

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MnDOT wants to make bicycling safer and more usable

Posted at 6:00 AM on March 19, 2012 by Jessica Mador (2 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is urging cyclists to comment on Minnesota's statewide bicycle planning study. Eight similar public meetings occurred across the state in late February and March.

"Minnesota is often recognized as one of the top bicycle-friendly states in the country, and the best way to continue improving is to learn from constituents who use the highways, bike lanes and shoulders to bike," said Tim Mitchell, MnDOT bicycle and pedestrian coordinator.

A meeting on the project is scheduled on March 29 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the University of Minnesota Urban Research and Outreach Center, located at 2001 Plymouth Avenue North.

MnDOT is seeking input on what should be improved to make bicycling a safer and more usable transportation option, ideas for future bicycling accommodations on Minnesota roads and barriers to making improvements. Officials say the feedback they collect will help them improve and develop consistent policies and practices for including bicycle components, such as wide shoulders or bike lanes, on future highway and bridge construction projects. It also will help MnDOT develop a new electronic and printable statewide bicycle map.

The public may also submit written comments to greta.alquist@state.mn.us or Greta Alquist, MnDOT Office of Transit MS 315, 395 John Ireland Blvd., St. Paul, MN, 55155.

Anyone unable to attend meetings in-person may join a statewide webinar discussion this Thursday, March 22, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Webinar details are posted at www.mndot.gov/bike/study.html.

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Minnesota Nice, explained.

Posted at 3:10 PM on March 15, 2012 by Laura Yuen (23 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

Cathy Schaefer of Minneapolis, left, chats with Rayane Alamuddin of Minneapolis during a gathering of "League of Extraordinary Women." Schaefer said she started the group as a way to meet people in Minnesota after she moved here more than two years ago. (Photo by Jeff Thompson)

I've been digging out from all the responses we've received from our series exploring Minnesota's polite reservedness toward newcomers.

One lengthy email came from Roger McKnight, a retired professor from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter. McKnight, who taught Scandinavian studies, was disappointed we did not explain the roots of our state's perceived standoffishness.

In a nutshell, the state's settlers from northern or central Europe -- primarily Germany and Scandinavia -- had a profound impact on how the social culture here developed, McKnight contends.

"The traditional culture of Norway/Sweden was for centuries based on the concept of One People, One Language, One Religion," McKnight writes. "Swedes' lifelong friends were chosen from among people they went to school with and their kinship group. An individual made friends slowly, but they were friends for life --- in the true sense of the term 'for life.'"

Anyone who has lived in Scandinavia, as McKnight did for years, knows that "it's somewhat hard to get an 'in' there," he said. But once the friendship is established, "all barriers to communication break down and there results a torrent of friendship, expressions of sincerity, and even personal confidences."

Ylwa Eklund Falk and Fredrik Eklund, who moved here from Sweden last year, pray at Eagle Brook Church in Lino Lakes. (Photo by Alex Kolyer)

The lovely young Swedish couple I met in the second part of my series, Ylwa Eklund Falk and Fredrik Eklund, also pointed out this cultural nuance. Falk once heard one of her countrymen compare Swedish stoicism to American friendliness with a clever fruit analogy.

"Americans are like peaches. They have this nice, soft outer shell that's easy to penetrate. And there's a tight, hard core that's hard to get underneath," she told me. "Swedes are kind of like oranges. It's a thick, hard peel at first, but there's a big soft mushy inside."

In other words, once you get to know a Swede, "we tend to be very open about our lives," Falk said. "With Americans, it's easy to get to know them, but hard to make American friends."

This interesting mix of fierce loyalty and initial aloofness apparently applies to Germans, too. That's according to my colleague Alex Friedrich, son of a German immigrant. Alex lived in his father's home country for five years, and says the people there tend to be more reserved.

"No one moved. Everyone already had their friends already," he said. "They see friendship as a sort of investment, and they consider Americans shallow people who say 'LOVE YOU!' and then flake out when you need them. No need to bother with us unless we prove our worth."

But the Germans -- and Minnesotans -- will lend a hand when it counts, Friedrich said. Not because they're warm and loving, but because it's the right thing to do.

"After growing up in California, I've come to appreciate that way of thinking," he said. "My home state is really flaky."

Moreover, Professor McKnight explains, there's something in Scandinavian culture called the Law of Jante, a proverbial concept that values understatedness over backslapping. Tell me if his description sounds familiar:

"Not making a fuss of oneself, not boasting in public, not thinking a person is better than anyone else," he says. "It says in the ten commandments: Don't think you are better than us; don't think you can stand out from us. In short, conform and don't make a commotion of yourself."

So there you have it.

Many, like McKnight, applaud Minnesotans for their sincerity.

But judging from the barrage of responses and social-media chatter our series generated, a lot of transplants to the state are having trouble moving their relationships from "acquaintance" to "friend for life." Some have even emailed us asking for advice on where to meet people.

Here's hoping when they do find friends, they'll be rewarded with that big, soft mushy inside.

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Bigger compost piles coming to Minneapolis

Posted at 1:48 PM on March 8, 2012 by Curtis Gilbert (1 Comments)
Filed under: Food, Livability, Minneapolis

Minneapolis has made way for bigger backyard compost piles.

The City Council passed an ordinance today allowing back yard composters up to 245 cubic feet for a typical tenth-of-an-acre city lot. That's seven feet square and five feet high -- about twice the capacity the previous law allowed. If you have a bigger lot or one that doesn't have a house on it, you can make your heap even bigger.

Creative commons photo from @nacybeetoo via flickr.

The piles must be contained with something durable -- a wooden box, say -- but they don't need to be covered with anything more than "leaves, straw, wood chips, or finished compost."

Neighbors worried about the smell of decomposing organic matter can take comfort in this, though: Only plants are kosher for composting within city limits.

No humanure in Minneapolis, please.

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Does anybody know what part of my car fell off this morning?

Posted at 11:05 AM on March 1, 2012 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

This apparently got knocked loose while I maneuvered my car over a minor ice canyon that formed around my parked car overnight. The city of Minneapolis decided not to declare a snow emergency. In a press release, a city spokesman said the above-freezing daytime temperatures made the action unnecessary.

Of course, overnight temperatures got just cold enough to solidify the unplowed snow - especially on side streets - and turn them into mini-mountain ranges.

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Upcoming open houses on Gateway Corridor

Posted at 1:55 PM on February 27, 2012 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul , Suburbs, Transportation

The Gateway Corridor Commission is holding four open houses in March and early April, seeking public input on the eight proposed alternative transit options being considered for the project. The Gateway Corridor is a proposed transitway that would run east from the Twin Cities near Interstate 94 and U.S. Highway 12 to Wisconsin.

Check out this map.

The project is part of the Metropolitan Council's 2030 Transportation Policy Plan. Alternatives under consideration include commuter rail, light rail, bus rapid transit and express bus service. The Gateway Corridor Alternatives Analysis is funded through a combination of federal funds, the Counties Transit Improvement Board, Washington and Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authorities, and the Metropolitan Council.

The public open houses will be held:

Tuesday, March 27
6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Presentation at 6:30
Eastside Community Center
Harding Senior High School
1526 East 6th Street, St. Paul, MN

Thursday, March 29
5:00 - 7:00 p.m.
Presentation at 5:30
Chippewa Valley Technical College
Room 118, Health Education Center
615 W. Clairemont Avenue, Eau Claire, WI

Wednesday April 4
5:00 - 7:00 p.m.
Presentation at 5:30
St. Croix County Government Center
Lower Level (enter by Sheriff's Office)
1101 Carmichael Road, Hudson, WI

Thursday, April 5
5:00 - 7:00 p.m.
Presentation at 5:30
Woodbury City Hall
Ash/Birch Room, Main Floor
8301 Valley Creek Road, Woodbury, MN

Organizers say the meetings will include a short presentation on the modes and routes of new transit, as well as the proposed station locations. The presentation will also cover ridership projections, as well as the potential economic and community impacts of the transit options. Staff will be available to answer questions, and there will be an opportunity for attendees to provide both written and verbal comments.

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Two new council members back downtown development

Posted at 9:53 AM on February 23, 2012 by Curtis Gilbert (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, St. Paul

The St. Paul City Council on Wednesday approved a key piece of financing for the downtown apartment complex and grocery store development known as the Penfield. The vote was 4-3, with the council's two new members, Chris Tolbert and Amy Brendmoen, supporting it.

Rendition of the Penfield

The vote cemented about a quarter of the $62 million project's funding by earmarking future property tax revenue generated by the development to finance it. The council approved the overall plan in December, but that was before Tolbert and Brendmoen took office.

Council member Dave Thune, who represents downtown, told the Pioneer Press the vote was the project's "final hurdle."

Council members Russ Stark, Melvin Carter and Kathy Lantry maintained their opposition to the project. The building, which will be located on 10th St. & Minnesota St., is expected to be completed by July of 2014.

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Hennco residents--get your shots!

Posted at 5:06 PM on February 22, 2012 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Health, Livability, Minneapolis

Hennepin County Public Health is publicizing three walk-in immunization clinics aimed at people who don't have health insurance, or whose insurance doesn't cover shots.

The county notes that flu season is reaching its peak.

(If you'd like to geek out on flu data, check out the MN Dept of Health web site where you can find Weekly Influenza & Respiratory Activity.)

Shots are free to anyone who doesn't have insurance, though donations are requested.

All are walk-in clinics so no appointments are needed. The clinics will be:

Bloomington Clinic: Bloomington Division of Health, 1900 W. Old Shakopee Road, March 6 and 20, 3 to 5:30 p.m.

Brooklyn Center Clinic: Hennepin County's Brookdale Service Center, 6125 Shingle Creek Road, March 27, 9 to 11 a.m.

Downtown Minneapolis Clinic: Hennepin Health Services Building, 525 Portland Ave. S., March 2, 8:30 to 11 a.m.

For more information about these clinics, call 612-348-2884 or go to www.hennepin.us/vaccines.

Get your shot, sneeze into your elbow and wash your hands.

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Free energy improvements for Frogtown

Posted at 3:10 PM on February 22, 2012 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Livability, St. Paul

Frogtown residents and property owners are eligible for free energy audits and energy efficiency improvements.

Neighborhood Energy Connection's Home Energy Squad will visit Frogtown through March 31. This Xcel Energy-sponsored program helps homeowners, renters and landlords improve their homes' comfort and energy efficiency and lower their utility bills. Home Energy Squad crews need about two hours to install energy-saving measures like programmable thermostats, CFL light bulbs, water-saving faucet aerators and showerheads, insulated water heater blankets, and door weather stripping.

The NEC's Home Energy Squad will go door-to-door offering its free services. But the organization is urging anyone in the neighborhood who's interested to call and schedule a free Home Energy Squad visit at 651-328-6221 or www.thenec.org.

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Minneapolis touts housing program

Posted at 4:17 PM on February 7, 2012 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

As states' attorneys general discuss a proposed settlement with five banks over their foreclosure practices, Minneapolis is touting its foreclosure recovery strategy.

The city today says its Minneapolis Advantage Program has helped nearly 350 homebuyers purchase homes in neighborhoods stressed by foreclosure since 2008.

The forgivable loan program assists homebuyers with down payment and closing costs. Officials say the city's investment of $1.2 million in the program has leveraged an additional $3.2 million from Wells Fargo, Minnesota Housing, Federal Home Loan Bank Des Moines and through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

"This financial assistance enables a buyer to purchase a house, and that helps to rebuild the neighborhoods," said council member Elizabeth Glidden, who represents Ward 8.

Stats on the Minneapolis Advantage Program:

• All homes had to be foreclosed, vacant, or in a high foreclosure-impacted neighborhood.
• Loan recipients purchased homes in 30 Minneapolis neighborhoods.
• Nearly 350 homes have been purchased.
• Nearly 60% of the home buyers moved to Minneapolis from elsewhere.
• 89% of the recipients are first time home buyers.
• 48% of the home buyers are between the ages of 31-50.
• Average household size is two.
• 49% of the homes' purchase prices are less than $100,000; 39% of purchase prices are between $100,000-$150,000.

More funds are available in 2012. Approximately $400,000, or around 25 loans, is available to help potential buyers purchase a foreclosed home in eligible neighborhoods. Based on income eligibility requirements, buyers within 80% of the area median income (approximately $64,000 for a four-member household) can receive up to $20,000 and buyers within 120% of the area median income (approximately $100,700 for a four-member household) can receive up to $10,000. These funds can be used to pay for closing costs and down payment assistance.

For more information, call the Greater Metropolitan Housing Corporation, program administrator, at (612) 588-3033.

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New video game aims to scare young drivers safe

Posted at 5:15 PM on February 1, 2012 by Jessica Mador (2 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Livability, Transportation

A new Internet video game may help teens and young adults understand how easily they can get distracted behind the wheel. The Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Institute at the University of Minnesota is calling the game it developed "Distraction Dodger."

Players drive a virtual pizza delivery vehicle in the imaginary pizza-loving city of Little Moots. To help build a successful pizza business, players are tempted to use a smart phone, social media, and GPS while driving. If they choose to distract themselves, they must do so while avoiding obstacles, traffic tickets, and of course, an accident.

As Distraction Dodger players progress through the game's levels, they get feedback about their driving performance and level of distraction. Michael Manser, director of the HumanFIRST Program at the ITS Institute, says the feedback can be an eye opener.

For young drivers who believe they can do it all and not negatively affect driving, the Distraction Dodger game offers a reality check.

According to the National Safety Council, distractions are the leading cause of motor vehicle crashes. Texting or talking on the phone are particularly well-documented dangers, significantly slowing a driver's reaction time and increasing the likelihood of a crash. Other driving distractions include talking with passengers, eating and drinking, using a navigation system, putting on makeup, shaving and adjusting the radio or music players.

Distraction Dodger will premiere at the Teen Safe Driving Summit on Thursday, Feb. 2, at the Rosemount Community Center, 13885 S. Robert Trail, Rosemount.

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Lawmakers graded for efforts on racial equity

Posted at 3:15 PM on January 26, 2012 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Politics, Race

Almost three dozen Senate and House lawmakers got As. More than a dozen earned Fs and Gov. Dayton received a grade of B-minus for efforts to advance racial equity last year. The report card gave the Legislature a D overall for 2011. The Legislature got an F for budget equity.

The Organizing Apprenticeship Project Thursday released its 6th annual Legislative Report Card on Racial Equity for 2011, which grades lawmakers and the governor on their performance proposing and advancing bills that would improve racial equity in the state. Organizer Vina Kay says lawmakers need to do a better job to increase equality among all of Minnesota residents.

"There are these huge disparities at the very same time that we are seeing and increase in populations of color in Minnesota so something isn't working right in the structures that support our communities," Kay said. "They are not serving everybody well."

Kay's group held a rally at the capitol to highlight their findings.

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Free fun with Finns

Posted at 1:55 PM on January 18, 2012 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts , Immigration, Livability, Minneapolis

This photo courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society has former governor Orville Freeman standing next to Finland's prime minister Reino Kuuskoski at a 1958 event in Minnneapolis.

The prime minister is presenting Freeman with a handwoven Finnish rug typical of the art and craft of the country.

Finnish textiles will be among the items on display at an event that is a true antidote for the midwinter blahs.

The Good Design Is Forever event takes place in south Minneapolis, Saturday, Jan. 28.

First of all, the gathering is inside a work of art - Christ Church Lutheran - a national historic landmark designed by Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen with an addition by Eero, Saarinen's son.

Besides textiles, there'll be exhibits of Finnish glass along with music, films and food.

There'll be art projects for the kids.

You can tour the church.

Did I say free?

Finns are fun. Besides great design, they have a fascinating, if challenging, language.

Put "terve" (hello, or good health to you) in your collection of greetings - (TARE veh and roll the "r" with gusto) - when you visit the Saturday event and hold on. Native speakers will turn to look at you, correct your pronunciation, and help you learn some other amazing words.

Finns are a smaller but influential ethnic group in Minnesota. Lots of them came to work in the mines on the Iron Range.

More recently, a fellow named Osmo has helped take the Minnesota Orchestra to new levels of artistry.

Years ago, my colleague Mary Losure and I did a piece on the Finns in Minnesota.

Have a listen.

I wonder whatever became of the rug?

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2011: big bike year for Minneapolis

Posted at 12:01 PM on January 17, 2012 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

If it felt like Minneapolis streets and bike paths were more crowded with bicycles last year, your hunch was correct. Today the city released a report showing that between 2010-2011 the number of bicyclists increased 25 percent, and from 2007-2011 the number of bicyclists grew by 47 percent.

The city's new bike and pedestrian coordinator, Shaun Murphy, presented the report's findings to members of the Transportation and Public Works committee. He says the growth in bike traffic has also increased safety. The report shows that the number of bicycle/motor vehicle collisions has steadily declined as the number of riders has gone up.

Some say the increased popularity of bicycling is having a financial impact. Council member Sandy Colvin Roy says she's hearing that the burgeoning bike community is building a bike-oriented economy, "The biking community in purchases and repair and uses of biking and production of biking parts is now a multimillion dollar business in our metro region."

Colvin Roy added that Minneapolis Convention Center officials say the green, Nice Ride bikes have become very popular with out of town visitors. The bike sharing program added 500 more bikes and extended their network to include St. Paul.

The most interesting part of the report, for me at least, was that the new bike infrastructure now includes several public air pumps. I didn't see one last year, but I hope they add more of them - along the Midtown Greenway would be great. Most gas stations charge 50 to 75 cents for air. And that's a drag because bike tires are just not large enough to get your money's worth of air.

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Embattled St. Paul landlord is a social worker

Posted at 3:23 PM on January 12, 2012 by Curtis Gilbert (0 Comments)
Filed under: Courts, Housing, Livability, St. Paul

A court has ruled Peggy Chun can't manage two St. Paul apartment buildings. But is she qualified to be a social worker?

Until today, Chun was listed on the website of New Brighton-based Nystrom & Associates as "a social worker in the ARMHS [Adult Rehabilitative Mental Health Services] department with a background of working Serious and Persistent Mental Health diagnosis."

Chun and her husband Randall own a pair of run-down buildings that house some 60 low-income families.

One of the Chuns' buildings. (MPR Photo/Jeff Thompson)

Ramsey County Judge John Guthmann ruled yesterday that he would appoint a receiver to take over managing the properties, which city inspectors have cited with about 600 housing code violations. The ruling was part of a foreclosure lawsuit against the Chuns.

Peggy Chun did not respond to an interview request. Neither did Nystrom & Associates, but Chun's profile on the site disappeared today. Luckily I printed a copy earlier in the week.

Chun was listed as joining the private, Christian counseling firm in 2010. The page said she holds a Master of Social Work degree from the University of St. Thomas.

One thing Chun doesn't have is a license to practice social work in the state on Minnesota. She has applied for a license, but does not currently hold one, according to the Minnesota Board of Social Work.

In general, you can't even call yourself a social worker in Minnesota, unless you have a license, although there's an exception for social workers employed by government agencies.

Our NewsCut blog had a fascinating discussion yesterday about whether Chun's husband Randall should be held to a higher standard because he works as a researcher for the Minnesota House of Representatives. But what are the ethics rules for social workers?

"Social workers should advocate for living conditions conducive to the fulfillment of basic human needs and should promote social, economic, political, and cultural values and institutions that are compatible with the realization of social justice,"according to the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics

Linda Jones, who teaches ethics at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work, says social workers are should hold themselves to those standards, even outside of their professional practice.

"It's very hard to behave unethically in your business and turn around and behave ethically with people in your professional life," Jones said.

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A Christmas reading tradition

Posted at 12:37 PM on December 23, 2011 by Laura McCallum (0 Comments)
Filed under: Food, Livability, St. Paul

Most years around this time, I open up my Villager newspaper (formerly the Highland Villager) and find myself absorbed in the latest holiday story by St. Paul author Roger Barr. For nearly 15 years, he's been writing short stories on the saga of the Bartholomew family and their life-sized nativity scene. It's a busy time of year, and there's never enough time to read, but these stories have always been a nice respite from the holiday craziness for me, and a reminder of what this season is truly all about.

Now, Barr has compiled his 13 stories in a book, Getting Ready for Christmas... & Other Stories. All of the proceeds go to benefit emergency food shelves, which is a recurring theme in many of his short stories. As you've probably heard in Julie Siple's excellent hunger reporting, more Minnesotans are using food shelves in these tight economic times. Kudos to Barr for using his talents to try to help those less fortunate this time of year.

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Downtown St. Paul Lunds project still breathing

Posted at 7:00 AM on December 16, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, St. Paul

Just when my colleague Bob Collins declared St. Paul's Penfield development all but dead, the grocery-and-housing project spurts back to life.

The heartbeat we heard comes in the form of a new financing plan that on Wednesday will go before the city's Housing and Redevelopment Authority. The city, which last year became the official developer, envisions a $62 million project including a Lunds grocery topped by 253 market-rate apartments.

You can't blame folks for being skeptical about the Penfield. Initially proposed as a luxury skyscraper during the condo craze of the mid-2000s, the concept has been sliced, diced, and diminished into a box-like apartment building. But Lunds has signed a 10-year lease, bringing hope to downtown denizens and the workaday crowd yearning for fresh produce and gourmet-to-go.

And city planners believe its focus on market-rate rentals (averages ranging from $1,055 to $1,890) will fill a growing demand for "moderate-income" people who want to live downtown. Still, one wonders if a city-led development should include at least some affordable housing.

It's clear St. Paul has a lot riding on this project, situated at 10th and Minnesota streets. According to a staff report:

"This project has the potential to be both transformative and catalytic for downtown. It is transformative in that it will put downtown 'on the map' in a way it has never been before. In particular, a Lunds grocery store puts downtown in a 'tier of livability' that says downtown is a 'real neighborhood' with a broad range of retail and services. The project is catalytic in that having a Lunds store with housing above sends a signal to other developers, future residents, and prospective businesses that downtown Saint Paul is a vibrant place and a solid investment opportunity -- downtown has 'arrived.'"

According to the report, the financing package includes a sizable loan insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and calls for the creation of a Penfield tax-increment financing district. Lunds would finance most of its own improvements for the grocery store.

The city received multiple bids on the project. All came back substantially over budget.

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Minneapolis: An ever-changing skyline

Posted at 9:15 PM on December 14, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

Sometime in the 1970s my mom signed me up for a drawing class for kids at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. They lined us up in a glass hallway looking out toward downtown Minneapolis and taught us to draw the skyline.

We drew the IDS and the Foshay.

I thought of my modest little drawing today as news cameras filled the foyer of the Hennepin County Central Library-- one of downtown's recent treasures-- and downtown business leaders unveiled their vision for the city in 2025.

They used words like thriving, liveable, green, connected, exciting and welcoming.

We reported on the sports district that would include a new Vikings stadium. The plan also includes building Gateway Park and transforming Nicollet into a "must-see" destination stretching from the Walker Art Center to the Mississippi River. You can read the 10 point plan here.

Downtown Council President and CEO Sam Grabarski reminded the crowd of the city's track record for delivering on its dreams: a new Twins stadium, LRT, and residential housing downtown. Even in a down economy, the city continues to think big, even pledging to end street homelessness.

I'm pretty sure I can't draw the skyline anymore.

Photo credits:
Archival image of Minneapolis Skyline photographed by Forest J. Sorenson in 1972 courtesy of the Minnesota History Center.
Vision from Intersections: Downtown 2025 Plan, courtesy of the Minneapolis Downtown Council.

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State of Minnesota advises "Be a penguin"

Posted at 7:24 PM on December 8, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability

While walking into the Minnesota Judicial Center today, I noticed a small flyer by the door:

The granite up there is pretty slippery.

The Slip Trip and Fall Prevention Campaign is coming soon to a state government building near you.

According to the The Department of Administration Risk Management Division web site:

Slip, Trip, Falls are the second leading cause of work place injuries to state employees. While there are many causes of slip, trip, falls, our winter weather is a contributor and there is much we can do to minimize our risk of a fall and injury.

So remember, "arms extended to the side
and feet pointed slightly outward"

or you could wind up like this:

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Minneapolis billboards will carry snow emergency alerts

Posted at 2:46 PM on December 7, 2011 by Brandt Williams (2 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

The city of Minneapolis already uses a number of electronic delivery methods such as mass emails and online social media to broadcast snow emergency alerts. This year the city is going big. Billboards.

The city will use a dozen electronic billboards to announce when people should watch where they park their cars. The billboards are owned by Clear Channel. The company's Outdoor branch president Susan Adams Loyd says the billboards are seen by lots of eyeballs.

"In fact, the dozen boards that will be used for this program will be seen by more than one million people throughout the community each day during those designated Snow Emergencies."

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Keillor opens bookstore at Macalester

Posted at 4:00 PM on December 2, 2011 by Laura McCallum (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul

Garrison Keillor's Common Good Books is relocating to Macalester College.

The independent bookstore will move to the Macalester-owned Lampert Building, just north of the Breadsmith at Snelling and Grand. Common Good Books is currently located in the Cathedral Hill area, underneath Nina's Coffee Cafe at the corner of Selby and Western. Common Good Books' David O'Neill says the new location is street level and about 3,000 square feet - compared to the current store of 1,800 square feet.

Macalester has been without a trade bookstore since July of 2004, when Ruminator Books, which opened in 1970 as the Hungry Mind Bookstore, went out of business. In a press release, Keillor praised the Macalester hood:

"We'll be just behind my favorite bakery and around the corner from a terrific cheese shop and a few blocks east of the old Hungry Mind, where I used to buy all my books," said Keillor. "And Wet Paint, where I buy pens and paper. And around the corner from St. Paul's on the Hill, a good Anglo-Catholic church. It's a good neighborhood, and with all those college students around, there's a sense of high spirits in the air, and you need to inhale that if you're in the book business."

The new store is scheduled to open in April, after some renovations, and David O'Neill says several options are being discussed for the current space at Selby and Western. He's quick to point out that the current store will remain open until the new store is ready.

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Metro Transit getting safer; some riders not so sure

Posted at 2:48 PM on November 29, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

A letter to the editor published this week in the Star Tribune about late-night fights and shenanigans at a busy downtown Minneapolis bus stop prompted me to call Metro Transit. I wanted to know if there has been an uptick in bus-related crime or police calls lately. Metro Transit spokesman John Siqveland, sent me an email about the bus stop mentioned in the Star Tribune letter.

"The bus stop at 7th and Nicollet is the single busiest transit stop in the state with over 4,100 boardings each weekday. The area at 7th and Nicollet is under constant video surveillance with cameras at many sources - such as area businesses. All Metro Transit buses have video recording equipment. Cameras can capture activity both inside and off-board the vehicle. Over 1,200 buses serve stops at the intersection of 7th and Nicollet every weekday (850+ on Saturday and 600+ on Sunday). During rush hours, Metro Transit buses serve stops at the intersection about once a minute."

Siqveland also says buses are getting safer.

"From 2006 to 2010, crimes per 100,000 rides have steadily declined from 11.9 to 6.8. Metro Transit Police use a broad definition of crime compared with other transit agencies. Serious crimes like robberies and assaults make up a very small share of the total and 'quality of life' or 'nuisance' crimes make up the vast majority. 'Quality of life' crimes include things like fare disputes and evasion, smoking, public intoxication, disorderly conduct, etc."

Metro Transit Police officials credit a number of factors for the decline in crime, including partnerships with groups like MAD DADS. Members of the non-profit group regularly ride the buses to help keep order along bus routes frequented by rowdy riders. Last year, I rode with a group of the physically imposing, yet extremely polite, DADS for an afternoon for this story. The men chatted and joked with passengers, and no one got out of line.

Do you ride Metro Transit buses? What's your experience? Ever run into unruly characters at a bus stop or on the bus?

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Don Samuels and the magic of beer-making

Posted at 11:14 AM on November 21, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Minneapolis City Council Member Don Samuels got a few chuckles around here with his recent ode to the microbrewery -- a place of decorum, he said, as opposed to a place "to pick up chicks."

Samuels offered his remarks at Friday's council meeting explaining why he was supporting a new measure that would allow breweries more flexibility in where they can set up shop in the city. Current restrictions don't allow so-called "alcohol establishments" to locate near a church.

Samuels opposed the change until a visit to the new Fulton Brewery made him a believer.

The "pick up chicks" line was just one highlight of Samuels' five-minute paean to beer-making. Samuels, whose way with words has at times landed him in trouble, also compared the brewery to a chemistry lab. And a farm where one could experience the magical awe of seeing cows produce milk.

Samuels said brewing beer is "part alchemy, part art, part science." Here's a transcript of his remarks:

The interior of a brewery -- microbrewery -- is a place that requires a certain amount of decorum and order, and there's an expectation of some kind of deferential behavior. And so, as Council Member Schiff said, the sales will take place inside, because that's where the magic of the visual of the brewery is.

It's like being inside of a chemistry lab. To see all these tanks and tubes and processors operating, that is part of it.

It's like going to a farm and watching the milking taking place and having this sense of awe about it. That's what it's really about. It's like a museum.

It's an entirely different feel from a bar. You don't go there to pick up chicks kind of thing. That's not what it is. It's not going to have that kind of crowd, full of testosterone and revelry.

And I think the church can take comfort in that. When people leave, they'll be in good behavior, and they will have just left an experience of awe. And it's a different crowd altogether. There's not going to be the closing-time drama from two o'clock downtown. I think it's consistent with a neighborhood, and neighborhood activity.

And just think, when people leave, if they're still feeling some need, they can go to church. (Laughter from fellow council members.)

That might be a little funny, but I do believe there is a need for us to begin to see our society as integrated, and all the parts compatible. I just love the fact that we have a garbage burner next to the Twins Stadium. I love that! Because it's our garbage, and our Twins.

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Has anyone else had such a life-changing experience at a craft brewery? Is beer the future of Minneapolis, as Mayor R.T. Rybak recently proclaimed?

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Keep the bird killers indoors

Posted at 2:00 PM on November 9, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Livability

This is my cat Baci. He's an American shorthair, but his name is Italian for 'kisses' -- which is very fitting, because as you can see, he's got a very kissable mug.

But don't let that fool you. Baci is a former street cat. And I fear that if turned loose on the public, he would revert to his prior life and go on a bird killing spree - or at least start stealing cars.

According to the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), 95 million feral and outdoor cats kill more than 500 million birds every year. ABC vice president Darin Schroeder recently penned a letter to U.S. city mayors, urging them to oppose programs that call for the trapping, neutering and release of feral cats.

"Numerous published, scientific studies have shown that trap, neuter, re-abandon programs do not reduce feral cat populations, and that outdoor cats, even well-fed ones, kill hundreds of millions of wild birds and other animals each year in the U.S., including endangered species. Birds that nest or feed on the ground are especially vulnerable to cat attacks."

Schroeder also says outdoor and feral cats are at risk for rabies, parasites and of course being struck by automobiles. ABC is promoting a message campaign called "Cats Indoors" which encourages people to keep their furry little bird-murderers indoors, or in outdoor enclosures or tethered.

However, from my experience you have to watch a tethered cat closely. A few years ago, Baci nearly bagged a low-flying bird while on a leash outside my apartment. Killer.

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Small Mpls farmers markets require more vendors to be farmers

Posted at 3:25 PM on November 9, 2011 by Elizabeth Dunbar (6 Comments)
Filed under: Food, Livability, Minneapolis

You might see fewer bananas, avocados and sunglasses at most Minneapolis farmers markets next spring.

A new city ordinance says at least 60 percent of the vendors at farmers markets have to be food growers. The new rules do not apply to the main Minneapolis Farmers Market near Target Field, where shoppers can browse plenty of items not grown by Minnesota farmers: clothing, jewelry, soaps, plants, and fruits and vegetables that obviously can't be grown here.

But eight other farmers markets around the city — Mill City, Midtown, Northeast, West Broadway, Uptown, Fulton, Kingfield and Nicollet Mall — will have to follow the new rules -- unless they decide to become craft markets instead. As the city's news release proclaims today, the city was interested in putting the "farmer" back in farmers markets.

The ordinance follows up on a city initiative called Homegrown Minneapolis, which aims to encourage "a local, healthy and sustainable food supply."

City Council member Cam Gordon authored the changes and says the city's previous farmers market ordinance was neutral on the local aspect of farmers markets.

"Before, someone could organize a 'farmers market' that was all food distributors bringing in produce from California," Gordon said in a news release.

There are still no limits on that kind of activity at the main farmers market, though.

According to the release, there are several other parts to the new ordinance:

• Mini markets are included in the ordinance and are allowed to have a more flexible vendor mix, with one distributor selling fruits and vegetables not from Minnesota and one food processor that sells things like pickles or jellies.

• A new market type was created to allow certain markets to have up to 70 percent of the vendors selling arts and crafts.

• Food sampling will be easier for vendors.

• Vendors not selling food for immediate consumption can operate from unpaved surfaces.

UPDATE: I updated this post, after finding out that the Minneapolis Farmers Market — the big one located near Target Field and I-394 — is not included in the rule saying 60 percent of vendors have to be farmers. That fact was not included in the city's news release.

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What are your neighbors up to?

Posted at 6:00 AM on November 3, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

There's a new way to get information about the neighbors - and it doesn't require talking to them.

If you live in Minneapolis or St. Paul, you can find your neighborhood on this map created by Minnesota Compass. Click to view all kinds of info - like how many of your neighbors take the bus to work, where they work, and even how much they make (that's as a group, not individually!) The project is led by Wilder Research and pulls data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

There's also detailed information about jobs and housing that could be useful for finding ways to help your community. That's one of the goals of the project.

It's also a handy way to compare two neighborhoods. Take Central and Lyndale - two neighborhoods right next to each other in south Minneapolis. There are dozens of measures. Here are just a few.

Residents who are younger than 18:

Central: 32 percent
Lyndale: 18 percent

Who are older than 64:

Central: 4 percent
Lyndale: 8 percent

Who take public transportation to work:

Central: 22 percent
Lyndale: 24 percent

Who have lived in the same place for less than five years:

Central: 44 percent
Lyndale: 50 percent

Who are Hispanic or Latino:

Central: 44 percent
Lyndale: 24 percent

Who speak a language other than English:

Central: 51 percent
Lyndale: 29 percent

Find something surprising about your neighborhood? Share it with us and fellow Cities blog readers in the comments section.

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Minneapolis smoothes over miles of bumpy roads

Posted at 2:03 PM on November 1, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

I'm guessing that maybe 30 percent of my daily commute is over Minneapolis streets that have been resurfaced over the last several months. I've been quick to kvetch about how potholes have taken their toll on my aging car's suspension system and my nerves. So it's only appropriate for me to now acknowledge that city officials have apparently been listening to the collective gripes of city drivers.

Yesterday, city officials announced that the public works department has just finished resurfacing more than 45 miles of streets and alleys. Here are the city's numbers:

0.82 miles of roadway reconstructed

25.83 miles of roadway resurfaced

18.7 miles of roadways and alleys seal coated

= 45.35 miles of new driving surfaces

That also means there are 45.35 fewer miles of streets and alleys that the city will have to patch up next spring and summer. That should give them more time to catch up with the other miles of streets that will be scarred by the elements this winter.

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How do we rank?

Posted at 6:00 AM on November 1, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (2 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

If there's one thing you can count on as a reporter, it's this: Your email inbox will receive a steady stream of news releases proclaiming that your state ranks #27 in livability or #4 in happiness. Such email is often used to test the "delete" function on a reporter's email account.

Sure, there are rankings that matter -- like a study that found Minneapolis has the widest gap between minority and white unemployment (tied with Memphis).

But many rankings are little more than advertisements.

There's "15 Most Popular Locations for Bloodsucking Pests," a ranking of the most bedbug infested cities provided by Terminix. Minneapolis was #15 in 2010. It didn't make the list this year.

Not to be outdone, pest control rival Orkin has its own list with a decidedly less dramatic title: "Orkin's Top 50 Bed Bug Cities." This year's list also has Minneapolis/St. Paul at #15. (Cincinnati was a blood-sucking #1 and Salt Lake City was #50).

And then there's even more specific rankings. Did you know that Minneapolis is the seventh best city to find a babysitter? Or the third least-stressed of the county's 50 largest metro areas? Or that we have the 56th best drivers compared to fellow motorists in the nation's 200 largest cities? (Now there's a specific ranking for you.) Or that we're the gayest city in America? Or the most literate?

We're even the fourth most peaceful state, according to a U.S. Peace Index, being out-pacified by only three states - Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. We provide our baseball team with the second most enthusiastic fan support in the nation. Minneapolis is even a "Top 100 Place to Live," according to a website called Relocate America.

In short, we're a relaxed, gay-friendly, peaceful place, where bedbugs are (somewhat) few and the babysitters are plentiful.

But before you get too excited, I have one more ranking for you to consider.

When it comes to deer collisions, we're in the top ten. #8, to be exact. And, yes, that's way ahead of Hawaii, where the odds of an antler-windshield pairing are 1 in 6,267, or, as State Farm Insurance puts it, "approximately equal to the odds that you are a practicing nudist."

And now, if you'll excuse me, I have some emails I need to delete.

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Planned bikeway sparks controversy in St. Paul

Posted at 6:45 PM on October 25, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Check out my story about a plan to expand cycling in St Paul.

The four-mile long Jefferson Avenue Bikeway would run from Mississippi River Boulevard on the west to Seventh Street near downtown. The bikeway is part of more than 75 miles of new bikeways and sidewalk changes planned under a federally-funded pilot program called Bike Walk Twin Cities.

The St. Paul bikeway is still in the planning phase. But for now the proposal includes elements known in today's cycling parlance as bicycle boulevard treatments. For the most part, there would be no traditional bike lanes — except along some stretches of Jefferson Avenue east of Lexington — but officials would redesign the street with features like bump outs, traffic circles or speed bumps to calm traffic and make it safer for bikers and pedestrians.

The proposal has angered some residents near the western end of the project. Their group is considering taking legal action to stop the bikeway. The next public meeting on the project is tonight.

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Beware of low-flying witches

Posted at 10:30 AM on October 25, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Tonight, residents of several south Minneapolis neighborhoods will attend a Metropolitan Airports Commission meeting to try to find relief for noise caused by low-flying planes.

For residents of this Minneapolis neighborhood, the problem appears to be low-flying witches. Which begs the question: where do these neighbors go to complain? Hogwarts?

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MPR youth reporters bring home medal from DC

Posted at 5:20 PM on October 24, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Immigration, Livability

Four of MPR's youth reporters (from left: Antonio Gonzalez, Iman Fears, Tiara Bellaphant and Roy Spearman Jones) headed to DC last week to pick up their Casey Medal from the Journalism Center on Children and Families at the University of Maryland.

If you'll permit a little horn-tooting in this modest state of ours, MPR's youth series took the top prize in the audio category in this national journalism competition.

The kids beat the grown-ups.

The judges wrote:

The chance to slip into the lives of young people whom the majority of listeners might never have encountered otherwise is so powerful and important. Most impressive was the honest, well-thought-out manner in which each of the six youth reporters in this series told their stories. Some of those stories were heart-breaking: Brenda's experience as an undocumented 19-year-old fearing her family could be separated; Roy Lee Spearman Jones' account of leaving home and sleeping behind trash cans because he is gay; and Antonio Gonzalez's portrait of six children grieving after their mother's sudden and mysterious death. If what we do is about helping each other understand each other, then this is as good as it gets.

We'd love for you to check out their stories.

If you'd like to tell a future story, contact series producer Toni Randolph (trandolph@mpr.org).

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North Minneapolis sidewalk repairs complete

Posted at 5:19 PM on October 19, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

Five months after a tornado ripped through north Minneapolis, officials say they've repaired about 1,600 sidewalk panels damaged by the storm. A Public Works department survey found that around 600 feet of curb were also damaged by the tornado and needed to be replaced. Most of the sidewalk and curb damage was caused by uprooted trees.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board first had to remove tree stumps and roots before city crews could repair the broken sidewalks.

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Emails to inmates

Posted at 5:28 PM on October 17, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (2 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Livability, Suburbs

The Minnesota Department of Corrections is experimenting with a new way for friends and family to communicate with inmates in two Minnesota prisons.

During a six-month pilot project, inmates at Oak Park Heights and the Shakopee women's prison will be able to receive electronic messages sent through a vendor at less than the cost of a first-class letter.

DOC Deputy Commissioner David Crist said messages are received and printed in the prison mail room, then distributed to the offender.

"I want to stress that it's a one-way program. Emails come into the mailroom--not directly to the inmates--and the offenders then have to respond in a more traditional way: by telephone or the mail," said Crist.

Prison staff monitor snail mail for contraband like drugs and white powder that may require an emergency response. Electronic messages wouldn't carry that risk.

After six months, the department will determine whether to expand electronic messaging to the rest of Minnesota's correctional facilities.

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Norwegian royalty grace Minneapolis

Posted at 7:07 AM on October 17, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Norway's Queen Sonja (left) enters the Hilton ballroom with Cecile Strommen, wife of Norway's ambassador to the United States, King Harald V and Ambassador Wegger Christian Strommen.

Public radio reporters don't spend a lot of time chasing royalty, so it's helpful that protocols are emailed ahead of time: dress code= dark suit, no photos during dinner, do not drink before the toast, no exits before the King and Queen.

The Hilton ballroom was awash in bunads, the Norwegian national costumes (see the Ambassador's wife pictured above). Gov. Mark Dayton sat at the head table, as did Sen. Amy Klobuchar. It was also a night for Minnesota's most famous Norwegian-American sons: former Vice President Walter Mondale introduced the King, and former Senate majority leader Roger Moe was in attendance.

During his eight-minute speech, the King expressed his thanks for America's compassion and support in the wake of Norway's bombing and mass shooting that killed 77 people on July 22, 2011. The full text of his speech is here.

Reporters were allowed to photograph the royal entrance to the ballroom. The Norwegian press corps tailing Their Royal Majesties then made a bee-line for the press table to enjoy a nice dinner of grilled Norwegian salmon, petit fillet of beef and a trio of desserts.

After Their Majesties (TM as they are referred to in press briefing materials) made their exit, I stopped back at the press room.

"What's the big story tonight?" I asked the Norwegian press corps. They looked at me blankly.

"Are there ever any scandals covering the Norwegian royalty?" I asked.

They shook their heads.

"Not anymore," they said.

The juiciest nugget they had was in 1968, when King Harald married Queen Sonja, a commoner.

~~~~

The Royals head to Duluth today, then on Tuesday, they'll dedicate an exhibit at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport to mark the centennial of Roald Amundsen's successful expedition to the South Pole. Our own polar explorers Ann Bancroft and Will Steger will be in attendance, along with Norwegian explorer Liv Arnesen.

In Nov. 2012, Arnesen and Bancroft will lead a team of six women from six continents on an 800 mile, 80-day long expedition to the South Pole.

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Wilder Foundation launches caregiver campaign

Posted at 5:25 PM on October 12, 2011 by Jessica Mador (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

By 2030, twenty percent of Minnesota's population will be over the age of 65. In Minnesota, more than 90 percent of all care for elders is provided by family members and close friends.

But the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation reports that more than 80 percent of family members who actively care for a loved one don't self-identify as a "caregiver." This may prevent them from accessing helpful resources. Wilder notes:

Many caregivers suffer from high levels of stress, which can impact their immune system for up to three years after their caregiving ends, thus increasing their chances of developing a chronic illness themselves. More than 40 percent of caregivers have clinically significant symptoms of depression. And women caregivers are more than twice as likely to live in poverty, and caregiving families have median incomes 15 percent lower than non-caregiving families.

To help this population, the Wilder Foundation is launching an awareness campaign. The new "Capacity to Care" campaign is a series of public service advertisements and a website that provides valuable resources and information for people who help care for older adults.

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Lazy taxpayer tour of Central Corridor project

Posted at 10:00 PM on October 7, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Curious about how the first full year of construction on the state's largest public works project is going?

Relax. Sit back. Take a tour courtesy of the Central Corridor folks managing the project.

I can attest from personal observation their photos capture what's going on.

On the other hand, the decent and neighborly thing to do is put on your hiking boots and tour the project with a batch a friends. That way you can stop at bistros along the way to give them a bit of a boost. They're surviving for the most part, but the construction has taken a bite out of their bottom line.

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Why only one Leaf owner in Minnesota?

Posted at 3:03 PM on October 6, 2011 by Dan Olson (6 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul , Suburbs

This new Nissan Leaf, an all electric-powered car, is in David Thompson's Eden Prairie driveway.

There may be one other at a Twin Cities auto dealership.

Why so few?

Nissan has apparently adopted a marketing strategy of selling the first Leafs in selected states. And Minnesota is not one of them.

How did Thompson get his?

Strictly on the up and up. He owns property in Arizona, one of the Nissan-anointed states for Leaf sales, and snared one there.

Thompson says the four-passenger (or five if the bodies are lean) Leaf retails for about $35,000.

There's a federal tax break of about $7,500 he says, and some other states, but not Minnesota, offer a tax break on electric vehicles.

There are lots of ways to slice and dice how much a driver saves by owning an electric vehicle. Thompson, a businessman not unfamiliar with numbers, says he calculates he'll save about $275 a month in gasoline costs as he uses his Leaf for sales visits around the Twin Cities. He says an electric "fill" or recharge costs about $3.

Thompson says the car's range is about 85 miles before it runs out of juice, so he has to think a bit about where, and how far, he's going. Longer road trips are not much of a possibility. And, of course, he's anticipating the car's range will drop to about 60 miles with colder weather.

So, why is Nissan so parsimonious with Leaf sales?

Thompson's theory is the company doesn't want to sell a bunch of the cars until there are more places to plug in.

This is an issue.

In Minnesota the electric vehicle advocates are trying to address the situation. In St. Paul, for example, the city working with Xcel Energy and the Neighborhood Energy Connection, is putting 20 high-powered plug-in stations at different locations, including some parking ramps.

It'll cost electric vehicle owners anywhere from a $1 to $3, plus parking fees, to plug in and power up.

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Judith Martin told us what really happened

Posted at 2:55 PM on October 5, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

The late Judith Martin, a University of Minnesota geography and urban studies professor, was one of our "go to" people when we needed help understanding Twin Cities development.

Here she is in 1998, explaining to former MPR reporter William Wilcoxen how riverfront development happened the way it did in the Twin Cities:

"If you look at a place like Minneapolis where, y'know, the first people that came here looked at those falls, and nobody said, "Parkland!" - everybody said, "Opportunity to make money!" That's what you do there. You park your flour mills and sawmills along the riverfront, and nobody thinks twice about it because it's obvious, in the context of 19th-century thinking, that this is how you build a city."

Martin, as the picture above illustrates, was a riverfront partisan, an advocate for helping people rediscover the river's many attractions beyond being a place to park mills.

Judith Martin, 63, wasn't just a favorite with Minnesota Public Radio reporters. She was respected by academic peers and students.

An excerpt from the obituary prepared by Martin's family explains why:

"Among the many classes she taught was a survey course on the geography of the Twin Cities, which hundreds of students took each year--many learning to their chagrin that understanding the cities and their region was far more complex than they expected. Martin's brusque but cheery style inspired many to get out into the city and see what they could learn from close observation of the city and the people in it. One of her favorite exercises was to assign students to ride an unfamiliar bus route and describe the ridership patterns, landscape, and social relations that they observed."

Her family says Judith Martin, a native of Chicago, died this week from complications due to a recurrence of breast cancer.

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Kid pix only an emerald ash borer could love

Posted at 5:00 PM on September 30, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Livability, St. Paul

These are the dreaded juvenile delinquents (emerald ash borer larvae) similar to the ones lurking in the leafy neighborhoods of St. Paul.

Jane Hodgins with the U.S. Forest Service office based on the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus sent the photos, along with a note that most of them were snapped by USFS biologist Rob Venette.

Sure, it's like an insect family album. But Rob's work is deadly serious - as in, let's learn more about these buggers so we can get rid of them.

Venette wants to know, for example, does the release of the stingless wasp as a biological control agent work?

And, here in a winter photo of Rob's research, he's trying to learn if the larvae have the same aversion to winter temperatures as some two legged Minnesotans with condos in Florida?

Anyway, always good to put a face to a pest.

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Minneapolis leaders promote pedal pushing

Posted at 11:00 AM on September 30, 2011 by Brandt Williams (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

I'm generally skeptical about promotional productions like this short, video love letter to the Midtown Greenway and the broader Minneapolis bike culture. Obviously, the filmmakers wanted to enhance their case by shooting footage during times when lots of people are out biking. But as someone who rides the Greenway frequently, I can verify that it gets a lot of traffic - even when the weather is not warm and sunny.

And there's more evidence that Minneapolis is serious about enhancing its status as a bike-friendly city. If you drive or ride on Minneapolis streets, you've probably noticed a lot more newly-painted bike lanes along major thoroughfares. I recently rode over a big "bike blvd" sign on Bryant Ave. S. and wondered, "What does that mean?" Apparently, so did Morning Edition producer Jim Bickal, who recently got Shaun Murphy, who coordinates non-motorized transportation projects for the city of Minneapolis, to speak with ME host Cathy Wurzer. Murphy told Wurzer the sign reminds drivers to share the road with the human-powered two wheelers and it encourages bikers to avoid the more car-heavy streets. Listen to the interview here.

If you're a true bike policy wonk, you'll want to check out the city's 2011 Bicycle Master Plan.

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Minnesota: Still a cheap date.

Posted at 12:29 PM on September 28, 2011 by Dan Olson (2 Comments)
Filed under: Livability

At least when it comes to our ranking for per-capita federal expenditures.

We're second to last, just ahead of Nevada, as you can see in this graph.

Ranked first is Alaska, the state receiving the most federal spending per capita.

All this from our friends at the U.S. Census. Here's what they found. Last year, 2010, they counted $5.1 trillion in federal dollars sent to states in various ways:

• Retirement and disability ($915 billion)
• Other direct payments ($819 billion)
• Grants ($683 billion)
• Procurement contracts ($517 billion)
• Salaries and wages ($343 billion)
• Direct loans ($88 billion)
• Guaranteed or insured loans ($427 billion)
• Insurance ($1.3 trillion)

Everything from Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid to defense spending, to federal pensions, to student loans to farm subsidies. You name it, they counted it. (But not including, they say, federal travel expenses, interest on the debt or apparently $16 muffins. I digress.)

And now for the explanation as to why Minnesota is second to last as a federal expenditure recipient:

- We are a bit below average in age (fewer social security payments and Medicare spending),

- We receive the lowest federal match for Medicaid (we receive 50%, other states receive more, the amount has to do with personal income levels among other measures),

- We do not have any military bases, and have fewer federal defense contractors compared to other states and fewer federal offices.

These are not my opinions. They are those of great minds, including thinkers at the University of Minnesota and state agencies.

So, fellow Minnesotans, stand tall, be proud. Relatively speaking we are not the biggest boat anchor dragging the government deeper into debt.

Or, on the other, if you're upset we're not getting a bigger (fairer?) share of the federal largesse, we may need to look into turning some of those state parks into military bases.

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New health initiative kicks off in the suburbs

Posted at 12:19 PM on September 27, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Suburbs

Perhaps you've seen the commercials?

The mayors of Bloomington, Edina and Richfield hope to make their communities healthier by teaming up with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. They'll launch a pilot project today to promote healthy eating and active living. To kick off the initiative, the mayors and representatives from Blue Cross will take a short, noontime walk around Normandale Lake Park in Bloomington. The Blue Cross "do Groove Guy" will also be there.

Officials say the idea behind the project is preventing illnesses caused by unhealthy eating and physical inactivity -- combined, these are the second leading cause of death and disease in Minnesota.

Food for thought: two-thirds of Minnesotans are overweight or obese. Health officials say treating obesity related diseases is on track to add nearly $3.7 billion to Minnesota's annual health care costs by 2020.

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Lead-based paint still poisoning Twin Cities kids

Posted at 5:30 PM on September 27, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

Melisa Illies, a lead hazard reduction worker for Hennepin county is pointing to a north Minneapolis home window from about the 1940's that is likely painted with a lead based paint and will soon be replaced.

The homeowner heard about the lead paint hazard at a community event, applied for and won a grant of about $5,500. The money will go to replace all the windows in her home.

Her two-year-old daughter has an elevated blood lead level.

The grant may be new, but worries over lead paint poisoning have been around for decades here.

St. Paul native Howard Mielke, now a Louisiana-based scientist, was a pioneer in bringing the hazard to public attention.

He'd likely be interested to know that even after all these years and the millions spent to reduce the hazard, Hennepin county officials estimate there are still a thousand kids in Hennepin county with elevated lead levels in their blood.

The heavy metal harms neurological development in children.

Until 1978 when it was banned, lead was commonly used in house paint as a pigment and to make it tougher, more opaque and washable.

Windows with aging, peeling, flaking lead-based paint are a common source of poisoning as kids playing with or near the windows get the powdery residue from the paint on their fingers that go into their mouths.

The $7 million federal grant will go to lead abatement window replacement in hundreds of homes, many of the them in Minneapolis.

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Our home is our (foreclosed, lower value) castle

Posted at 8:15 PM on September 23, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, Race, St. Paul , Suburbs

New Census (officially dubbed American Community Survey) numbers show overall Minnesota home ownership rates remain among the highest in the country, nearly 75%.

But because of the recession - people losing their jobs, foreclosures - the rate is declining and is especially sharp for minorities.

The details paint a troubling picture.

Most of the revelatory details come from Minnesota Housing officials who track the home ownership picture.

The bad news: Home values are down. Lots of homeowners are underwater with mortgages that are bigger than the value of their homes. Add to that persistent unemployment which is causing more homeowners to fall into foreclosure.

The good news: Home values are down. Borrowing rates are low and likely to remain at record lows for some time.

Minnesota Housing commissioner Mary Tingerthall boils all the numbers down to one for people thinking of buying a home.

Given everything that's happened, the average monthly payment for an average value house purchased now including principle, interest, taxes will be $900 a month less than the average monthly payment five years ago.

The worst of times. The best of times. Depending on your situation.

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Twin Cities historic sites vie for Facebook votes

Posted at 3:30 PM on September 20, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

Online voting for 25 local historic sites began today on Facebook, but some eager mouse-clickers can't seem to cast their votes.

There's plenty of excitement fueling the Partners in Preservation contest. The historic sites -- which include beloved buildings, parks, churches, museums and other places -- are vying for a piece of $1 million in grants. American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced the 25 eligible places today.

Yet the voting process is confounding some would-be voters. The contest has also apologized for a "temporary glitch" that caused problems for some users.

American Express spokeswoman Caitlin Lowie says this was the first time the contest has moved its voting platform to Facebook, and the glitch was resolved within 15 minutes. The volume of traffic could have contributed to the problems, she said: "Within an hour, more than 1,000 people went to vote, which we really weren't expecting."

What can we say? Minnesotans love their history.

Glitches aside, the voting process is not intuitive. Here are some tips:

You must first "like" the Partners in Preservation page. That should pull up the voting page. If not, check to see if there is a "VOTE" tab on the left-hand menu. It should bring you to an interactive map featuring all 25 sites and their descriptions. From there, you should be able to click on a place and vote for it.

Full disclosure: MPR's Fitzgerald Theater is one of the contenders.

Voting continues until Oct. 12. The winner of the popular vote is guaranteed up to $125,000. The remainder of the $1 million in grants will be given to a number of the other sites after review by American Express, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and an advisory committee co-chaired by Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman.

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A top ranking Minneapolis doesn't want

Posted at 1:15 PM on September 16, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Livability, Minneapolis

Minneapolis officials aren't shrinking from acknowledging the city has a big minority unemployment rate problem.

The Economic Policy Institute study last year found Minneapolis and Memphis rank at the top of 50 metro areas studied for having the widest gap between minority and white unemployment.

The minority rate exceeds 20 percent, the rate for whites is about seven percent.

The local advisory panel to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission heard from former Hennepin County judge Pamela Alexander (pictured above), among others, who said Minnesota is the land of "perpetual punishment".

African Americans are disproportionately represented in Minnesota's criminal justice system, and Alexander says the state is a leader in enacting barriers to employment for people with a record, worsening the unemployment problem.

State demographer Tom Gillaspy offered what sounded like hope when he said there's a bunch of jobs coming open as the Boomers retire.

But in the next breath, Gillaspy says the people including minorities who could and should be stepping into those jobs in too many cases don't have the skills for them.

The ray of hope continues to be youth work training programs including the one run by Minneapolis in cooperation with businesses for minority youth which is being expanded to include thousands more young people.

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It's only (our) money

Posted at 3:32 PM on September 14, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability

Love those triple A ratings.

Hate the ratings agencies.

That's not a totally unfair characterization of the attitude held by many toward Fitch, Moody's and Standard and Poor's.

Win a high rating, as the Metropolitan Council did today, from any of them and you get a better deal on borrowing money.

The Met Council is trumpeting its highest, and nearly highest, rankings from Moody's and S and P.

S and P, for example, likes the Twin Cities' economic "stability" and the Met Council's strong financial position.

The reason for the love/hate relationship some have is that these ratings agencies are some of the same folks who rated what we now know were exceedingly toxic home mortgage products as perfectly safe and secure for investors.

That was before the Great Recession and the mortgage meltdown.

Let bygones be bygones, all is forgiven. After all, someone has to take on the messy job of poking around in national, state and local financial laundry to uncover stains that can mean risk.

Take the budget impasse that led to the Minnesota government shutdown this summer. Fitch was not amused and downgraded the state's bond rating.

Take the federal government debt limit brouhaha and continuing budget stalemate. It didn't put smiles on the faces of the ratings bosses at S and P who downgraded U. S. debt.

Taxpayers will be paying the higher cost of borrowing money.

To end this doleful blog entry on bond ratings and borrowing, it's always fun to quote the "candy is dandy, liquor is quicker" thinker, Ogden Nash, who is reputed to have said, "Some debts are fun when you are acquiring them, but none are fun when you set about retiring them."

Although my favorite debt quote, if just a tad off the main point, is, "Another way to solve the traffic problems of this country is to pass a law that only paid-for cars be allowed to use the highways."

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Architects offering free design assistance to homeowners affected by May 22 tornado

Posted at 11:23 AM on September 14, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Members of from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Minneapolis and
AIA Minnesota have launched Rebuilding it Right to assist north Minneapolis homeowners affected by the recent tornado. The project's mission is to advocate for quality and architecturally appropriate design for homes devastated by the May 22 tornado that swept through north Minneapolis.

The project is offering free help to maintain the character and quality of their homes as they rebuild.

The north Minneapolis tornado zone is home to many historic homes. Organizers of Rebuilding it Right say the character of these homes should be preserved - and made greener and more energy efficient for the future.

Rebuilding it Right, led by AIA Minnesota and AIA Minneapolis, is working in conjunction with the ongoing Northside Community Recovery Team efforts, the City of Minneapolis, USGBC-Minnesota, Architecture for Humanity - Minneapolis/ St. Paul, The Assembly of Architects, Rebuilding Together Twin Cities, Preservation Minneapolis, American Society of Landscape Architects Minnesota and several local and state organizations.

Non-profits, city officials, contractors and vendors are collaborating with architects and designers to provide services at no cost. For more information contact AIA Minnesota at 612-338-6763 or dehn@aia-mn.org.

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Minneapolis property tax relief party at your house?

Posted at 6:30 PM on September 13, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Hold your breath.

Retired Minneapolis police officers voted today to merge their pension with the state system.

Firefighters voted their approval earlier.

That sets the stage for completion of a decades-long effort to spread the city's pension obligations to state taxpayers.

And thus give Minneapolis property tax payers a dandy break amounting over time to tens of millions of dollars.

Might be just a bit premature to print invites for your property tax relief party.

There's still the matter of the Target Center obligation. City property tax payers fund the upkeep of that piece of real estate.

There's a plan afoot to spread that obligation around.

Maybe real property tax relief for Minneapolis comes when the city starts selling naming rights for the sidewalks and streets.

How about a grand to have a block long stretch of sidewalk named after your first born, or a stretch of Lyndale Avenue re-named after Uncle Bert?

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Cutting edge art on University Ave in St. Paul

Posted at 2:48 PM on September 9, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul , Transportation

Happily, Angela Talle ignores the "don't touch that" advice around broken glass.

She's breaking, snipping, nipping and handling thousands of pieces as she creates a massive mosaic on the east wall of the Turf Club, a famous St. Paul honky tonk on University Avenue near Snelling.

Yes, this is the section of University Avenue that looks like a war zone.

In fact, as Talle is setting the glass for the mosaic into mortar, she is steps away from giant earth movers tearing up the roadway for light rail construction.

Talle's mosaic portrays a bunch of musicians strumming and singing and generally having a whee of a time.

There's a "western" motif to the art where Talle uses real horseshoes to accentuate
the border of the mosaic.

Talle scored a state arts grant to help pay for the project commissioned by the Turf Club. It'll be a gawking good time for pedestrians, drivers and light rail passengers, once order is restored to University Avenue.

By the way, time is waning to see Angela Talle's massive mosaic on Peace House, the drop-in center on Franklin at Portland in Minneapolis, a building destined for demolition to make room for affordable housing.

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Better late than never for foreclosed Twin Cities folks?

Posted at 6:15 PM on September 7, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

What a difference from two months ago.

That's when we reported what appeared to be a truly anemic federal response to going after the bad actors at the top in the mortgage meltdown.

State regulators and prosecutors and some local officials have been going after mortgage originators, title companies and others involved in fraudulent mortgages. And they've had some success.

But the fraud we've seen in Minnesota is a small part of the picture, compared to the risky mortgage-backed securities deals that consumed the industry at the beginning of the recession.

In the last 10 days the U. S. attorney general has launched a fusilade of lawsuits aimed at the big banks and another set at individuals.

Enough to keep armies of attorneys tied up in legal warfare for years.

Seems a safe assumption that any lawsuit settlements will come too late for the more than 100,000 Minnesotans foreclosed on since 2007.

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Twin Cities transportation plot thickens

Posted at 1:54 PM on September 7, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs, Transportation

Suddenly, or so it seems, the Southwest Corridor light rail project surges to the fore.

The Central Corridor light rail project overcomes seasonal construction delays.

Money for all things transportation hangs in the balance.

On that last point, the question is when or if Congress will authorize transportation spending under a continuing resolution? The deadline is the end of this month.

At stake are billions for roads, bridges, buses and rail, among other projects.

(The current 169/I-494 interchange is set to be overhauled)

The continuing resolution is for spending at 2010 levels when the old transportation act expired.

Readers of The Cities who spend way too much time following transportation issues know that before he bit the electoral dust, former Minnesota Rep. James Oberstar and then-minority House transportation committee chair John Mica supported a new transportation bill.

It would have authorized spending $500 billion over the next six years - roughly double the expired bill.

There's been precious little talk of that measure since then. Even though there's a chorus building singing the praises of a big transportation infrastructure spending bill to employ people and address several decades of deferred maintenance.

OK. Moving along.

How about that Southwest Corridor project? The Federal Transit Administration permission for Southwest to enter preliminary engineering is, arguably, one of the three big steps in the life of these projects - the others being permission to enter final design and then a full funding federal grant agreement which would be about half the cost of the project. The total price tag has been hovering around $1.2 billion.

For Central Corridor, the blissful late summer weather is a bonus given the wet weather that delayed early season construction. Project officials shy away from uttering the "Ahead of Schedule" phrase but point out that CCLRT met its construction season goal back in mid July of having 20% of the project complete.

A cloud on the horizon for Central Corridor centers on the impact construction is having especially on smaller businesses. Some report their revenue has been sliced by more than half.

Yes, there's $4 million in loans and grants available to help affected businesses. But only a small portion has been used. One reason, business owners say, is getting the money is onerous because of the detailed financial disclosure required.

(Photo courtesy of MnDOT)

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Fairgoers 'defeat' marriage amendment in House poll

Posted at 2:00 PM on September 6, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability

The House of Representatives has announced the results of its annual state fair poll.

The press release is headlined: "Fairgoers say marriage definition shouldn't be in state constitution."

Of the record 12,549 people participating in the 2011 House of Representatives State Fair Poll, 66.5 percent said the state constitution should not be amended to define marriage as "only a union of one man and one woman," while 29.8 percent believe the constitution should be changed.

We should hasten to add the very important caveat that this a completely unscientific poll so we can't draw any conclusion about how voters will behave on the real ballot in November 2012.

One thing we do know is that voter turnout at the House of Representatives' fair booth was up by more than a quarter over last year. Barry LaGrave, Director of Public Information Services for the House says the marriage question was certainly one of the drivers. (He also says the longer session/shutdown/special session caught the public's attention, and crowds gathered to interact with record number of House members doing stints at the booth).

Other nuggets in the poll:

* Support weakened for a photo identification voting requirement
* Taxing clothing remains unpopular
* Preschool should be publicly funded for all children
* It should be illegal to use a cellular phone while driving, except in emergency situations

(photo: Fairgoers chat with lawmakers at the House of Representatives state fair booth.)

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Where did Twin Cities sprawl go?

Posted at 3:45 PM on August 30, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

Don't panic.

There's still plenty to go around.

However, some fun new numbers from Metropolitan Council research manager Libby Starling show the rate appears to be slowing.

"The most recent land-use data, interpreted from aerial photography conducted in spring 2010, show the region added 23,000 developed acres from 2005 to 2010, which compares in geographic size to the City of Plymouth."

Having more fun with numbers, Starling points to this:

"This is an average rate of 4,500 acres per year, compared to an average rate of 7,500 acres per year during the first half of the decade, 2000-2005. During the 1990s, the region added developed land at an average rate of 9,200 acres per year."

So, we're still sprawled out but probably the recession and slower population growth have slowed the rate.

And finally, a bit of fuel for your next happy hour or dinner party conversation:

"The seven-county geographic area is 1.9 million acres--1.78 million acres of land and 125,000 acres of open water. Thirty percent of the geographic area, or 575,000 acres, is developed as of 2010 (including residential, commercial, industrial and major highways). Twenty-two percent of the region, 411,000 acres, is devoted to residential development. Just over one million acres are agricultural and undeveloped land."

Didn't I say these numbers are fun?

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Sold on Somerset, without a tube

Posted at 5:26 PM on August 29, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul , Suburbs, Transportation

Why in the world wouldn't you want to live in this little western Wisconsin town?

It's nestled in the gorgeous St. Croix River valley, just a few minutes east of Stillwater.

And it has the sublimely beautiful Apple river flowing by it, which is even more attractive without the tubers who were mostly absent on the weekday I visited.

Modern day settlers have been beating a path to Somerset and towns all up and down the river valley for years, buying homes, raising kids.

And driving to jobs elsewhere.

Yep, there's work in those towns, but not enough.

One of the reasons, local boosters say, is that naughty old Stillwater lift bridge.

It's cute in a Norman Rockwell sort of way, but the 80-year-old, two lane span with a 30 mile-an-hour speed limit and weight limits that prohibit some heavy trucks is a chokepoint.

Companies in a hurry don't want their widgets tied up in a traffic jam or making a detour to one of the other three crossings over the St. Croix River at Taylors Falls, Osceola or Hudson.

That's one reason boosters of western Wisconsin economic development want a new St. Croix River bridge, and the one they want is the $633 million model - the version with all the bells and whistles including four, 65 mph freeway-style lanes of traffic and three miles on both the Minnesota and Wisconsin of new interchanges and roadway.

The opponents are saying, 'wait;' and especially the Minnesota critics are asking why their tax dollars should be subsidizing development in Wisconsin.

Watch for new and exciting episodes in this telenovela in September when members of Congress return and decide if they'll give thumbs up to the new span.

To entertain us in the meantime, here are some fun numbers from the Minnesota Department of Transportation bridge engineer Nancy Daubenberger, comparing bridge traffic over the Stillwater lift bridge, which is at about 17,900 vehicles a day (down slightly from last year), with some others:

Similar bridges (2-lane river crossings) Average Annual Daily Traffic:

inter-state bridge at Osceola = 6,300

I-94 bridge at Hudson = 91,000

TH 61/Miss River in Hastings is 36,000

TH 63/Miss River in Red Wing is 11,700

TH 60/Miss River in Wabasha is 5,600

How does that rank with a big one?

Daily traffic volume over the Mississippi on the new 35W bridge in Minneapolis is 126,000 vehicles.

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Deadline to apply for SBA loans to repair tornado damage approaching

Posted at 7:00 AM on August 29, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

People affected by the May 22nd tornado in Minneapolis have until September 6th to apply for a Small Business Administration loan to help pay for storm repairs. The loans are available for homeowners, renters and businesses. The loans have credit and income qualifications. The city suggests applying for a loan even if you're not sure you qualify because an SBA denial is required to apply for many other types of assistance.

SBA Disaster loans have rates as low as 2.6 percent interest for homeowners and renters, and 4 percent for businesses that meet credit and income qualifications. The amount the SBA will lend depends on the cost of repairing or replacing the structure and/or contents, minus any insurance settlements or grants. To apply, call the SBA's Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955 Monday - Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Loan applications are available for download from www.sba.gov. Completed applications should be mailed to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road, Fort Worth, TX 76155. Those affected by the disaster may also apply for loans electronically from SBA's website.

More information from the city of Minneapolis:

-Private insurance: What if my insurance doesn't cover the cost of repairing tornado damage to my home or property?
You can negotiate with your insurance company about your claim. Homeowners and property owners affected by the tornado with questions about insurance claims, repair contracts, other real estate matters, or other legal issues can call Volunteer Lawyers Network at (612) 752-6677.

-Other resources: What if my insurance coverage isn't enough to make repairs and I am not eligible for an SBA Loan?
When private insurance and SBA loans do not meet tornado repair needs, other resources may be available. An SBA denial is required to access most other disaster funds. The Minnesota Housing Quick Start Disaster Recovery Program will provide assistance as a last resort to return a damaged home to its pre-disaster condition.

Property owners who need additional financial assistance for home repair can contact these organizations to learn about available loans and grants:
Center for Energy & Environment, (612) 335-5884
Housing Resource Center - North, (612) 588-3033
Neighborhood Housing Services, (612) 521-3581

If your property did not receive substantial damage but you still need help, you may be eligible for assistance from volunteers through these organizations:
Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, (612) 788-8169
Rebuilding Together, (651) 776-4273

The Northside Community Response Team Hotline is available to help people with questions on housing and legal issues, dealing with landlords, support for businesses and more at

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Seward Market mural memorializes three slain men

Posted at 3:30 PM on August 26, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Immigration, Livability, Minneapolis

A new mural painted on the side of the Seward Market and Halal Meat in Minneapolis aims to honor three men who lost their lives there last year.

Over the summer, teen artists and neighborhood volunteers came to the Franklin Avenue corner store with ladders and buckets of paint to memorialize the victims. Store employee Osman Jama Elmi, his cousin Mohamed Abdi Warfa, and customer Anwar Salah Mohammed were shot to death in January 2010 in what was the city's first triple homicide in several years.

Elmi and Warfa were Somali-American, and Mohammed was an ethnic Oromo from Ethiopia. A trial for the suspected killer is scheduled for Sept. 6.

The mural is meant to pay tribute to the victims and celebrate the community's diversity, said Articulture, the nearby visual-arts educational group that led the effort.

Guided by professional photographers Mohamud Mumin and Jennifer Larson, the teens also took photos from the community that have been turned into five collage panels along the wall. The photography is meant to tell the story of the community.

A public celebration unveiling the mural, starting at 3 p.m. Sunday, comes on the heels of another tragedy for the Seward community.

True Thai Restaurant will be closed on Saturday from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. in honor of the restaurant's chef, Anousone "Ped" Phanthavong. The chef was killed Tuesday in a hit-and-run off ramp from westbound Interstate 94 to Riverside Avenue.

Our thoughts are with our friends in Seward. More than a year after the triple homicide, many still have signs posted in businesses and homes declaring "Seward Stands Together."

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Volunteers rule, and do lots of unpaid work.

Posted at 2:55 PM on August 26, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Livability, Suburbs

Every week during the school year Aimee Willoz and Steve Ferris show up at a Hennepin county library and help kids with homework.

Mostly math.

Aimee works at a Hopkins library and Steve at a north Minneapolis branch.

Steve remembers one kid showing up with forty math worksheets due the next day.

The teacher handed the homework to students during the term, and the young man had completed none of them.

Steve says two hours later the work was done, ready to be handed in, and in theory, one student's academic career was, at least in math, back on track.

Aimee remembers a mom of one of the students she helped telling her how thankful she and her son were for the help.

Both Aimee and Steve report the volunteer tutoring experience repays them more richly than the couple hours a week they invest.

Hennepin county has a continuing need for volunteers and some of the work looks pretty interesting.

The world would keep spinning without volunteers.

Maybe.

But the fallout would not be pretty. Along with millions of math work sheets going uncompleted, there'd be lots of phones unanswered, countless teens not mentored, families not befriended, ex-cons left to their own wits upon release, scads of litter not picked up.

Volunteerism - some call it community service - is not without controversy. Here's a nifty NYTimes piece about planting the seed for volunteerism.

Then there's the point, 'Hey, if a job is worth doing, it's worth being paid for.'

Well, yes.

We all know of instances where (sometimes fairly well-off) organizations rely on volunteers to fill gaps when they could probably afford to pay them.

Back down at the grass roots and real people level both Aimee Willoz and Steve Ferris say they see a need for their tutoring, and on the payback front they're getting lots of personal satisfaction from helping.

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Minneapolis mayor signs "taproom ordinance," clearing the way for more beer

Posted at 1:10 PM on August 24, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

With speculation frothing about where Surly Brewing Company could locate their new event space - the beer company is currently in Brooklyn Center -- Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak Wednesday signed a new ordinance allowing breweries to sell pints of their beer on site.

The ordinance creates a new type of liquor license in the city called a taproom license. To be eligible for the license breweries may not produce more than 250,000 barrels of beer a year. The new Minneapolis law follows a recent change to state law, the "Surly Bill," lifting restrictions on breweries' right to sell pints of beer on site. The change also allowed cities to license the practice.

In a press release Mayor Rybak, whose great-grandfather owned and operated Rybak Brewery in New Prague, Minnesota in the 1920s, said:

"We're making it easier for Minnesota beer drinkers to drink Minnesota beer and create jobs here," said Mayor Rybak. "Sales of pints on site will also grow the local beer economy by lowering the barriers for entry for new breweries, which will allow them to hit the ground running. And it complements Minneapolis' burgeoning local food economy that is creating new businesses and even more jobs."

Mayor Rybak signed the ordinance in the presence of Omar Ansari, president and founder of Surly Brewing Company of Brooklyn Center.

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Twin Cities' electric future

Posted at 4:00 PM on August 23, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

Xcel Energy's Black Dog power plant

It includes more gas, that is, burning natural gas as a fuel to make electricity.

Xcel Energy is angling to complete conversion of its Black Dog electrical generating plant in Burnsville.

Two of Black Dog's coal burning units are now burning natural gas and the utility wants to convert the remaining two by 2016 at a cost of about $600 million.

Let us as eager consumers of kilowatts pause for a moment to consider this apparently mundane issue.

About half our electricity in Minnesota and across the country is from burning coal, and that is not a pretty picture given the environmental costs as measured in greenhouse gas and mercury emissions.

Over the next year and half the federal government will issue a batch of new federal air pollution regulations that may cause the closure of a bunch of old, inefficient coal -burning power plants.

Some utilities are shouting foul, and claiming the new rules will create apocalyptic conditions of brown-outs and other calamities that will cut into electrical addiction.

Others assert nothing of the sort will happen, in large measure because there are oodles of kilowatts that can be found elsewhere including natural gas, wind, solar, geothermal, hydro.

And then there's efficiency.

As in turning off the lights when no one is home or in the room. Or putting all our electric toys with their phantom power supplies on a power strip. And turning off the strip when the big screen TVs and other gizmos aren't in use.

The Black Dog conversion to natural gas needs state approval. The plant would be the third Xcel facility in Minnesota, along with the High Bridge plant in St. Paul and Riverside in Minneapolis, to join the gas burning trend if approval is granted.

A public hearing on the conversion is tonight at the Burnsville City Hall.

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Some light on Minnesota's "dark figure."

Posted at 9:00 PM on August 22, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Livability

That's what criminologists call unreported crime.

Dark because they don't know how much there is. But they suspect there's a fair amount.

And that is what the latest Minnesota state crime victim's survey shows.

Six thousand folks responded to researchers led by the Greater Twin Cities United Way and the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

Danette Buskovick

The department's director of research Danette Buskovick says the preliminary state 2010 crime victim survey numbers show:

Twelve percent, the highest number of the 6000 respondents, said they were stalked. Eighty one percent said they did not report the stalking incidents to police.

Nine percent of the respondents reported someone else using credit or debit cards with 19 percent reporting the theft and 81 percent not reporting.

People identifying themselves as victims of a scam or a fraud were 7 percent of the respondents. Again, the vast majority, more than 80 percent, did not report the fraud to police.

On the other hand a high number of victims of aggravated assault or a "stickup" or a robbery, 75 percent, said they reported the incident. And nearly three-fourths of motor vehicle theft victims reported the crime.

By the way, the survey results come on the heels of the state's 2010 uniform crime report tabulated by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension which shows a nearly 3 percent drop in reported crime.

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Tenth annual Hmong arts and music festival this weekend

Posted at 2:27 PM on August 18, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Immigration, Livability, St. Paul

The Center for Hmong Arts and Talent (CHAT) presents the 10th Annual Hmong Arts and Music Festival this Saturday, August 20, at the Western Sculpture Park in Saint Paul.

Organizers say attendance for the festival has grown from about 100 the first year to about 3,000 last year. They say the festival's crowd also has more racial and age diversity than in the past.

This year's highlights include a Visual Art Tent showcasing a collection of artwork by Hmong artists, including the The Master Gallery, an exhibit of 5 juried art pieces selected by professionals from the local arts scene. The Main Stage hosts contemporary and traditional musicians and performers, including the IN SESSION: Singer/ Songwriter Competition, in which 5 finalists compete with original songs to receive career enhancing prizes. And there's a film festival in the Qhia Dab Neeg Film Tent, screening of shorts and excerpts of feature length movies by Hmong filmmakers.

10th Annual Hmong Arts and Music Festival
Saturday, August 20 from 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
Western Sculpture Park on Marion Street

(video courtesy of The Center for Hmong Arts & Talent)

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Minneapolis tests 'one-sort' recycling

Posted at 6:30 PM on August 15, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (3 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Recycling is about to get easier for residents of two Minneapolis neighborhoods.

The city has selected about 1,030 households in the Willard-Hay and East Calhoun neighborhoods for a recycling pilot program. The test group will put all of their recyclables in one cart, instead of sorting them into separate bags.

City officials will study the results -- the amount of recyclables, the profits from sales, and the program's costs -- to see how they stack up against the city's current recycling program. Another test project, based in the Seward neighborhood, has residents sort recycling into two piles, one for paper products and the other for everything else.

Here's how the city sorts recyclables now:

In other words, recycling in Minneapolis might not require a Mensa-level I.Q., but it's not exactly easy, either.

Plastic bottles, glass bottles, metal cans need to be sorted into separate paper bags. Newspapers need to be placed in a different bag or tied into a bundle "with string or twine," not to exceed 20 pounds, according to the city's website. And that's not all. Throw away all caps or lids from cans or bottles. Don't forget to put phone books and corrugated cardboard in paper bags. And make sure to remove all plastic from any dry food boxes or office paper.

The city's website explains why:

Sorted recycling generates the biggest revenue ... If the City of Minneapolis used single-stream recycling (all recycling in one bin, as some areas do), the higher cost of processing these materials would result in lower revenue, and possible cuts in other waste services.

The City Council will review the results from the pilot program "for consideration in future recycling operations," the city said in a statement released on Monday.

(Recycling truck photo courtesy of the city of Minneapolis website)

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Pricey art on view for free at Como Park

Posted at 1:07 PM on August 16, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul

Those of us who don't own any of the Philadelphia-born scuptor's work can trek on over to St. Paul's Como Park conservatory for a view. No cost. However donations always appreciated.

What a pleasant surprise to discover that Como visitors can view two works by one of the country's most gifted artists.

Como's two Frishmuth solid bronze sculptures, Crest of the Waves in the park's palm dome, and Play Days in the sunken garden, were 1960s-era gifts to the conservatory from the William R. Anderson family.

Those of us looking for affordable family entertainment in The Cities are always satisfied by a visit to Como Park. It has evolved into one of the state's must see attractions.

This weekend's event on Sunday, August 21 is the Japanese garden lantern lighting festival.

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Pan-African Women's Action Summit underway in Minneapolis

Posted at 3:58 PM on August 11, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Immigration, Livability, Minneapolis, Race, St. Paul

Organizers of the Pan African Women's Action Summit in downtown Minneapolis say the event is part of their mission to increase philanthropy in the Pan-African women's community here and globally.

Some of the event's proceeds will go to The Minneapolis Foundation's North Minneapolis Tornado Recovery Fund as well as East African famine relief efforts.

From the summit's press materials:

In keeping with the United Nations' Declaration of 2011 as the International Year for People of African Descent, PAWPNet has taken the bold step of declaring every August as Black Philanthropy Month. Thanks for making this a historic gathering. We hope that together we will change the face of philanthropy and our community for years to come.

The summit also features a film and food festival and an oral history project.

Speakers include:

Dr. Jackie Copeland-Carson, PAWPNet and PAWAS Chair; Karen Kelley-Ariwoola, Vice President of Community Philanthropy, The Minneapolis Foundation; Grace Stanislaus, Director of the Museum of the African Diaspora; Judge (ret.) LaJune Lange, former Minnesota state trial judge, senior fellow with the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and founding president of The International Leadership Institute.

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More tree stump removal in north Minneapolis tornado zone

Posted at 9:54 PM on August 10, 2011 by Jessica Mador (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

Minneapolis city officials are holding a news conference Thursday at 10 a.m. to announce the "removal of 1,529 unsightly tipped tree stumps in the 3.5 mile tornado-affected area of north Minneapolis".

This comes after a message earlier this week from Rep. Joe Mullery:

UPROOTED STUMPS AND SIDEWALKS I finally got a response from the city regarding the uprooted tree stamps and destroyed sidewalks. The city says the Park Board will start removing the uprooted stumps on the boulevards on Monday, August 8, beginning at the north end and continuing south. The Park Board plans to be done with the removal by September 1. When the stumps have mostly been removed (i.e. about three-fourths gone), the city will begin repairing sidewalks.

This is good news for the tornado zone. Many blocks, especially in the hardest hit areas, are still littered with uprooted tree stumps.

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Get active in Ramsey County

Posted at 6:00 AM on August 5, 2011 by Laura McCallum (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul , Suburbs

A new website aims to get Ramsey County residents off the couch.

The Go Ramsey site includes information on nutrition and exercise, and a searchable map with Ramsey County parks, trails and recreation facilities. The map includes walking trails, biking paths, cross-country skiing and skating venues. The goal is to get people walking and biking, promote park and trail use and encourage healthy eating.

Connie Bernardy of Active Living Ramsey Communities! (and a former Minnesota legislator) said she's getting good feedback on the site, ranging from a mom who wants to research ice rinks and places to skate with her daughter, to a woman who will use it to find archery ranges in Ramsey County.

As we've reported, obesity is on the rise in Minnesota and across the country, and anything to help combat that seems worthwhile.

(photo courtesy of Active Living Ramsey Communities!)

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Who's the energy efficiency champion?

Posted at 11:46 AM on August 1, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability

Xcel Energy, that's who.

There's a bit more to the story.

Yes, Xcel won the prize, "Champion of Energy Efficiency in Industry" from ACEEE.

ACEEE is a private, non-profit dedicated to energy efficiency, and the board of directors is an interesting mix of academic types, industry mavens and environmentalists.

There's been no prize for Minnesota elected officials, but one might argue they are equally as worthy.

Here's an interesting timeline of energy efficiency developments in Minnesota over the decades.

Buried in the timeline is a piece of legislation from 2007, the Next Generation Energy Act.

This groundbreaking, unprecedented piece of legislation approved by the state's elected officials set an agenda for investments in renewable power, increasing energy conservation and decrease Minnesota's contribution to global warming.

The provisions were much more than window dressing. They aim to reduce the per capita use of fossil fuel as an energy input by 15 percent by the year 2015, through increased reliance on energy efficiency and renewable energy alternatives and a 25 percent of the total energy used in the state be derived from renewable energy resources by the year 2025.

As much as anyone, it is elected officials who set the energy efficiency bar for Xcel and other utilities.

And then let's doff our hats to the advocates - gadflies, tree-huggers, nags; persistent voices reminding us that individuals can save oodles of energy through perfectly painless everyday decisions, and that government and the private sector can put in place policies that save TeraGigaMega chunks of energy.

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Marquette Plaza goes platinum

Posted at 11:01 AM on July 29, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

I'm a frequent denizen of downtown Minneapolis green spaces. So I've long been familiar with the lush, verdant patch of grass in front of the Marquette Plaza, which sits right off of Nicollet Mall not far from the Hennepin County Central Library. That big natural carpet is actually a green roof that sits over the underground parking garage.

But I didn't know the building recently achieved the highest standard of environmental sustainability - the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum designation.

Here are some of the benefits of this green building, according to a press release from the building managers.

The company also says there are only 47 platinum multiple-tenant buildings around the world.

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Falcon Heights is 12th city with domestic partner registry

Posted at 2:32 PM on July 28, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

The Falcon Heights city council voted unanimously last night to establish a domestic partner registry for unmarried same-sex and opposite sex couples who live or work in the community.

Falcon Heights resident Ann DeGroot brought the issue to her city after learning about other suburbs adopting registries.

"In our neighborhood, most of us think it's a bit of a no-brainer," said DeGroot.

On Monday I did a story on partnership registries multiplying--especially in the suburbs-- as Minnesota gears up for a much bigger vote on a constitutional amendment to define who can marry next year. Same-sex marriage advocates say registries are a sign of growing tolerance. Opponents say registries have no legal power, and the marriage vote is what matters.

Monday evening, Crystal's Human Rights Commission voted to forward the measure to the Crystal City Council for further action.

OutFront Minnesota, which provides technical support to cities considering registries, estimates 15-20 communities will have registries by the time Minnesotans head to the polls in 2012 to vote on the marriage amendment.

Minneapolis established the state's first domestic partnership registry in 1991. Since 2009, Duluth, St. Paul, Rochester, Red Wing, Edina, Golden Valley, Richfield, St. Louis Park, Maplewood, Robbinsdale and now Falcon Heights have approved them.

Moorhead voted one down in 2010.

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Power to the...air conditioner?

Posted at 6:00 AM on July 28, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

This big old spider-like tower supports the massive power lines that come into a portion of downtown Minneapolis.

And in my mind's eye, those wires were red hot on July 20.

Xcel Energy reports they supplied 9.537 megawatts of power during peak demand in their Minnesota service area, a record.

Xcel serves a lot, but not all of Minnesota. So the state's total electric consumption was higher.

What was going on?

Ah, how soon we forget! Here's how MPR weather guru Paul Huttner described the torture in his UPDRAFT blog:

The dew point sensor at Moorhead spiked to 88 degrees at 7pm Tuesday evening. That's the highest dew point ever recorded in Minnesota. (Previous record was/is 86 degrees)

When you combine the air temperature of 93 at that hour, the heat index calculates out to a Persian Gulf level of 130 degrees! That would also be the highest heat index ever recorded in Minnesota. (Previously 124 degrees at Moorhead in 1966)

Ok, back to electricity for a moment.

It's a big part of the Twin Cities "ecological footprint," according to a study done by the U of MN's Ignacio San Martin and Shengyin Xu in 2010.

Transportation accounts for 28 percent of the footprint, and electricity is another 28 percent.

Now, I have to find out what an ecological footprint is.

And a megawatt.

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Sierra Club joins "sensible" bridge chorus

Posted at 2:00 PM on July 21, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Transportation

Not exactly a surprise.

The Sierra Club's Northstar chapter has signed on with a group that includes St. Paul DFL State Rep. Alice Hausman, an influential voice, who last week said a smaller bridge is smarter.

If you're late to this melodrama, here's the Cliff notes version: Western Wisconsin commuters and developers have joined hands with downtown Stillwater business interests to replace the aging, two-lane lift bridge, a choke point given rising traffic volumes that create paralyzing rush hour traffic jams in the otherwise scenic town.

Enter the respective state transportation engineers and voila: To a round of applause, blueprints emerge touting a four-lane, 200 foot high, freeway-style behemoth across the St. Croix River near Oak Park Heights, just down river from Stillwater.

Oh, yes. There's the matter of cost.

The big bridge is pricey, about $633 million or so. Part of the reason is that about half the cost goes to rebuild several miles of interchanges and roads on either side of the river to accommodate projected travel volumes.

Gosh, this melodrama and blog entry are beginning to rival War and Peace. In length and ennui. Let's break it up with a nice photo, right about here. See what a nice town Stillwater looks like without traffic jams?

Fans of the St. Croix as a wild and scenic river and their allies have risen up and shouted, "Too much."

And that brings us to the "sensible" bridge coalition and their proposal for a three-lane wide span (a switchable middle lane for rush hours) with a fifty foot bridge deck clearance and price tag of about $263 million.

Hausman says the money saved can be used to help replace and repair the hundreds of Minnesota bridges currently rated deficient. And she adds she's not inclined as a Minnesota taxpayer to subsidize development in western Wisconsin with a massive piece of transportation infrastructure where Minnesota's share of the cost would be about $363 million.

Whew. Glad I'm working in air conditioning. This is exhausting. But not exhaustive. Careful, even sloppy readers of this massive entry will and should comment on the many twists and turns not mentioned.

What's next?

A 2:30 p.m. hearing on Thursday, July 28, scheduled before a U. S. Senate subcommittee on a bill that would exempt a new St. Croix River bridge from federal wild and scenic river protection regulations.

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On the ropes at Summit Outlook Park

Posted at 10:53 AM on July 19, 2011 by Tim Nelson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul

If you're passing by Summit Outlook Park early in the morning, you might see some rather unusual activity on the open green there.

It's called undulating ropes. It's exercise.

Here's Connie Tallen, of St. Paul, on one end of the 70-pound rope she uses for her workout. It's got all kinds of uses, she says -- lifting it, dragging it, pulling it back and forth. "There's just a zillion different exercises," Tallen explained this morning. "You use your whole body."

Her exercise partner, Gene (he didn't want to give his last name) says the method originated in the Israeli military, improvised in Army outposts. Rhode Island-based workout guru Anthony DiLuglio adapted it to gyms with climbing ropes -- as you can see at the Art of Strength gym in Edina. The New York version looks downright strenuous.

Here's a tiny, tiny sample of what it looks like in St. Paul:

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Nordeast ramen fest aids Japan

Posted at 1:00 PM on July 19, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Ramen, the fast noodle of choice for generations of people on a budget, is in the spotlight Thursday evening.

That's when a crew of five celebrity chefs and one rank amateur face off in an event called Eat Ramen Help Japan.

Here's one of the organizers, Ken Okumura, in a ramen eating frenzy - probably accounts for the blur - during a visit to Japan with his family.

You can order bowls of ramen, and the proceeds go to aid victims of Japan's tsunami last March. The massive wave that hit the island nation killed more than 20,000 and left countless others homeless.

Hardship is too weak a word to describe the suffering caused by the tsunami and its effects.

Thursday evening's "ramen off" won't feature the dried, instant, cellophane wrapped version sold by the shipload to college students and others.

This is the real thing. A handmade noodle in broth - the original comfort food - called chasu in Japanese.

Okumura was born in Japan, raised in Los Angeles, now resides here with his family in the land of Ten Thousand Taxes. His parents live in Japan and the good news is they are not direct victims of the tsunami. But they share in the rolling electricity rationing which affects the entire nation.

The ramen cook-off begins Thursday at 6 p.m. in northeast Minneapolis at Create Catering. Along with Ken, it's the brain child of Stephanie Meyer, Stephanie March and Aaron Ackerman.

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What's the right size for a new Stillwater bridge?

Posted at 2:25 PM on July 18, 2011 by Dan Olson (9 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Suburbs, Transportation

Here's the view offered recently by a group that wants a smaller span.

They argue this version would be less than half the cost of the bridge proposed by most members of the group involved in years of negotiations aimed at replacing the Stillwater lift bridge - about $263 million versus about $633 million.

Here's another equation to think about: What's going to happen to the price of gasoline? How will that affect development in New Richmond and other western Wisconsin communities and the volume of vehicles using the bridge to get to and from the area?

The down-sized bridge idea landed with a thud among the big bridge proponents who view sizable growth and increased traffic volume as inevitable.

Boosters of the smaller span ask, among other questions, why taxpayers should in effect subsidize western Wisconsin development with a big bridge - the "Build it and They Will Come" view of how development happens.

Tell The Cities your view.

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Marionettes returning to Ramsey County Fair

Posted at 12:25 PM on July 12, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul , Suburbs

Talk about pulling strings.

Here's Nancy Mitchell performing at the Ramsey County Fair in 2006. They're returning this year.

The Mitchell Marionettes make the drive from California in their showboat theater designed by Nancy's father, a set designer for Disney.

Their performances for children are a highlight of the Ramsey County Fair in Maplewood, which opens Wednesday afternoon.

A reliable Ramsey county fair observer, my newsroom colleague Sasha Aslanian who by the way took this photo of the Mitchell Marionettes, reports the food exhibitors are showing up with their pies and breads and jellies and jams.

Seventy-nine year old Joe Fox chairs the Ramsey County Fair Board and has been a volunteer since 1966 in the all-volunteer operation.

The Fox family loves county fairs. Joe's brother Henry helps run the Dakota County Fair, which starts August 8. That's the Fox family home - they're Dakota County farm kids and the family farm is still in operation.

Minnesota's county fair season is well underway, but there are literally dozens still to come in late July through August.

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Minneapolis electrical union donates to north Minneapolis

Posted at 11:58 AM on July 11, 2011 by Jessica Mador (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 292 is giving away $20,000 in free electrical service and repairs to homeowners affected by the the May 22 tornado. The union says certified and licensed IBEW professionals will restore power and make repairs for homeowners who received storm damage, but have little or no insurance coverage. That's up to $1,000 in free electrical service for a maximum of 20 homes. To qualify, homes must be located in the north Minneapolis tornado zone, be owner-occupied and have limited coverage from any type of insurance for the electrical damage.

Qualified homeowners should contact Betsy Hunter at the Minneapolis AFL-CIO Community Services Office at 612-379-8130, extension 112. Or call 311.

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Nail biting time (again) for Southwest Light Rail

Posted at 7:00 AM on July 8, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Suburbs, Transportation

The folks who'd like to bring us the Southwest Light Rail line are waiting for a green light.

Wonder where Southwest Light Rail will go? A map of possible routes is here.

They're in limbo, hoping the Federal Transit Administration grants permission to enter the coveted PE or preliminary engineering phase.

The human equivalent is going from childhood to teen status.

(You're a grownup transit project when you get FFGA, a full funding grant agreement.)

PE means the planners and engineers are allowed to create even more elaborate blueprints.

Predicting the likelihood of Southwest Light Rail ever becoming a reality is tricky.

Obviously the local boosters like it a lot since it connects the wealthy and car congested southwest suburbs with downtown Minneapolis.

The Metropolitan Council likes the project and has given it a high priority among other transit needs.

And the folks at the FTA reportedly like the project.

But take that with a grain of salt. There are somewhere around 100 rail and bus projects across the country in the FTA beauty pageant, all vying for scarce federal funds.

These projects rise or fall to some degree on a community's track record, and so far the Twin Cities is showing it knows how to deliver them on time and on budget.

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Regardless of shutdown, Twin Cities transit funding in limbo

Posted at 1:44 PM on July 1, 2011 by Dan Olson (2 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs, Transportation

It's deceptive.

The Metro Transit buses, trains, vans, and other services are still up and running at regular service levels.

Temporarily.

The Metropolitan Council, the agency in charge of most Twin Cities public transit, is using reserves to fill the tanks, pay the operators and keep everything rolling.

Without a state budget settlement, those reserves might last a few weeks.

Even with a budget settlement, Metro Transit folks have set public meetings next week to outline a worst case scenario.

That scenario envisions a new state budget with a $109 million transit funding cut over two years, which was proposed by the GOP.

Met Council officials say the result won't be pretty. Suburban express and crosstown bus service slashed, direct bus service to the U of M cut, 500 employees laid off, and 200 buses idled. In other words, nearly a third of Metro Transit's service goes away.

Oh yes, and then there's the matter of fares increasing as much as fifty cents.

Raising fares. Cutting service. Not a formula for increasing ridership. In fact, Metro Transit folks predict the number of riders would nosedive.

And then it would take years to recover should service be restored in some unforseeable transit future.

Those public meetings where you can make your views known are next week:

Wednesday, July 6 - 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Metropolitan Council Offices - Chambers
390 North Robert Street, St. Paul
Served by many transit routes

Thursday, July 7 - 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Minneapolis Central Library, Doty Board Room
300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis
Served by many transit routes

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Still waiting for a tornado fix

Posted at 10:32 AM on June 29, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

Earlier this week we broadcast a story on Maurice Dixon, a north Minneapolis renter who complained that his landlord was not fixing his tornado-damaged duplex.

The building suffered roof damage and water was leaking into Dixon's bedroom. And, more than a month after the storm, a broken window was still not fixed. Dixon showed me the crumbling board he applied as a temporary patch, but it kept falling over every time the wind blew on it.

I called Dixon back to see if any progress was being made. He told me the company that owns the building, St. Paul-based Aims Realty, sent a guy out to fix the window and repair the plumbing. Dixon said his bathtub had recently started filling up with brown, smelly water. He said the repairman came by to take a look and then told Dixon he'd come back to start work later in the day. But the repairman has yet to come back to start work.

Stay tuned.

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Some state money flows into north Minneapolis

Posted at 4:50 PM on June 28, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

The state Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) has awarded a $200,000 grant to Minneapolis nonprofit Northside Economic Opportunity Network, a collaborative that provides guidance and other assistance to businesses and entrepreneurs in north Minneapolis. The grant is part of a commitment that Gov. Mark Dayton made in March to encourage business and job growth in a part of the Twin Cities that has struggled with issues of poverty and chronic unemployment.

DEED says the grant will allow the Northside Economic Opportunity Network to provide free services to neighborhood businesses and entrepreneurs, including counseling, business planning and marketing, access to capital, cash-flow management and start-up assistance.

The one-year initiative begins Friday, and runs through June 30, 2012. To qualify for the free assistance, people must live in one of the following neighborhoods: Harrison, Sumner-Glenwood, Near North, Willard-Hay, Jordan, Hawthorne, Cleveland, Folwell, McKinley, Victory, Weber-Camden, Shingle Creek and Lind-Bohanon.

This grant follows on the heels of another cash infusion announced last week. $430,629 in grants from donations and matching funds raised through the Minnesota Helps - North Minneapolis Recovery Fund will be awarded to 13 organizations assisting north Minneapolis residents affected by last month's tornado.

The grants are aimed at helping local agencies meet the needs of individual neighborhood residents, provide trauma counseling and social services to children and youth affected by the tornado, connect residents with critical services and provide transportation and mental health support. A total of $636,752 has now been awarded from the North Minneapolis Recovery Fund. Previous grants, totaling $206,123, were distributed in early June for emergency relief services.

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Keep the Minneapolis water clean

Posted at 10:08 AM on June 27, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

The city's annual drinking water report, the 2010 edition, reports, "no contaminants were detected that violated federal drinking water standards."

Keeping it clean was part of the message of the Solstice River XV and Global Water Dances observance Saturday afternoon.

Minneapolis residents received word recently the water is good.

Here are the Women of the Water processing along the Stone Arch Bridge to their dance spot atop the St. Anthony Falls lock and dam.

Dancers were arrayed around the area including up on the Guthrie's Endless Bridge, and then at the end onlookers could grab a section of a long piece of fabric symbolizing what organizers called, "The Blue Highway".

Water worship probably not a high priority in Minot and for communities along the Missouri. But, hey, there's also trouble when there's not enough.

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A Minneapolis Parthenon it's not

Posted at 1:40 PM on June 24, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Concrete columns sprout rusting steel reinforcing rods.

Weeds and trees are thriving in the urban arboretum.

And the neighbors are restless.

This is the stalled (failed?) The Lofts at Minneapolis condominium development in the city's North Loop neighborhood.

It's a relic from the Great Recession.

The property's owner, a New York City-based entity called Lehman Brothers Holding PLC, is part of the debris from the implosion of Wall Street investment banking house Lehman Brothers.

And this parcel is apparently part of the company's long running bankruptcy proceedings.

Hennepin County records put the market value of the land at about $1.8 million (it sold in 2002 for about $5.7 million!). The property taxes are about $43,000 a year, and someone is paying them.

A couple of New York City business publications note that Lehman Holding may be unloading some of its property around the country. But it's not clear what the timetable is for this parcel, and the folks at the law firm handling this portion of the bankruptcy didn't return calls or emails with an answer.

And so the neighbors and the city wait.

But to be fair to absentee out-of-town landowners, there are plenty of folks living right here in the Sin Cities who, for whatever reason, own parcels sprouting urban forests or buildings that are mouldering, contributing to blight.

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Water, water everywhere in Minneapolis

Posted at 4:00 PM on June 23, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

The Mississippi River water volume through Minneapolis, federal officials say, is a third higher than normal for this time of year.

Here's the view many folks enjoy as they walk across the Stone Arch Bridge, SAB, in Minneapolis on a (rare) summer's evening when the sun is shining.

By the way, the SAB once again this year serves as a venue for an annual solstice celebration with dancers on Saturday.

Here's another view. It's from Xcel's "Water Power Park" on the river's east bank across from downtown Minneapolis.

It's fun for many reasons, including the very well done interpretive signs and then, of course, being closer to the actual falls of St. Anthony.

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Minnesota cities worried about a government shutdown

Posted at 6:00 AM on June 23, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Livability, St. Paul

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman joined the chorus of city officials angry over the possibility of losing state aid in the event of government shutdown. Coleman appeared with members of the League of Minnesota Cities, police and firefighters Wednesday at the state Capitol to urge the governor and the Legislature to come to an agreement on a budget to avert a shutdown.

The League filed a response to the Attorney General's petition challenging the state's authority to delay or stop local government aid payments if state government shuts down July 1. St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman said public safety represents two-thirds of St. Paul's budget. He said a government shutdown would impact public safety, although he declined to give specifics.

"There is no other way to say it than we will see dramatic, dramatic, dramatic decreases in public safety services in the city of St Paul absent that local government aid check, and it's not just true in St Paul - it's true in all of our larger cities, it's true in our medium-sized cities and it's true in our small cities."

Minnesota cities are expecting one-half of their local government aid payments on July 20. If DFL governor Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders can't agree on a new budget, state government could shut down July 1.

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Summer vacation brings no break from hunger

Posted at 2:05 PM on June 21, 2011 by MPR News Staff (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

by Julie Siple

Families that rely on free or reduced-price lunch during the school year may have a hard time feeding their kids over the summer. That's why the federally-funded Summer Food Service Program is providing free meals in the metro and throughout Minnesota.

Both Minneapolis and St. Paul schools have released their list of sites where kids can get free meals this summer. The city of St. Paul this week announced that, for the first time, meals are also available at four St. Paul public libraries: Arlington Hills, Dayton's Bluff, Riverview and Rondo.

Kids under 18 years old, and people who have a mental or physical disability, may receive free meals at the summer food sites.

Last year, the Summer Food Service Program served an all-time high of 1.7 million meals in Minnesota. Still, more than three-fourths of the students on free and reduced-priced lunch didn't participate in the summer program. Education officials say the state needs more sites, and made a big push back in February for sponsors. This year, 496 sites statewide have been approved to offer summer food, and 41 more are likely to win approval. State education officials say there are 22 more sponsors than last year.

That's good news for the increasing number of students who may need help this summer. Data from the Minnesota Department of Education show 306,000 students are now on free or reduced-price lunch. That accounts for 36.6% of the state's entire student population.

Why such a push to make sure kids get enough nutritious food all year round? Education officials say that if kids are healthy and engaged over the summer, they come back in the fall better prepared to learn.

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How Ayaan Hirsi Ali started a scene on Nicollet Mall

Posted at 4:46 PM on June 20, 2011 by Laura Yuen (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

A St. Paul attorney and blogger faces misdemeanor charges after he allegedly hassled two Muslim women and threatened a man who intervened.

Minneapolis police say John Hugh Gilmore, 52, caused a scene Thursday night on Nicollet Mall when he confronted the women, who were covering their hair with traditional Muslim headscarves.

"He was drunk and thought it would be a good idea to start harassing passersby, including two women who were wearing the hijab," said Sgt. William Palmer, a police spokesman.

One of the women was Jamila Boudlali, a geography major at the University of Minnesota. The man told the Boudlali and her friend they shouldn't be in the United States "trying to change things," she said. He then started to take pictures of the women, prompting one of Boudlali's non-Muslim female friends to object.

Boudlali, 20, a lifelong Muslim and Minnesotan, started wearing the hijab about a year and a half ago.

"And nothing like this has ever happened to me," she said. "I've never gotten anything, except people ask questions, but nothing so extremely hateful. I was so confused, just standing in shock."

She believes Minneapolis police, who took the man to jail, did the right thing. Boudlali said many American Muslims are fearful of reprisal, so they don't report disturbances targeting them.

"I have to admit, I was very surprised that the guy got arrested," she said. "It made me really happy and made me have a lot more trust and confidence in the city of Minneapolis."

One of the responding officers apparently told the Muslim women that he was taking Gilmore to "adult time out," referring to the Hennepin County jail, said Hindia Ali, who arrived in time to see the arrest.

"He was so nice and said, 'I'm sorry that this happened to you guys,'" Ali, pictured below, said of the police officer.

Authorities charged Gilmore with disorderly conduct and obstructing the legal process, both misdemeanors, after he allegedly threatened to hit a man who put himself between Gilmore and the women. In fact, several attendees from the liberal NetRoots Nation conference rushed to defend the women from Gilmore. One man placed Gilmore under citizen's arrest.

The event coincided with the RightOn convention for conservative bloggers and activists.

Gilmore, author of the blog Minnesota Conservatives, did not respond to a request for comment. But the incident sparked some testy exchanges on both sides.

So, what provoked the unrest?

Police say Gilmore started to ask the women about Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the controversial Somali-born author of the bestselling memoir "Infidel." The book details Ali's experiences with arranged marriage and female genital mutilation in Somalia, as well as her pointed criticism of Islam.

Boudlali recalls Gilmore gave them the "thumbs up," implying his approval of Ali's writings.

"Actually, we don't agree with her," Boudlali says she and her friends replied. "But it's OK. We can agree to disagree."

That's when things started to escalate, Boudlali said.

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A Place Where Teens Are Wanted

Posted at 7:00 AM on June 18, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul

A few years ago, St. Paul's Rice Street library was attracting a lot of teens, but adults weren't too happy about it. The young people weren't coming for the books or computers. They were just hanging out, often causing problems and intimidating patrons.

Rather than beef up police presence, city leaders talked with teens. What did they want? Why were they there?

"They just said they felt there wasn't interest in the community in them as people," said Grit Youngquist, Healthy Youth Development Program Coordinator for Ramsey County Public Health. "They felt adults were always afraid of them... That adults didn't like them and want them around. They didn't really feel like they belonged."

Youngquist, co-developer of the Wakanheza Project, which tries to make communities more welcoming, recognized an opportunity. Teens wanted a place where they could be with friends, not spend money, and not get in trouble.

Four years later, city leaders and teens will share in a ribbon-cutting event at a new North End Teen Center Monday, June 20, at 11 a.m.

This will be the second teen-led, adult-supported teen center in St. Paul. The first one, called "Canvas", has an arts focus and is located in the Hancock Recreation Center.

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TOD at 38th and Hiawatha?

Posted at 5:00 PM on June 16, 2011 by Dan Olson (3 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Translation: Transit Oriented Development. Developer George Sherman is poised to fill this vacant lot at 38th and Hiawatha in south Minneapolis with Longfellow Station, a mixed use commercial/residential development.

In fact, things seem to be moving right along. Last week Minneapolis found $1.9 million in federal dollars sitting around in the city's till and used it to help Sherman buy the property from the previous developer...whose plan failed.

Anyway, Sherman wants to build 180 apartments, most of them "affordable" which often means subsidized housing. Construction on 10,000 feet of "neighborhood commercial space" is set for late this year.

TOD, as much as moving people, is what light rail proponents promised would be the eventual payoff when Hiawatha line trains began running in 2004.

Boosters of transit argue developers perk up and pay attention when relatively permanent train tracks are laid - a sign the transit service will be there more than a year or two.

Add some stations along the line and developers begin dreaming about the money they might make from building apartments and houses near the station that will be rented and purchased by transit lovers who want an option to owning a gas guzzler.

Oh yes, and cities and counties tend to like TOD because as long as populations increase and the apartments and houses are occupied the development promises more property tax revenue.

Which is why the local governments in many cases are willing to kick start development with subsidies.

Does TOD work? Maybe.

The Metropolitan Council says, "since 2000, nearly 7,700 new housing units have been built along the (Hiawatha) line, with another 6,750 units planned (as of April 2009)."

Will Central Corridor light rail create similar TOD tremors? Stay tuned. The line won't be complete until 2014, but there's certainly no shortage of vacant thus developable space along the line.

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Cedar Lake trail extension in Minneapolis is open

Posted at 11:14 AM on June 14, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

Finally.

The "bike freeway", as cycling enthusiasts call it, is the slightly more than one mile long length of the Cedar Lake trail linking it with the trail along the Mississippi river.

Among other interesting features, the trail runs under Target Field.

The grand opening of the new Cedar Lake Trail link is today at 5 p.m., but the trail is open and folks are using it.

Couple of things, bicyclists. Watch the stop signs at the sharp right turns on the portion of the trail behind the Federal Reserve Bank building...

and where the trail crosses the parkway.

If you ignore the stop signs, make sure you have good health insurance and your will is updated.

Seriously. The cross traffic on the parkway includes motorized vehicles who may or may not stop, even though there's a sign noting it's a crosswalk.

And remember, this is a non-motorized trail, not just a bike trail. That means you'll encounter people on foot who for the most part have a walkway along the trail.

Oh, yes, and remember the speed limit is ten miles per hour. So those of you in training for the Tour de France, ease up.

This is a big year for non-motorized or bike trail openings in Minneapolis. Officials predict up to 35 miles of new lanes this season, more than eight times the normal expansion rate.

Here's an example. This is the extension of the Hiawatha trail that for a time runs parallel to the light rail line.

This is the link under construction in downtown Minneapolis as the Hiawatha trail comes from the west bank, and empties out on 3rd Street South.

Look for an August opening.

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Tickets still available for north Minneapolis tornado relief benefit

Posted at 2:15 PM on June 10, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

Organizers have sold just several hundred tickets so far for this Sunday's tornado relief benefit concert, "Northside: A Twin Cities Community Benefit." They say they're hoping last-minute ticket sales will help them fill the State Theatre in Minneapolis, a venue that seats about 2,000 people.

The show's lineup features prominent Twin Cities recording artists and emcees, and aims to raise at least $100,000 for people who lost homes or businesses in the May 22 tornado.

Organizer Martin Keller says all talent, space and staffing for the event was donated. He says many people who have not personally seen the storm's aftermath up close may not realize the scale of the devastation residents of north Minneapolis are facing.

The need is great. I don't think people really understand the extent of the damage and the impact on a community that generally can't afford to suffer this kind of natural disaster. We've got hip-hop we've got R&B, we've got gospel choirs, we've got rock bands like Soul Asylum, Billy McLaughlin, who is well-known, a now legendary musician here. It is going to blow people away and we have some new faces as well.

The lineup also includes Brother Ali, The new Standards, Prudence Johnson, Paris and Jamecia Bennett, The Peterson Family, Toki Wright, TC Jammers and many more. All proceeds will go to the Hennepin Theater, which plans to distribute the funds to local north Minneapolis groups to pay for an emergency fund, food and neighborhood rebuilding.

The concert starts at 5 p.m. on Sunday, June 12 at Hennepin Theatre Trust's State Theatre. Ticket info can be found here.

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What is HUD doing in Brooklyn Center?

Posted at 3:29 PM on June 9, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Suburbs

They're trying to sell this building.

The 122-unit Shingle Creek Towers is in foreclosure.

The owners stopped making payments on the HUD-backed mortgage, so the federal agency headed by Shaun Donovan is unloading the property.

Is that the same Shaun Donovan who was the crusading New York City housing commissioner before President Obama tapped him for the cabinet job?

Yes, it is.

Well, then, why is the federal agency headed by Donovan off loading HUD-foreclosed properties to problem property owners?

That's the question being asked by Jack Cann, the attorney for the St. Paul-based Housing Preservation Project, who is suing HUD.

Cann is upset that HUD is considering a bid by Emmanuel Ku, described by New York City housing activists as a notorious problem property owner.

The numbers tell the story. Ku has been sued more than 20 times by NYC for life-threatening (heat and water) code violations, and cited for thousands of other minor to major code problems. He currently owes $98,000 for emergency fixes to his buildings performed by the city.

Ku's record inspired then-Gotham housing watchdog Donovan and other officials to successfully ban him in the state of New York from buying any more HUD-foreclosed properties. These are the buildings, like Shingle Creek Towers in Brooklyn Center, that are affordable housing. Rents are subsidized and the tenants are poor people of all ages, but with a preponderance of older folks with health problems living on a fixed income.

HUD officials aren't talking about the deal except to say a decision is pending.

Meantime, Ku confirms he's also bidding on a foreclosed affordable housing property in Granite Falls, the 40-unit HUD-subsidized Riverview apartment building.

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What's your plan for the Minneapolis Fuji Ya site?

Posted at 3:06 PM on June 8, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

The owners, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, are interested in your ideas. The late restaurant pioneer Reiko Weston's Japanese fine dining establishment in downtown Minneapolis on the riverfront near the Stone Arch bridge is long gone, boarded and mouldering.

But not the photos, and not the memories.

And now the Park Board is interested in plans for the future since it once again has control over the site.

That's after the Park Board prevailed recently in a courtroom tussle over a failed development plan and a lawsuit from an unhappy developer.

What should go on the site?

Park Board officials say they're still open to a private development pitch, but they are also interested in other possibilities.

What about a National Park Service visitor center, or another restaurant, they ask?

What do visitors to the The Cities think?

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Stay cool and learn Minneapolis history

Posted at 10:20 AM on June 7, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

Shade and cooler temperatures await visitors to the Federal Reserve Bank's park next to its headquarters building on Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis.

A broad walkway starting at Hennepin Avenue curves along the bank down to the Mississippi River parkway.

Markers along the walkway are topped with riverfront scenes with captions that tell the story of development in the area.

Several points stand out:

- The Ojibwe and Dakota had their own names for the river.

- The first (wooden suspension) bridge across the Mississippi was a toll bridge!

- Railroad depots - the Union and the Great Northern - sat on either side of Hennepin.

It's a great family field trip because it's free and very accessible by bike on the nearby and just completed Cedar Lake trail extension and by bus.

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Where did the Twin Cities streetcars go?

Posted at 1:53 PM on June 2, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

This photo, courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society collection, shows that some of the old streetcars were loaded up and sold to other systems in Newark, New Jersey and Mexico City.

And some were burned.

Hennepin County librarians have put together a nifty package on Twin Cities history including transportation history.

Scroll down a bit into the story and check out the photo of the burning streetcar. The folks who engineered the demise of the streetcars in l954 to be replaced by buses couldn't get rid of the old rail vehicles quickly enough.

So they burned them.

Anyway, it's always an informative side trip to review Sin Cities history .

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Art is for the birds

Posted at 11:50 AM on June 1, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

Audubon Minnesota volunteer Brian Goodspeed and AM staff member Joanna Eckles stopped the other day during an early morning walk around downtown St. Paul to admire the art.

Their view is that the art in this St. Paul office building window is great for at least one reason. It is the equivalent of a "road closed" sign for birds, a visual reminder to the little winged critters that there's an obstruction ahead and they should seek a different route.

Birds, Robert Zink reminds us, don't get glass. Zink, curator of birds at the University of Minnesota's Bell Museum, says since birds didn't evolve with glass as part of their experience they apparently interpret reflections as simply another reality.

And then -- smack.

They hit the glass and die in truly amazing numbers - 100 million to a billion a year in this country.

You are correct if that number sounds like an approximation, a bit of a wild guess. That, Zink says, is part of the motivation for research like Audubon Minnesota's effort to walk the downtowns of St. Paul and Minneapolis and try to arrive at a more definitive count of bird fatalities caused by colliding with buildings.

The research is also helping architects and building owners understand how to reduce the toll with better building design and window treatments that help birds see the obstruction.

So, save a bird. Put some art in your window.

Oh, and keep the cat inside. Bob Zink ranks outdoor cats, along with worldwide habitat loss and building collisions, as the top threats to bird populations.

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Youth Farm expands to Hawthorne, Frogtown neighborhoods

Posted at 5:15 PM on May 31, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

In an era of cutbacks to youth programs, Youth Farm's expansion announcement comes as a surprise.

The 16-year-old nonprofit announced it will add programs for this summer in the Hawthorne neighborhood in Minneapolis, and Frogtown in St. Paul. Youth Farm "builds youth leadership through planting, growing, preparing, and selling food" in the Lyndale and Powderhorn neighborhoods in Minneapolis, and on St. Paul's West Side.

Five hundred kids, ages 9 to 18, participate in its year-round programs. Its youth guide positions also provide summer employment to neighborhood teenagers. The program is free to participants, and one perk I noticed for parents: your kids get excited about vegetables and beg to cook at home.

As for why his grant-funded program is flourishing in an economic drought, Executive Director Gunnar Liden thinks a lot of hard work is paying off and the timing is ripe. "I think people right now are recognizing the combination of locally-centered work, meaningful jobs for youth, the whole urban farming movement--I know for the first many years that I worked for Youth Farm, just getting people to see it not as 'cute kids in a garden' was a real struggle" said Liden. "And I think people are starting to recognize -- funders and community partners are starting to recognize -- that this is really transformative work."

Youth farmers plant, care for and harvest flowers and produce, cook nutritious meals, sell their bounty at farmers markets, and work with community artists.

Liden says the Hawthorne and Frogtown programs will start small this summer and ramp up. For more info, visit www.youthfarm.net

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Call 311 for many storm clean-up questions

Posted at 2:59 PM on May 26, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Minneapolis city council members got a briefing today on tornado clean-up efforts underway in North Minneapolis.

Steve Kotke, Director of Public Works, told the council he expects by the end of the day, all streets will be passable.

The Department of Public Works' first priority after Sunday's storm was clearing fallen trees so emergency vehicles could get through. Phase two was clearing streets curb to curb. They've moved on to clearing alleys and boulevard trees now. Kotke says 72 of 86 blocked alleys are now clear, and garbage pick-up has resumed.

Here's some important info for residents in the affected areas:

1. While fallen trees on private property are technically the responsibility of homeowners, if residents can move them to the curb, the city will dispose of them until June 10.
2. Trees do not need to be chopped or stacked in any particular way, but Kotke asks residents to please not move them back into streets or alleys. Call 311 for pick-up.
3. Residents from the affected areas (north of hwy 55, West of 94) can dispose of construction debris for free. Call 311 for more info on disposal site that will be open until June 10.
4. Motorists are urged to avoid parking on streets where heavy clean-up is underway. If you can't find your car, call 311.
5. If you are interested in volunteering, call 311. Minneapolis is planning a major clean-up effort on Saturday, June 4.

Council member Don Samuels, who represents parts of north Minneapolis, praised the goodwill of those coming in to help, and thanked residents on the north side who "retained their civility" despite the frustration of not getting all the help they needed quickly enough. "Remember, people are hurting, so don't back off on the generosity or volunteerism," said Samuels.

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North Minneapolis residents could struggle with food for weeks to come

Posted at 3:55 PM on May 24, 2011 by MPR News Staff (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

By Julie Siple

After a tornado ripped through their neighborhood on Sunday, north Minneapolis residents are getting a look at what remains -- and what lies ahead. The area is still strewn with debris, felled trees and damaged homes. Hundreds of people are living in temporary shelters. Some don't know when or if they'll be able to return to their homes.

City and county officials are providing all sorts of resources, and for the moment that includes lots of free food. The city has set up several food distribution spots in the neighborhood.

Ray Camper, 28, of Minneapolis and Emma Beck, 11, of Coon Rapids, worked at the Nate Dogs cart serving free hot dogs to residents of North Minneapolis at a community barbeque held on Monday. (MPR Photo/Caroline Yang)

The Cub Foods on Broadway held a community barbecue last night and plans another from 5 to 6:30 p.m. today. The Northpoint Community Food Shelf reopened today, with a $5,000 grant from Hunger Solutions to purchase emergency food.

But the struggle for food could continue well beyond the day the food carts offering free meals pull away.

"I think there's a daunting task ahead," said Annette Bauer, spokesperson for the Salvation Army. She said the food shelf the Salvation Army runs in North Minneapolis sees a persistently high number of people needing help, even without a natural disaster.

"Now, you pile on top of that," she said.

The tornado tore apart some of the city's poorest neighborhoods, an area marred by foreclosures and home to some people who were already having trouble making ends meet. As residents work to rebuild their lives, Bauer expects, it'll be harder to make their dollars stretch.

"Before they were spending some of their income on food, not worrying about furniture or a place to live," said Bauer. "It's going to be a struggle."

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North Minneapolis a model of cooperation, law and order so far

Posted at 11:20 AM on May 24, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

There will be much more of this as the tornado aftermath unfolds.

Stories of neighbor and neighborhood-wide help abound in north Minneapolis.

Residents have opened their doors to people who've lost their homes. Churches have organized dinners, groceries and counseling.

In the above photo from MPR's Jeffrey Thompson, Wesley Smith directs people waiting in line for food. He helped organize a food and donation area at the corner of N. Lowry Avenue and N. Logan Avenue, which started with a few bottles of donated water and grew into several tables of hot meals and other items.

The Minnesota Black Nurses Association sent in volunteers to address residents' medical concerns. Suburban volunteers with chainsaws helped city crews clear trees. A coffee shop owner from Maple Grove showed up with fresh supplies of the beverage.

On the law enforcement front, Minneapolis police spokesman Sgt. Stephen McCarty says there's been no outbreak of lawlessness and credits residents with "great cooperation".

The overall picture at this point is one of well-coordinated and generous human activity in the face of a city disaster of historic proportions.

Have you seen any other instances of this in north Minneapolis? Share them in the comments below.

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Twin Cities transportation a cinch for the able-bodied

Posted at 3:23 PM on May 20, 2011 by Dan Olson (2 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs, Transportation

Cars, buses, bikes, cabs, limos, skateboards, walking.

Not a problem for those of us with strong legs or a fat wallet.

Quite a different story for people pinching pennies and not so stable on their pins.

That's the situation for south Minneapolis resident Delores Alvous, 82, getting help from Nokomis Health Seniors volunteer driver Zan Ceeley. They're on their way to a health clinic check-up for Delores, a weekly event.

The Twin Cities response is a transit network with Metro Mobility for people with disabilities (at a cost of about $41 million a year) and Transit Link, the seven county-wide dial-a-ride service (about $6.6 million a year), where a majority of the customers are older folks.

The problem is these mostly affordable services are stretched, and still cost a bit of money - up to $8 for a round trip.

Then, there's often a wait.

And some of the service is curb to curb, not door to door, so there can still be a walk. Not always a workable equation for people who need assistance.

Nonprofits have stepped in, offering van services and supplementing with volunteer drivers. But, as one transportation coordinator says, vans are expensive to own and operate, and volunteers are short lived, typically donating their time for about three months before moving on.

Not the case, by the way, for Zan Ceeley, who's hung in there for two years and is still going strong.

Our Twin Cities living habits hinder easy answers to transit.

As one East Coast transplant notes, Minnesotans are culturally opposed to density. We like our elbow room.

The result is a very large metropolitan area, and not much density anywhere except the core cities. Not very cost efficient for transit.

Instead, we have a robust car culture with a highly developed and extremely expensive to maintain road system.

One solution is to have more older residents live closer together, and that's happening. But survey upon survey shows folks prefer to stay in their home as they get older.

Let The Cities know your ideas for ways to help our older population get around.

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Bike rental program adds 40 new stations in Mpls and St. Paul

Posted at 8:20 PM on May 19, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (3 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

The weather's warmer, the potholes are getting filled, and Minneapolis police may have even nabbed the person responsible for a string of violent robberies that left Uptown residents afraid to go outside after 9 p.m.

In other words, it's the ideal time for Twin Cities' residents to dust off their bicycles and hit the roads.

Nice Ride Minnesota bike share program chose today to announce plans to add 40 new bike share stations in Minneapolis and St. Paul. That amounts to a near doubling of the number of bicycles in the Nice Ride fleet.

By mid-June, they'll have 1,200 bikes and 113 stations in the Twin Cities. You can check out which stations are up and running here.

New locations include: the Northeast Arts District, Gigi's in the CARAG neighborhood, the Capri Theatre on West Broadway, the YWCA at the light rail stop on Lake Street, Cafe Latte on Grand, and Mississippi Market on Dale Street.

The University of St. Thomas, Macalester College, Hamline University, and Concordia University are also getting Nice Ride stations.

North Minneapolis received 8 new stations in April, bringing the neighborhood's total up to 11. Last year the neighborhood was left out of the first round of stations.

In case you've never rented a bike from Nice Ride, here's a primer:

Users pay a subscription fee, plus a trip fee for rentals longer than 30 minutes.

For tourists who want to ride around the lakes for two hours, the rental would cost $15.50. That includes $5 for the 24-hour subscription fee and $10.50 for the trip fee.
But if you're jumping on a bike to run errands, the program is much cheaper. Right now, a one-year subscription is on sale for $40. Trips under 30 minutes are free.

The news release offers one suggestion that might resonate with St. Paul residents.
"If you want to avoid congestion during the Central Corridor construction, Nice Ride will get you to your University Avenue destination fast!"

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Bulletin: Revolutionary pothole filling technology in Minneapolis

Posted at 3:00 PM on May 18, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

This Stadium Village parking lot owner near the U of M in Minneapolis is on to something.

I'm keeping the precise location private for the moment so I can be the first, and likely only, investor in this amazing new pothole filling breakthrough: Pothole as landfill.

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Eerie Washington Avenue calm before light rail storm

Posted at 10:03 AM on May 18, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

Cars, trucks, buses and bikes are diverted.

Pedestrians are on sidewalks behind a high cyclone fence.

Hard hat-wearing workers are measuring and generally taking stock before the earth movers arrive.

Washington Avenue at Oak is closed as it runs through the University of Minnesota's east bank campus.

One U grad student calls the scene, "post apocalyptic."

Not for long. The heavy equipment arrives soon to turn Washington Avenue into a transit mall for the Central Corridor light rail line. Completion? 2014.

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For St. Paul businesses, light rail construction costly as a sudden storm

Posted at 6:00 AM on May 17, 2011 by Dan Olson (2 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

That's how some businesses along University avenue and in Lowertown may be feeling.

Laura Yuen and I checked in with a handful of owners within the last week. They tell a sobering story.

Light rail construction disruption is hitting them hard in the pocketbook with revenue losses ranging from 15 to 40 percent.

How and why?

The pictures tell the story. Streets diverted, parking gone, customers not showing up.

The Metropolitan Council and the city of St. Paul aren't standing still. They're working with the businesses on signage, promotions and advertising. There's a $4 million fund for forgivable loans up to $20,000 to help qualifying businesses cover losses.

Most of the streets eventually reopen as crews move to another work site. But it can be weeks and months of construction mayhem carving into revenues.

And many of those affected are not big national chains. They are the Mas and Pas, Uncles and Aunts of the world. Pockets aren't that deep, the daily cash flow keeps them a step ahead of the creditors.

Light rail boosters tout the little train as a potent economic development tool.

But the LRT goes into service three and half years from now. And then some years after that transit-oriented development might take hold with the promised economic boost.

Between now and then the business owners along the Central Corridor line are urging their customers to stop by and help them stay solvent.

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Where do you rooftop in Minneapolis?

Posted at 3:33 PM on May 16, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability

Photo courtesy of City of Minneapolis

I took a quick glance at the weather forecast for this week and looks like prime outdoor dining/drinking weather - at least for the next couple days. Today, the Minneapolis City Council's regulatory services committee listened to a presentation about the licensing process for bars and restaurants that want to add rooftop and sidewalk dining.

I won't go into details about the presentation, but if you're curious, here's a link to the Powerpoint. If you're not, here are couple interesting tidbits.

In Minneapolis there are:

14 rooftop establishments

300 sidewalk cafe and outdoor areas

Also, speaking of outdoor dining, the committee also approved three mobile food vendor licenses. Original Turkey and World Street Kitchen look to be adding new food trucks. And Barrio Tequila bar applied for their first. Council member Lisa Goodman, who represents most of downtown Minneapolis welcomed the news and said Barrio will be rolling out a taco truck.

Where do you rooftop in Minneapolis?

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Exciting cloud watching in Minneapolis

Posted at 1:45 PM on May 11, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Doesn't take much to entertain me.

Combination of wind, humidity, sirens popping off, some great lightning topped with frosting-like clouds created quite a stir in downtown Minneapolis last night near the Guthrie Theater.

Rubenesque, or full-figured, are descriptors that come to mind to describe the clouds.

The sky show created some pea-sized hail that pinged off cars and bounced off sidewalks.

Weather is worth worrying about. But it's also a great spectator sport when no one gets hurt.

And as usual Paul Huttner has lots of information on how it all came about.

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Washington Avenue at the U closes Saturday

Posted at 2:12 PM on May 10, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

When it reopens, you'll be able to ride a train, bus, ambulance, or bike, or you can walk it.

But starting Saturday, May 14, you will not be driving your personal motorized vehicle on Washington Avenue through the University of Minnesota's east bank campus.

Forever.

Light rail builders close Washington Avenue through Stadium Village and the U for construction. It emerges from the light rail chrysalis in 2014 as a transit mall.

The new Washington Avenue transit mall will be similar to what happened to 5th Street in Minneapolis, as the Hiawatha line enters downtown and rolls past City Hall onto Target Field.

There are lots of questions and some answers about how the transit mall will affect the various interests along that stretch of Washington avenue.

Unanswered is how the transit mall will affect businesses in Stadium Village. Some short-term pain -- about three years of it -- seems inevitable as measured by the St. Paul Lowertown experience, where light rail construction has sliced deeply into revenues of some businesses there.

And as with so much of life, there's very little new under the sun including rail service on Washington Avenue. Back in 1948, transit rolled past the front of Coffman Union.

(The 1948 photo looks north from the front entrance of Coffman Memorial Union across Washington Avenue at the Northrup Mall. Visible is the most eastern of the two footbridges, a westbound streetcar and a temporary classroom building on the site of Ford Hall. Northrup Auditorium is visible in the distance. Photographer: St. Paul Dispatch & Pioneer Press. Courtesy the Minnesota Historical Society.)

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More federal dough for rail from Minneapolis to Duluth

Posted at 4:00 PM on May 9, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

Secretary LaHood handed out $2 billion of our federal tax dollars today for passenger rail projects.

The biggest pile - nearly $800 million - will go to northeastern U.S. commuter rail service.

A decent chunk of change - about $400 million - is aimed at improving Midwest service, including rail from Chicago to St. Louis.

Minnesota snagged $5 million.

The cash goes to the folks trying to get the Northern Lights Express, NLX, service on track from downtown Minneapolis to Duluth. This map of the proposed route is courtesy of the Northern Lights Express.

They'd asked for $10 million. And it'll take a lot more - estimates range from half a billion to nearly a billion dollars - to actually get trains running, with no clear sign at the moment of where that money will come from.

The NLX was former U.S. Rep. James Oberstar's pet. Attempts to learn freshman 8th district Rep. Chip Cravaack's NLX position didn't net a timely response.

NLX supporters say the $5 million, along with $10 million in state borrowing approved by lawmakers last session for the project, helps pay for "phase one engineering". Obviously, it's a long way from reality.

Rail buffs take the long view. It took half a century to dismantle a once-extensive national rail service network. And they argue it will take decades to restore a measure of that service.

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What's the point? The end is near!

Posted at 11:40 AM on May 9, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability

No, probably not the legislative session.

And, no, certainly not the stadium debate.

We're talking about the End of the World!

That's what the RVs parked Sunday morning in downtown Minneapolis were proclaiming.

It's part of the California-based Family Radio effort to let folks know there's a date.

May 21, 2012. But the "12" is crossed out. The date's been bumped up a year. Just 12 days left.

The group has proclaimed The End a couple other times. Probably scheduling Upstairs. Lots to arrange.

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Medicine collection effort yields 'several large barrels' of drugs

Posted at 4:11 PM on May 4, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

About 100 pounds of Vicodin, codeine and other controlled substances were dropped off at Hennepin County's medicine collection event on Saturday. The sheriff's office released the tallies this week.

The rest of the medications, including prescription and over-the-counter drugs, filled "several large barrels," the sheriff's office reported. Some people even dropped off unused medications for their pets.

Medicine collection events are becoming more common, driven by concerns about pharmaceuticals showing up in drinking water supplies. Hennepin County held its first collection event last year, diverting tens of thousands of pills from being flushed down the toilet or thrown into the trash.

Disposing of prescription drugs isn't easy, even for law enforcement officials. MPR reporter Stephanie Hemphill provides a detailed look here.

All these drugs -- the controlled substances and the ordinary things like aspirin -- have to be taken all the way to Illinois to be burned. That's because in Minnesota, medicines are classified as hazardous waste, and we don't have a hazardous waste incinerator in the state.

Hennepin County is holding another medicine collection event June 2 at the Richfield Ice Arena from 3-7 p.m. More information is available here.

(Photos courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office)

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Housing for homeless Twin Cities teens on Nicollet Avenue

Posted at 12:19 PM on May 4, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

Nearly everyone knows a teenager who for whatever reason decided he or she had to get out of Dodge and head for. . . who knows where?

St. Paul-based Wilder Center in its regular homeless surveys has found more than 1,000 teens on any given night in Minnesota don't have permanent shelter.

That picture changes today for up to 42 homeless teens.

Plymouth Church Neighborhood Foundation opens the doors to its brand new development at 3700 Nicollet Avenue in south Minneapolis.

No, 42 units doesn't solve the homeless teen problem. But measured in human potential harnessed and money saved, it's a huge deal.

Think of it this way.

If the PCNF 3700 Nicollet project helps even one teen find his or her course to a productive and fulfilling life, the project is a win.

And in a more extreme case, if 3700 Nicollet helps even one teen stay out of jail or avoid some other calamity, well, that's tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars saved.

I consider that a win, win.

PCNF, by the way, is emerging as a significant player in the Twin Cities affordable housing market. They opened the doors not too long ago on their south Minneapolis Creek Commons project.

Then, later this year, they will likely break ground in cooperation with CommonBond Communities on 42 units of affordable housing in Minneapolis' Minnehaha neighborhood.

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Yes, Twin Cities renters, you are paying a lot

Posted at 3:50 PM on May 3, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

The bad news comes from the Minnesota Housing Partnership. Every year, the partnership and the National Low Income Housing Coalition release a renting affordability report.

Minnesota's dubious distinction is that we are the least affordable rental state in the Midwest.

How big a deal is that?

The U.S. Census and Department of Housing and Urban Development statistics show about a fourth of Minnesota's households - nearly 540,000 - are rental households.

Those renters, the numbers show, need to earn more than $15 an hour to afford a modest two bedroom apartment and utilities which can range from $800 to $900 a month.

The numbers show Minnesota's typical renter earns just over $11 an hour.

The result is a troublingly high number of state residents - about a fifth - pay half or more of their income for shelter.

Doesn't leave much for food, medical care, transportation or anything else.

So, yes, Twin Cities rent is high and rising in a very tight market with a vacancy rate hovering around three percent.

But save a measure of sympathy for our outstate cousins. Their rents are rising faster in relation to income.

The Minnesota Housing Partnership points out, "The Minnesota counties with the highest increase in rents since 2000 are outside of the Twin Cities Metro, particularly in southwest Minnesota. Rents in Martin, Faribault, Cottonwood, Pipestone, Murray, Rock, Watonwan and Jackson Counties have increased by 56% or more since 2000, compared to 32% statewide since 2000."

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Twin Cities "ecological" foot print is GIGANTIC!

Posted at 7:00 AM on April 30, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

Take a look at it!

Go to page ten and figure eight of this 2010 report by the University of Minnesota's Shengyin Xu, Research Assistant and the Metropolitan Design Center and Ignacio San Martin, Dayton Hudson Chair of Urban Design and Director of the Metropolitan Design Center. The study tries to measure metro Twin Citians' impact on the environment.

The electricity portion is 28%!

I stumbled on this when I went in search of some kind of measure of our collective electricity use here in the Sin Cities with the announcement that a sizable Xcel wind energy project in North Dakota is off. For the moment.

The assumption by energy analysts is a good share of the juice generated by the wind turbines in the Merricourt Ridge project in south central North Dakota was destined for the "Minnesota market."

At the time Xcel issued a statement that it was pulling out because of the damage the turbines could do to migrating rare birds.

The project is in a major North American migratory bird flyway. Lots of our winged friends including the endangered whooping crane cruise through that area.

And the worry was the birds would collide with the wind towers. And die.

The wind energy analysts are, well, a little huffy about that criticism. They argue we're cooking the planet with all the greenhouse gases created from burning coal in order to make electricity to power our big flat screen TV's, air conditioners and shopping center lights.

The priority, they argue, is slowing climate change by way of switching to non-greenhouse gas producing sources of energy. Such as wind.

What do The Cities readers think?

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Kate's Big Day: The Minnesota Version

Posted at 1:50 PM on April 29, 2011 by Tim Nelson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul

Katie Pavlak got up before dawn this morning and made herself a mimosa. She was up early because of the wedding.

No, not That One.

Hers.

"I wanted to go sleep, but I started getting excited and I just couldn't fall back to sleep," she said this afternoon, standing in the sunshine in downtown St. Paul in her own wedding dress -- a strapless white affair with a respectable, though manageable, train.

So she watched the warm-up act on TV. "I watched the Queen arrive, and I watched Kate arrive. I got a few hours of sleep, but that was about it."

For the record, this was Kate of White Bear Lake's Big Day before it was Kate Middleton's. Pavlak and her fiance Ryan Shea actually set today as their wedding date back in July. They had to plan way ahead, because he's in the military and lives in Georgia.

But they're taking the British usurpers in stride.

"Nobody's staying home to watch their wedding," Shea said.

Katie, Ryan and their wedding party met at Assumption Church in downtown St. Paul this morning, to scope out the church. Then they headed over to Rice Park to take some pictures. Kate's sister, Erin Romans, pitched in as photographer for the nuptials.

"I woke up and the sky was blue," Katie said. "I opened the blinds and turned on some music. It's a beautiful day to get married."

And she's got the entire British Empire to vouch for that.

Wish her and Ryan well, about 4 p.m. today.

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St. Paul tree canopy tops Minneapolis -- slightly

Posted at 12:50 PM on April 29, 2011 by Elizabeth Dunbar (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul

Above: Picture of a boulevard oak taken during the study. Photo courtesy of City of St. Paul.

Existing tree canopy cover makes up only a slightly higher percentage in St. Paul than in Minneapolis, according to a University of Minnesota study.

The U of M Spatial Analysis Laboratory study shows tree canopy covers 32.5 percent of land in St. Paul. A similar study by the laboratory showed the number to be 31.5 percent in Minneapolis.

I wrote here about the Minneapolis study earlier this month.

St. Paul has put land cover data on its Geographic Information System website.

City officials in both Minneapolis and St. Paul have touted the benefits of trees. From St. Paul's press release today, here's a rundown of what trees do:

• Intercept stormwater

• Conserve electricity by shading homes

• Reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

• Reduce iar pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and small particulate matter

• Define neighborhoods by creating a sense of place

• Dampen and reduce noise pollution

• Reduce stress

• Increase property values

The city plans to plant 3,000 oak seedlings at an event on May 14 to celebrate Arbor Month.

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"Local Motives" is primer on Central Corridor politics

Posted at 4:30 PM on April 29, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Documentary film maker James Christenson has made silver screen stars of Macalester prof David Lanegran and U of M prof Judith Martin.

Martin and Lanegran are two of the best thinkers and talkers about Twin Cities development.

But their insights are usually confined to musty academic journals.

In Christenson's new film, "Local Motives," the two professors get some long overdue face time as they talk about the impact of the Central Corridor light rail project.

There's also face time for Metric Giles, Joan Vanhalla, St. Paul city council member Melvin Carter and others who live and do business in the neighborhoods affected by the project.

There's lots of concern among those folks about the loss of nearly 1,000 on-street parking spaces when the line is complete.

Christensen's documentary is a penetrating look at the jockeying around the state's largest public works gambit ever.

The first half is about the swirl of politics around a couple other Minnesota rail projects.

He tells the story with great visuals and soundtrack.

You can see it here.

Or you can go to the screening tonight at 7 p.m. at Macalester, where Christenson is a student. Details on the screening also found by clicking the link above.

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Nook owners hope to re-open in one week

Posted at 12:19 PM on April 28, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul

Juicy Lucy lovers, start the countdown. Owners of the Nook in St. Paul are hoping to re-open May 5.

The iconic Highland Park burger joint was destroyed last December when a compressor under one of the bar's freezers overheated. Co-owner Ted Casper tells me there was much more structural damage than initially thought, complicating the remodel.

The fire ruined most of the kitchen equipment and sports memorabilia that filled the walls.

One item that went out in a blaze of glory was an old Speedo worn by fellow restaurateur Pat Mancini when he swam for Cretin-Derham Hall, Casper said. Mancini, of course, and his brother John, run the Mancini's family steakhouse on West Seventh Street.

"The big joke you hear is that it was Pat Mancini's Speedo that started the fire. It was too hot for the place," Casper said. "We're looking for Johnny Mancini's jockstrap now."

On the bright side, the Nook is getting a facelift, with wheelchair-accessible restrooms, an expanded kitchen, and a dumbwaiter to bring food to the Ran-Ham basement bowling alley. When I stopped by yesterday, Juan Mejia of Premiere Finishes was spiffing up the walls with a fresh coat of paint. Carpenter David Hobbs was working on the back bar.

Casper co-owns the bar with his lifelong pal, Mike Runyon, 30, seen above right. Their dads, Tom Casper and Pete Runyon, used to stop by the Nook, which has been around since 1938, after class at Cretin-Derham. One day during their senior year, the story goes, they said: "Wouldn't it be sweet in 30 years if our sons owned this place and we could have these burgers anytime we wanted?"

Come early May, they'll be able to once again.

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Goats? Minneapolis says no, Seattle says yes

Posted at 6:00 AM on April 29, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

Yesterday in The Cities, we explored the "goat divide" in the Twin Cities. Minneapolis has resisted efforts to allow goats within city limits, but in St. Paul, goats are free to roam in your background, as long as you have a permit.

Minneapolis isn't alone in being somewhat reluctant to expand its urban menagerie. Other cities have fought efforts to allow goats and chickens, but urban animal advocates have fought back, superhero-style.

The Goat Justice League in Seattle led a successful effort in 2007 to allow goats in residential areas.

Jennie Grant, the group's founder, has been raising goats for nearly 5 years. She shared some goat stories with me last week in between milking her two adults, Maple and Snowflake. "It's a tremendous amount of work, but it's really fun," she said.

Grant fell in love with the idea of owning goats when she tasted fresh goat's milk for the first time. Now, her family drinks goat's milk every day and uses the leftovers to make cheese. Each goat produces between 2 cups and a gallon of milk each day.

Grant said her goat-milk mozzarella is impossible to distinguish from the real deal.
"It doesn't have that goaty flavor at all," she said. "You can put it on a kid's pizza, and they'll think it's great."

She receives emails from people all over the country who want to own goats and other small farm animals. She offers advice about all things goat-related, from how to build a goat shed to how to entertain a goat. "They're intelligent creatures, so you want stuff for them to be able to hop up and down on," Grant said. "Like maybe a little staircase that goes nowhere or a balance beam."

The Goat Justice League founder is always on the lookout for battles over farm animals in other cities. She directed me toward the efforts of Chickens In The Yard, or CITY, in Salem, Oregon, 45 miles south of Portland. The group used Che Guevara-inspired chicken propaganda, along with a chicken rap video (below), to win the fight to raise chickens.

I asked Grant if she had any words of wisdom for officials in Minneapolis.

"Get goats if you don't want everybody moving over to St. Paul," she said. "They're going to be fleeing with their goats behind them."

(Photos courtesy of the Goat Justice League. Chicken image and video courtesy of Chickens in the Yard)

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Does the "E" stand for "emptier"?

Posted at 11:59 AM on April 27, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

On a recent stroll through the skyways, I walked into Block E and immediately noticed a lot more closed doors and blank walls. I thought, "Isn't that where T.G.I. Friday's used to be? I thought there was a Panchero's over there?"

The second floor of Block E is a lot emptier since the latest tenants closed up shop. The only businesses left on the second floor are a cookie maker, a video game store, the movie theater and a kiosk that sells perfume and cologne.

Two of the previous anchor tenants, Borders and Gameworks, used to have entrances on the second floor. Of course, those businesses are both long gone. So are both the Hooters restaurant which went bankrupt, and Club Xscape which folded after the smoking ban went into effect. As a second-floor business, it had no patio access for smokers.

What kind of business do you think will thrive on the second floor - or the main floor - of Block E? I wonder if there's enough room for a roller skating rink?

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$478 million back at you Twin Cities

Posted at 8:30 PM on April 26, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

That's the amount delivered today by Peter Rogoff, the top dog at the Federal Transit Administration.

It's some of your federal tax dollars coming home.

The money goes to pay half the cost of the $957 million Central Corridor light rail line between downtown St. Paul and Minneapolis on University and Washington Avenues by way of the State Capitol, the Midway and the U of M east bank campus all the way to Target Field in Minneapolis.

Yes, it's back to the future.

The light rail construction crews (really, this is true, you can go see) are tearing up the trolley tracks for the Twin Cities streetcars that ran from the late 1800's to 1954.

As someone pointed out we reinvent our transportation culture about every fifty years in this country.

We've cast our lot with gasoline and rubber tired vehicles and are just now beginning to look to alternatives.

There's hot debate over the wisdom of building the Central Corridor line. It's not like the Hiawatha project. Central is generating lots more friction because it's affecting lots more people.

Hiawatha's right of way, most of it, had been available for decades, the result of a failed freeway building effort.

But Central is going down the throat of the state's main street, University Avenue, one of the most vibrant and populated venues here in Walleyeland. We're been hearing and are going to hear lots more vocalizations from folks affected by the physical and economic dislocation the project is causing.

Then there's the money.

Nine hundred and fifty-seven million dollars makes Central the state's largest public works project. Ever. Four hundred and seventy-eight million is the largest amount of federal dollars ever sent back from D. C. for a transportation project.

That's money that could be used to build lots of lanes or interchanges in the Twin Cities to speed our commutes to suburbia and exurbia. But as Ramsey county commissioner Jim McDonough pointed out, his colleagues on the Ramsey county board whose districts do not stand to benefit directly from light rail voted to spend tens of millions as their share for the project.

Fifty years from now when we re-reinvent our transportation culture maybe crews will dig up the Central Corridor tracks and put in...what?

Metropolitan Council outreach coordinator Joey Browner signed a rail at the Harold E. Stassen Office Building in St. Paul, Minn. Tuesday, April 26, 2011.

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Goats in Minneapolis?

Posted at 6:00 AM on April 28, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (10 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

Goats aren't welcome in Minneapolis.

That was the clear message from city council members at an April zoning and planning meeting. Members voted 4-2 to remove a few lines about "hoofed animals" in the city's 61-page urban agriculture policy plan. Here's what they deleted:

"Study the impacts of allowing hoofed animals. CPED (Community Planning and Economic Development) would be a partner in this work to ensure a coordinated approach with the regulation of enclosures for animals. Any study of allowing hoofed animals should involve a variety of stakeholders including those with expertise in animal welfare."

City planners stressed that they weren't saying that the city should allow goats. They just wanted to study the matter. Council members Cam Gordon and Kevin Reich tried to convince the rest of the committee, but to no avail.

"I do not want hoofed animals next door to me," said Council member Meg Tuthill. "I'm fine with bees, and I'm fine with chickens, but I spent enough time on farms as a kid picking cucumbers for pickle factories, cleaning barns, slopping the pigs, the whole shooting match. I've chosen not to have that lifestyle. And for those of you that are unfamiliar with that lifestyle, when the wind blows the right way, it can be very fragrant in our homes."

As it turns out, it's not hard to find urban areas that have "chosen to have that lifestyle." Just look across the river.

St. Paul doesn't mind if you own a goat. In fact, the city also allows horses, pigs, deer, and alligators. There's even a macaque monkey in residence, although the state has since made it illegal to own, as the animal control folks put it, "non-human primates". (The monkey was grandfathered in.)

"I haven't seen any aardvarks or zebras yet, and I hope I don't, but I think I've seen every other animal from A to Z," said Bill Stephenson, St. Paul's Animal Control supervisor.

The city requires that most animal owners get a permit. (If you're more traditional and prefer cats or dogs, you can go paperwork-free.) Animal control officers inspect the home and yard to make sure the animal will be well-contained and healthy.

Stephenson helped out with a horse permit inspection a few years ago. "I went in a little bit prejudiced saying, 'Now that's a city lot. How are they going to keep a horse, let alone two?'"

When he arrived, he found a corral and a two-stable barn. "It was ideal. There are probably farms that aren't this good," he said. "I said, 'How can we not approve this?'"

St. Paul has been home to a few goats over the years, Stephenson said. Right now, there's just one.

Stephenson helped me understand the basics of goat inspection. "We'll take a visual, see if the goat looks healthy, is standing upright, and not head-butting me," he said. "And then we'll look at where it stays and where it's allowed to roam."

He sometimes wonders whether it makes sense to own certain animals. "Are you going to pet an alligator?" he said. But he said there haven't been many problems with any of the city's more exotic residents.

Back in Minneapolis, Dan Niziolek tried to make sense of the goat divide. He's a program manager for Minneapolis Animal Care and Control.

"It just a different sentiment," he said. "I think it speaks to the view and perception of each city."

Over the years, Minneapolis has made a few changes. The city now allows chickens and honeybees. Last year, the city had 173 active small animal permits, up from 46 permits in 2007. The permits cover chickens, ducks, or pigeons, but Niziolek said almost all of them are for chickens. (Six people have been approved to own honeybees, if you're wondering.)

And banning animals doesn't mean people don't own them, Niziolek said. It just means that Animal Control has to remove them.

"We've had all kinds of lizards, snapping turtles, snakes of all types, a very nice-looking alligator, sheep, goats, potbellied pigs," he said. "It's amazing what we'll come across."

What do you think? Should Minneapolis allow goats?

Check the blog tomorrow for Urban Animals: Part Two. We'll talk to the founder of a group called the Goat Justice League.

(Goat photos courtesy of the Goat Justice League. Photo of a macaque monkey awaiting adoption in Thailand courtesy of the Associated Press)

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Librarian leaves $646K for Hennepin County Library

Posted at 11:37 PM on April 25, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Good news for book lovers -- a former librarian has left $646,000 in her will for the Hennepin County Library.

The gift from the estate of Lillian Wallis was announced Monday. To put the amount in context, the library's operating budget is $69 million this year. Library officials said it's the largest gift they've received in years.

From all accounts, Wallis led an adventure-filled life. The Star Tribune tells the story here.

She attended the opera in Sydney, went up the Amazon River in a dugout canoe, flew to Audubon birding camps and participated in countless Elderhostel programs. Never married, she lived simply in a Nicollet Mall condo that helped her maintain a car-free lifestyle.

Wallis retired in 1987 after nearly four decades spent working in libraries from Minnesota to West Germany. She died in September 2010.

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Light bulb wars and the MOA parking ramp

Posted at 6:30 PM on April 25, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability

Twenty three train cars of coal a year.

That's the estimate of how much coal won't be burned when the Mall of America parking ramps are completely fitted out with brand spanking new LED (light emitting diode) lights.

The $3 million project to switch to the new energy-saving lamps begins in July. Thank you, federal taxpayers, for contributing half a million dollars to the effort.

The MOA folks estimate that money saved from a lower electric bill will pay for the changeover in four years.

The MOA press release says the energy savings will be 800 kilowatts a year.

The people at Fresh Energy say that saves about 2800 tons of coal. And the railroad folks say a coal car hauls about 120 tons, or 23 cars of coal (thank you, newsroom math maven Tom Weber).

The light bulb war is being waged by some members of Congress who want to guarantee Americans will still be able to buy the incandescent units after 2012 when new federal energy efficiency rules take effect.

But the war is happening on other fronts as well. Opponents of LED question whether the energy spent manufacturing LED lights actually exceeds what they save over their life.

Fresh energy analyst Kate Ellis supplies an analysis, and the answer she asserts is, "No."

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A taste of warm weather in downtown Mpls

Posted at 2:56 PM on April 25, 2011 by Brandt Williams (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

As weather patterns as of late have shown, you've got to enjoy every bit of spring when it shows up. Today was a perfect day for a little lunch al fresco. On the menu, a beef torta from World Street Kitchen, the food truck created by the owners of Saffron restaurant.

The sandwich features shredded beef, guacamole, jalapenos and cheese pressed between the halves of a white baguette. I wolfed it down (actually, I may have swallowed a piece of tin foil) while sitting basking in the sun on a marble planter on Nicollet Mall.

So what did you have for lunch? And where did you eat it?

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Audrey Hull's legacy

Posted at 12:59 PM on April 22, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

Safety officials responded almost instantly with pleas to drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians to pay more attention to one another after a rash of fatal collisions including the death Thursday morning of Audrey Hull, 25.

She's the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts student who was on her bicycle when she collided with a truck turning right in Dinkytown next to the U's Minneapolis campus. Flowers remembering Audrey mark the intersection today.

Cycling enthusiasts for years have argued the fact that their numbers on the road are growing actually increases their safety, because drivers will notice and learn to share the road.

A rational argument.

The tragic uptick in Minneapolis bicycle and pedestrian fatalities the past week has the same effect but at a terrible cost.

What if all of us as drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists resolved, in memory of Audrey and other victims, to pay more attention, use more caution, slow down, obey the rules of the road and give a moment's thought to the value of life?

If the moment saves a life or prevents an injury it will be the start of a fitting memorial to Audrey.

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Maps show longest, shortest commutes

Posted at 6:00 AM on April 21, 2011 by Elizabeth Dunbar (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Suburbs, Transportation

When it comes to long commutes, those living north of the Twin Cities have it the worst. A quarter or more of commuters in Isanti, Chisago, Sherburne, Kanabec, Wright and Mille Lacs counties spend 45 minutes or longer getting to work.

You might have heard from some of those commuters in my colleague Sasha Aslanian's story on the radio today. I looked a American Community Survey data from 2005-2009 to find out who has the longest and shortest commutes in Minnesota. Below is a map showing counties with the highest percentage of long commutes. The darker the shade, the higher the percentage. Click on any county to see how many commuters have long trips.

It's outstate Minnesota that wins in the shortest commute category. About two thirds of commuters in Traverse, Pennington, Brown and Stevens counties spend less than 15 minutes getting to work. The map is below -- the darker the color, the larger percentage of short commutes for that county.

The maps above focus on percentage of all commuters. The one below shows the average commute time in minutes for each county -- just an additional way to look at the data.

Sasha talked a lot in her radio story about rising gas prices. Gasbuddy.com has put together this graph of gas prices in Minnesota in the last six years. The price peaked in summer of 2008 at about $4 a gallon before bottoming out at under $2 a gallon when the recession hit in late 2008.

So what happens when gas prices rise? Do more people ride the bus or carpool? American Community Survey data from 2008 and 2009 showed very little change in behavior statewide and in the Twin Cities. But keep in mind the quick changes in gas prices can be difficult to capture in annual behavior data.

A better indicator of changes in behavior is transit ridership data. According to Metro Transit data, mass transit use peaked in 2008, when gas prices also peaked (see graph below and mouse over to see what ridership was in a given quarter).

If you're wondering about the peaks and valleys, keep things like weather and school season in mind. Also, Metro Transit spokesman John Siqveland points out that Northstar commuter rail service began Nov. 16, 2009.

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A posthumous award for St. Paul's "environmental steward"

Posted at 3:30 PM on April 20, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul

Pete Emeott probably never figured he'd win any awards for picking up other people's trash. Today, he'll do just that -- a month after his death.

Emeott, who died at age 60 on March 8, is one of a dozen businesses and individuals to receive a sustainability award today from the city of St. Paul.

The Battle Creek resident was a trusty volunteer for the District 1 neighborhood cleanups, recalls City Council President Kathy Lantry. For 25 years, he organized crews of volunteers to pick up old computer parts and other waste materials and recyclables from the homes of seniors and disabled people. The crews then hauled the items to a community collection site.

"Honest to god, I can picture his trailer," Lantry recalled over the phone, between laughter and tears. "He just had this big pickup truck, and his trailer was really long, like 20 feet long. The bigger the trailer, the more you could pick up."

Less than two months before he died, Emeott emailed friends and family with a sobering update on his fight with cancer. And he was reflective about his relationships with people: "Thanks to all for being my friend whether you want to be or not."

Lantry believes Emeott pitched in with the cleanup year after year because he understood that "we all have responsibilities as citizens," she said. "Sometimes it's hard to rely on people, but you could always rely on Pete."

Emeott won the award for "exceptional environmental steward."

Hats off to him and the rest of the winners, noted below along with their respective categories:

Humboldt High School, environmental education and awareness. Students built raised vegetable beds and planted native gardens around the school that create habitat and rain gardens to capture water run-off from roofs.

WasteFree Rondo Partnership, youth leadership. The partnership created the "Collard Green Team" to divert waste and inform attendees of Rondo Days events -- many of whom were their own parents and grandparents -- on the importance of protecting the environment.

Hmong Village, green practices. Co-founder Yong Yia Vang worked with Ramsey County's public-health staff to design and implement recycling and composting into this large commercial operation while honoring the Hmong culture.

Friends of the Mississippi River's Mississippi River Gorge Stewardship Program, natural resources restoration. FMR has organized several educational and restoration events at Crosby Park with a total of 486 volunteers contributing 1,173 hours of volunteer labor towards restoration activities at the site.

J & J Distributing, energy efficiency and conservation. The company replaced their entire lighting system with Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting and redesigned their refrigeration system.

District 1 ComeClean! Initiative, clean-up and beautification.
Concerned about litter in the SunRay and Suburban Avenue area, resident Sue Moyer worked with the neighborhood council and local businesses to get involved in this litter-pickup program.

First National Bank Building, transportation options. This landmark building installed Minnesota's first public electric-vehicle charging station and continues to encourage employees to bike, walk, carpool, and take public transportation.

GovDelivery, green product. By providing digital platforms that allow government agencies to communicate with the public, GovDelivery helps clients reduce budget expenses associated with printing and mailing of publications.

The Lyric at Carleton Place, green building. The artsy housing community is an early demonstration of quality, sustainable, market-rate housing on University Avenue, future home of Central Corridor light rail. The building consumes about 22 percent less energy per year than an average apartment building of the same size.

Warners' Stellian Appliance, waste reduction, recycling and composting. The company has recycled appliances for years. It recently has focused on reducing packaging and installed a Styrofoam compactor, one of only two in the state.

Parks and Recreation Department's Operations Division, sustainable city staff In 2010, city workers resurfaced a parking lot at the Como Central Service Facility and created a rain garden to protect the water quality of the Mississippi River.

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Shari's sense of University Avenue humor

Posted at 10:43 AM on April 20, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Cafe Biaggio owner Shari Breed doesn't look nearly old enough to remember the Cold War.

But that was her perspective the other day as she looked out the window of her University Avenue eatery near Raymond.

"East Berlin," she says with a rueful grin.

Her perspective? Just outside Cafe Biaggio's front window is a narrow span of sidewalk and then a seven foot high cyclone fence.

Beyond that, two lanes of University Avenue are missing and several feet of earth have been removed, creating a kind of no man's land populated with folks piloting heavy equipment.

East Berlin, you'll recall, was the post-World War II half of Berlin claimed by the communists and barricaded with fences and gates.

The barricades on University Avenue as light rail construction ramps up are not nearly as onerous, but you do need to navigate with care as the landscape literally changes daily.

The advantage on University Avenue compared with the bad old days in East Berlin is that no one tries to shoot you should you cross the barricades.

On the contrary, Shari Breed and the other business owners along University will welcome you with open arms, and in Shari's case, with an appealing menu of Italian fare including "chicken under a brick", or pollo al mattone.

Oh, yes. The bricks are from a friendly construction worker who found them while digging up University Avenue.

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Minneapolis launches rehab loan program

Posted at 6:00 AM on April 25, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

The city is urging residents of neighborhoods hit hard by foreclosure to apply for loans of up to $20,000 at zero-percent interest through its new Rehab Support pilot program, which provides $750,000 in financing to homeowners and buyers to complete improvements and potentially increase their home's market value. Homeowners and buyers can apply for the program starting today. According to the city:

"Funding the City received from the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency will be matched dollar for dollar by the homeowner from any other source they choose; around 50 loans are available."

The program is available to qualified homeowners and buyers in neighborhoods where 10 percent of the housing stock is in foreclosure. Eligible neighborhoods are: Shingle Creek, Lind-Bohanon, Webber-Camden, Cleveland, Folwell, McKinley, Jordan, Hawthorne, Willard-Hay, Harrison and Near North on the city's northside and Central and Bryant neighborhoods on the southside. From the city's press release:

Eligible Improvements:

• Outstanding code orders and health and safety hazards
• Floor covering or refinishing
• Kitchen remodeling
• Bathroom remodeling
• New siding
• New or expanded garage, not to exceed 24 ft. x 24 ft.
• Permanent functional landscaping
• Replacement of doors and windows
• Insulation and weather stripping
• Addition to home
• Central air conditioning
• Finishing an unfinished basement or attic
• Replacing a furnace
• Repair or replacement of a deck or patio

Loan Guidelines:

Purchasers must have an income of less than 115% of the area median income ($96,600) and the property must be the owner's or purchaser's primary place of residence.

A maximum loan of $20,000 at zero-percent interest.

For every dollar put into the project by the homeowner or purchaser, the City will match with one dollar of funding.

Improvements must be made to a single family dwelling or a duplex within an eligible neighborhood.

New construction properties are not eligible.

The loan is repaid when the buyer sells, ceases to occupy the home, or in 30 years, whichever comes first.

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Twin Cities light rail funds "expected" next week

Posted at 3:55 PM on April 19, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Lots of tiptoeing and carefully chosen words.

But most of the local officials who consider themselves informed on the topic now say that the long-awaited federal money for Central Corridor light rail is....

Expected.

Ok, not exactly a headline.

More significant is that most of those same folks are making plans to be at a Twin Cities ceremony next Tuesday, April 26, where they expect the agreement for the $477 million federal match to be announced.

No apologies necessary if you've tuned out the CCLRT financial melodrama.

The latest development is that if the Federal Transit Administration signs off on its review of some changes to the environemental impact statement, then, yes, it appears the federal match is on the way.

Sort of.

The money doesn't come as a one big check to the Metropolitan Council, the builder of the line.

It comes in fairly substantial payments which must be approved by Congress.

Yes, that's the same Congress that is having a rather starchy time at the moment getting along and agreeing on anything especially money matters.

Still, if the track record (sorry) for the Hiawatha light rail and Northstar commuter rail is any indication, once the funding agreement is signed, Congress follows through with the money.

It's a big pay when and if that happens. The $954 million CCLRT project by one estimate includes about $380 million that will be spent by contractors to employ more than 3,000 workers.

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Sociable guerilla bagging comes to the Twin Cities

Posted at 7:26 PM on April 17, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul

Roberta Casey of St. Paul came across the Morsbags phenomenon a few years ago while looking for patterns for homemade Christmas gifts. Morsbags was started by British teacher Claire Morsman in 2007 in the hopes of reducing the one million bags used each minute around the globe. Morsman especially wanted to keep bags out of the mouths and stomachs of seabirds, whales and other creatures.

St. Paul baggers have held six events, and their "pod" has given away 600 bags. They give them away regularly to a food shelf in Buffalo, Minnesota. Casey likes to give them out at Rainbow Foods. "The people that need them the most are carrying the flimsy bags home," said Casey.

One advantage of today's session taking place at a Karate studio: Karategi or old karate uniforms have been chopped up, their heavy white cotton used as a sturdy reinforcement for the bottom of the bags.

Anita Bendickson, who runs the Karate studio, says they've only run into one challenge bestowing their pretty wares: men. Apparently they're not as keen on carrying these bags, so Bendickson holds up a plain brown bag she's working on. "Brown bags. Guys will carry those." They've also made camoflage man-bags.

Cassandra Moe was contributing embroidered linens and vintage fabrics salvaged from her grandfather's home. "You should see the pile of fabrics we've been going through," said Moe. "We just want to make good use out of them."

Today's creations will be given away next Saturday morning at the St. Paul Farmer's Market. For more information, email stpaulbaggers@gmail.com or contact morsbags.com to start your own pod.

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Minneapolis tree mapping: How does your neighborhood measure up?

Posted at 9:00 AM on April 18, 2011 by Elizabeth Dunbar (2 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

A new tree-mapping study by the University of Minnesota is helping the city of Minneapolis see which parts of the city have the most trees.

Nearly a third (31.5 percent) of the land in Minneapolis is tree canopy, and the study says there's room for even more.

The study is part of the city's effort to respond to emerald ash borer and other diseases.

One interesting part of the project looks at all the city's neighborhoods. Professor Marv Bauer at the U of M Department of Forest Resources sent me the image below. It shows which neighborhoods have the most tree canopy.

The most tree-happy neighborhoods are the ones where tree canopy made up between 41 and 60 percent of the land. They are: Cleveland, Folwell, Waite Park, Audubon Park, Willard-Hay, Bryn Mawr, Kenwood, Linden Hills, Fulton, Lynnhurst, Tangletown, Field, Page, Hale, Minnehaha, Hiawatha, Cooper and Howe.

The downtown area and some industrial areas had the lowest percentages of tree canopy. UTC stands for "urban tree canopy." (Map of Minneapolis neighborhoods here.)

The report also calculated "possible urban tree canopy" for Minneapolis. The highest potential tree canopy for Minneapolis? A whopping 68 percent! The remaining land would be streets, buildings and water.

The report made clear that the 68 percent overall could only be achieved under certain circumstances, and said there are many factors that go into where trees are planted and maintained. On the other hand, some areas of the city are close to that now and could reach or exceed that in the future.

The Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board is planting 5,500 trees this year. In the past the annual number was more like 3,000.

Ralph Sievert, director of park forestry for the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, told me the study will help his department figure out where more trees could be planted.

One idea is to use the detailed maps to strategically plant trees in places where they could affect city residents' energy use.

Sievert said city officials estimated the Minneapolis tree canopy at about 25 percent in the past. They feel good about the larger number in the study.

"Compared to other cities that's pretty good," Sievert noted.

Minneapolis City Council's Regulatory, Energy and Environment Committee heard the canopy study results today. Afterward, the city issued a press release on the study.

It compared the Minneapolis tree canopy to other cities that have completed recent urban tree canopy assessments:

• Baltimore -- 49 percent
• Burlington, Vt. -- 43 percent
• Washington, D.C. -- 35 percent
• Boston -- 29 percent
• Des Moines, Iowa -- 27 percent
• New York -- 24 percent
• Providence, R.I. -- 23 percent

You can read the entire report here:

Mpls tree canopy.pdf

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2010 census shows big changes in the Twin Cities metro

Posted at 6:00 AM on April 9, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Housing, Immigration, Livability, Race, Suburbs

Census Bureau data confirm what many researchers already knew: some second and third ring suburbs made big gains between 2000 and 2010, while some older and first-ring suburbs saw declines. And the state as a whole got more racially diverse.

Here's my story about it.

One big winner in the suburbs was Shakopee, which added more than 16,500 new residents. The schools there are brimming with new children and the local hospital continues to expand to keep pace with demand.

Officials at St. Francis Regional Medical Center say since 1996, in-patient admissions are up 125 percent, and surgeries are up more than 90 percent. Births doubled from 600 to 1,200, emergency admissions went from 10,000 to 30,000 and urgent care visits went from 1,200 to 9,000 -- a 550 percent increase. The hospital has also doubled its staff and added additional language translators.

Check out these stats from the Met Council on the last decade's demographic shifts.

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Twin Cities road woes are more than potholes

Posted at 6:00 AM on April 7, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Transportation

Yes, the bathtub-sized craters are annoying and expensive when they cause tire blowouts, major front-end suspension repairs, dental or optometrist visits to repair chipped teeth and cracked lenses.

The bigger picture is even more daunting.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation construction season announcement of 258 statewide road and bridge projects costing nearly $900 million only hints at the story.

A good share of our roads and bridges are at or near the end of their useful life.

Many were built 40 to 60 years ago, and engineers say that's about what we get in Minnesota given our weather, the damage from big trucks and all the chemicals we pour on the roadways.

We have about 134,000 miles of federal, state and local roads. That's the country's fifth largest system.

Twelve thousand of those miles are the state's responsibility to repair and maintain.

Much of the rest are the responsiblity of cities and counties, and they are strapped. Their road budgets are chronically short of money, as is the state's, to pay the repair bill. So local governments dip into property tax revenue.

Our "user fees" -- the state and federal gas tax, the license tab revenue and motor vehicle sales tax revenue -- do not cover the cost.

Talk abounds about options, buses and rail for example, taking some of the pressure off our road system. However, annual transportation surveys show very few of us use the existing versions of those options.

Should gas reach $4 a gallon, how will that change our transportation attitudes?

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East metro cities share services to save money

Posted at 12:24 PM on April 6, 2011 by Laura McCallum (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul , Suburbs

If you closely watch local government (and who doesn't, if you read The Cities?), here's an interesting survey.

The Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce surveyed 12 east metro cities this year to find out who's working together to improve efficiency, and what services they're sharing. The topic is particularly timely in light of the ongoing local government aid (LGA) debate at the Capitol. The chamber asked about everything from parks to libraries to human resources.

Every community surveyed shares IT services and library services, either with other cities or with Ramsey County. Most of the cities share emergency services and park services. If all that sounds a little vague, here are a couple of examples. Falcon Heights and Little Canada share a building inspector and a street sweeper. Lauderdale partners with Roseville to offer recreation programs.

The chamber said in a press release that the survey demonstrates how communities are working together during tough financial times.

"By identifying the best practices already in use, we hope that municipalities will further examine the operations of their colleagues and emulate them to achieve further savings," said Matt Kramer, president of the Chamber.

Kramer is also the former commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).

You can find the entire survey on the chamber's website.

Have you heard of any interesting partnerships among cities? Pass them along here.

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Porky's online auction: the bidding begins

Posted at 9:30 PM on April 4, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul

Looking for an inexpensive way to remember Porky's drive-in? The defunct St. Paul restaurant is offering up its contents on the website Auction Masters starting tonight.

Sure, you could bid on the iconic red neon Porky's sign (currently priced at $1,650 with 7 bids in) ...

But why spend the money when you could pay just $12.50 for a box of authentic Porky's kitchenware?

Other options to consider:

A brown plastic trash bin (currently at $1.02 with 2 bids in)

"3 Plastic Tubs with 4 Lids" (currently $4.12 with 3 bids in)

A box of "assorted credit card machines" (currently available at the affordable price of $0.01)

Check out all the items online. The auction ends Wednesday night.

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Food trucks likely coming to a part of Minneapolis near you

Posted at 4:11 PM on April 4, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

As a person who works in downtown Minneapolis, I welcomed the new food trucks and carts that hit the streets and sidewalks last summer. I ate everything from lobster rolls to bahn mi sandwiches. To me, there's nothing more civilized or urbane than sitting on a park bench or parking barrier, gobbling down a taco in your work clothes on a sunny day.

Today, a Minneapolis City Council committee approved changes to the current street food ordinance that will allow food trucks in other parts of the city. This summer, you may see trucks in other areas that get a lot of foot traffic: the lakes and parks, the Midtown Greenway, Uptown and the Cedar Riverside area, just to name a few. The full council will vote on the measure a week from Friday.

One of the other changes will also allow food trucks to park on a street and plug the parking meter, provided it's not too close to a brick and mortar restaurant.

However, there's one last change street food fans are still waiting for. Food carts and trucks are not allowed to operate late at night, after bar closing.

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Another April Fool's at Como Zoo - calling Sally Mander

Posted at 4:25 PM on April 1, 2011 by Laura McCallum (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul

The Como Park Zoo in St. Paul says today is one of its busiest days for phone calls. Make that prank calls. As of 3:30 p.m., the zoo had received more than 100. The most popular request? Mr. Lions. Fortunately, the zoo has a good sense of humor. Michelle Furrer, Como Park Zoo & Conservatory Manager says the calls follow a familiar pattern:

Pranksters will leave messages for their friends asking them to call 'insert animal here', and then leave the Zoo's phone number. Once people realize they've been tricked they will usually hang up, but some need it explained to them that they have called a zoo and there is no one here named Ellie Fint.

And for the record, there's no Mr. Bear, Mr. Fox, Sally Mander, G. Raffe, Anna Conda, Dr. Wolf, Ray Coon and Don Key.

But my personal favorite is Ellie Fint. Got any other good ones? Add them here. But just be kind to the zoo staff, and don't call them with your favorites today.

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Twin Cities nursing home operator trimming drug use

Posted at 11:00 PM on April 1, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability

There's been intense and broad response to our report on antipsychotics given to nursing home residents.

It's a common practice. Too common in the view of Ecumen, one of the region's largest owner/operators of elderly housing including nursing homes.

Antipsychotics are the powerful, mood altering drugs that a nursing home medical director might prescribe to patients when their dementia causes them to act out physically and verbally.

But experts agree the drugs are abused and used too widely on patients who don't really need them in order to make them more docile and easier to manage given the chronic staffing problems in many nursing homes.

More than a couple colleages here at Minnesota Public Radio and a number of people beyond our walls who heard or read the report had strong personal reactions about a parent and how they're being treated.

Here's an excerpt from one of the most pointed reactions, a daughter describing the complications caused by the drugs given to her mother:

By summer of 2009, she ended up in the 8th floor psych ward of a St. Paul hospital being evaluated b/cuz of drugs. I watched her. She couldn't touch her nose with her index finger. All drugs were removed for evaluation. It was decided she could be given a small amount of Risperdal as needed. I've repeatedly stated, I do NOT want My Mom taking a lot of drugs. It's been a worry. I've watched other residents flopped over in their wheel chairs in front of the TV. This is wrong, I've thought!

That's how the folks at Ecumen and elsewhere feel. The drug use remains common, however the movement to change nursing home treatment with, among other things, paying closer attention to the patients and using alternative therapies appears to be gaining ground.

Don't hesitate to share your experience or your thoughts with The Cities.

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One last push to save Porky's

Posted at 1:40 PM on April 1, 2011 by Laura Yuen (9 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul , Transportation

Just as the rest of us were getting nostalgic about the imminent demise of Porky's drive-in in St. Paul, the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota drops this bombshell: It wants to save the 1950s icon.

The group says it had planned to name the drive-in on its annual 10 Most Endangered Historic Places list. Then came the news that Porky's last day would be Sunday, and that the owners were working to sell the property to the neighboring Episcopal Homes senior housing complex.

The preservation alliance says in February it wrote a letter notifying Porky's owners that the property had been nominated, and was hoping "to work with the present and prospective owners to find alternatives to demolition."

The preservationists contend Porky's is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places -- and the law requires review for those properties if the redevelopment plans involve funding from federal agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

According to a statement from the alliance:

"So the impending closing of Porky's and sale of the property to Episcopal Homes does raise some red flags. Tearing down the building without formal consideration of alternatives might be considered "anticipatory demolition" that could jeopardize access to future federal funding for new development on the site."

Erin Hanafin Berg of the preservation group tells me Episcoplal Homes has relied on HUD funding in the past.

And she says there's no question Porky's -- known for its neon pink pig sign and greasy-good onion rings -- holds historic significance.

"It is a very iconic emblem of the automobile age, which is really made University Avenue what it had been," she says. "There's not a lot of drive-ins in that good condidtion throughout the Twin Cities."

The site became eligible in 2004 when Central Corridor light-rail planners conducted a review of historic sites along the avenue, Hanafin Berg says. The Metropolitan Council is required to prepare National Register nominations for Porky's and 22 additional historic places sometime before 2014, when the first trains are expected to roll.

Preservationists are interested in seeing whether the drive-in could be relocated, Hanafin Berg says.

"We need to be able to have that conversation," she says.

The news is interrupting our nostalgia trip over the burger joint, built in 1953. An editor at MPR News got his first job there. He says he was promptly fired after one hour. Porky's loss was our gain, political editor Mike Mulcahy!

We featured Porky's back in 2008 as part of a project on the changing face of University Avenue. My piece focused on the historic car culture along the avenue, which would soon give way to light-rail. In the summer months, Porky's became a magnet for muscle cars and old-timers reliving their youth. As far as I know, parking lots to the east and west along University Avenue still draw other motor-heads, including Subaru enthusiasts.

Porky's was a symbol of that car culture -- and its demise symbolizes the changing times.

Of course, Porky's was also a place where matches were made. Larry and Rosey Kasella told me how sparks flew when they first met:

Rosey was a 19-year-old carhop delivering burgers to boys in their cars. Larry arrived in a 1951 Ford two-door hardtop. He'll never forget the first moment he saw her.

"Back then, the carhops all wore white sweaters -- tight white sweaters," he recalled. "I says, 'Hey, that's for me.'"

But Rosey remembered it differently.

"No, you didn't. You said, 'I'm gonna marry her someday.'"

"Yeah, actually, I did say that," Larry said. "I said, 'That's the lady I'm gonna marry.' And two years later, we got married."

If you haven't had a chance to try Porky's onion rings, fear not: the Pioneer Press reports that the owner's son is taking his secret recipe to Tryg's, his restaurant in Minneapolis.

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Fewer Twin Cities and Minnesota road fatalities

Posted at 4:20 PM on April 1, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Transportation

More new numbers -- these from the federal government -- show a decline in people killed on roadways.

They reflect the trend in Minnesota.

And the interesting contrast is that there are fewer road deaths on metro highways and byways than in rural Minnesota.

Hard to believe, isn't it, given the way so many of our fellow Twin Cities road warriors behave?

Of course it's good news that fewer of us are dead because of driving. However, there are still 414 deaths a year in Minnesota -- the equivalent of crashing a jumbo jet into the landscape every year. Think of the news that would make!

And using an average of 400 people on the big planes, the national 2010 road toll of 32,788 is the equivalent of crashing 81 jumbo jets a year.

Slow down. Buckle up.

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Booze is big business for some metro cities

Posted at 10:24 AM on April 1, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Suburbs

Most city-owned off-sale and on-sale liquor stores are in rural Minnesota.

However, the most profitable ones are here in The Cities land.

That's the finding in state auditor Rebecca Otto's new report checking up on the public operations.

Municipal liquor operations located within the 7-County Metro Area are considerably larger and more profitable than their Greater Minnesota counterparts. Sales by all Metro Area operations averaged $3.0 million in 2009, compared to average sales of $956,820 for all Greater Minnesota municipal liquor operations. In 2009, the average net profit of Metro Area municipal liquor operations was $214,573, compared to $66,469 for municipal liquor operations in Greater Minnesota.

Back in the old days, and to some extent even now, private operators weren't interested in trying to sell product in rural Minnesota.

So lawmakers years ago permitted municipally-owned liquor stores.

To be sure, there's opposition then and now to allowing public ownership and sale of a product - liquor - that is correctly viewed as a pernicious product when it is abused, and causes untold personal human suffering and gigantic public health costs.

What do you think? Should city governments be involved in this business?

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Twin Cities in Motion names new race director

Posted at 6:15 PM on March 31, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability

Twin Cities In Motion, the group that organizes running events like the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon Weekend, has named Jeff Decker to the position of Race Director.

Here's what Twin Cities in Motion had to say about the hire:

Decker brings with him a wealth of knowledge from New York Road Runners where he served as senior manager of event management and logistics, as well as the transportation manager of the ING New York City Marathon. He took on key responsibilities, such as designing courses, implementing safety plans, and maintaining race standards. During his tenure with New York Road Runners, Decker was crucial in developing a sound transportation plan for 40,000 people to the start line of the ING New York City Marathon on Staten Island.

Twin Cities in Motion organizes nearly a dozen events throughout the year, in addition to the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon Weekend events held every October.

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Energy efficiency and a crabby dad

Posted at 12:49 PM on March 29, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

I was the parent shouting, "Hey, turn off the lights when you're done...."

Better strategy: "Hey, your (pitiable, ridiculously small) allowance will go up if you turn off the lights."

This, of course, is the payoff for energy efficiency. You don't spend, thus you save. And, oh yes, by the way, we won't need that additional coal-fired or nuclear plant if enough people conserve.

Business people, as much as anyone on the planet, understand money and saving it. They're among the leaders in energy efficiency.

Business owners have a chance to learn more about it next week. at a Bryant Lake Bowl session on Lake Street in Minneapolis.

If you can't make the meeting you can always visit the blogosphere including this one from the feds, among many others.

Or you can check in with Xcel, the state's largest power company, and peruse their ideas.

And don't be shy about sharing your energy efficiency ideas with all your friends here at The Cities.

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Why is MnDOT asking us for our transportation vision?

Posted at 1:44 PM on March 25, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Transportation

How's this for a once in a lifetime request?

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is inviting us to comment on a 50 year vision for transportation in Minnesota.

Yikes!

I despair over the selection of socks for my workday fashion statement.

Some with a more cynical view of the world may see this as an empty, blue sky exercise with little meaning given our near complete dependence on hydro carbons for propulsion on ribbons of concrete and asphalt.

Others with a less jaundiced perspective will embrace this as a chance to weigh in at MnDOT with pearls of wisdom and insight about our transportation future.

Hard to tell how serious MnDOT is about this exercise, but if their use of social media is an indicator they certainly want to draw in those who tweet or Facebook or are otherwise comfortable swimming in the big digital lake.

Do you have a vision for the future of transportation in Minnesota that you plan to share with the state's transportation planners?

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Households may lose rental assistance

Posted at 6:50 PM on March 24, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

At least 300 Minnesota households won't get state rental assistance under current budget proposals. Minnesota Housing Thursday announced a freeze on new admissions to some rental assistance programs as a reaction to anticipated budget cuts. House and Senate proposals are at least $2 million below Governor Mark Dayton's recommendation for the program.

The programs help people who have been homeless for months move into stable housing. Participants typically pay 30 percent of their income towards rent. Rental vouchers make up the difference. The program last year assisted more than 2,100 households in 53 counties across the state.

Executive Director of the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless Liz Kuoppala says she'll be telling lawmakers that the rental assistance programs keep people from using more expensive emergency services.

If they are trying to get to a place where we are saving money, instead of cycling people through shelters and then through detox and police and all of the things that happen when we force people to live on the streets. We have documented that we save money when we are able to stably house people and that is what this program does.

The freeze on new rental assistance applications takes effect April 1st.

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Hennepin County reports fewer smokers, more fat people

Posted at 12:59 PM on March 24, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Hennepin County health officials say only 12 percent of the people responding to the new survey report themselves as smokers.

By contrast the report says the overall rate for Minnesota is 16 percent and for the nation is 20 percent.

Not such good news is the survey finding that, "more than half of the county's adults are classified as obese (20 percent) or overweight (33 percent)."

The concentration of obesity by location is highest in north Minneapolis.

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Colleagues' Twin Cities spring snow survival stories are the best.

Posted at 8:53 AM on March 25, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability

Forget the news coverage.

The tales from neighboring cubicles here at the MPR news of battling the latest snow blast ranch top anything on the radio.

There's the one from the co-worker whose dead bolted garage entry door was frozen. Thank goodness her holiday lights were still up.

She ran back into the house for her hair dryer. Plugged in to the holiday lights extension cord. Flicked on the heat.

Voila! She was in, out, and on the way to work. (By the way, same drill today.)

My favorite so far is from the cube neighbor on the other side of me. It's a, "don't try this at home," tale. He got stuck in the snow in his (suburban) driveway. Headed back to get the snow thrower to blow himself to freedom. The snowblower was out of gas. Tried to siphon gas from the car gas tank. Got soaked in gas (thank god he's not a smoker). Finally called a neighbor to borrow some.

Anyway, it's amazing any of us survived. What's your survival story?

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Clinics aim to combat measles in Hennepin County

Posted at 2:44 PM on March 22, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

You don't hear much about measles these days.

The virus also called rubeola has been mostly kept under tight rein in Minnesota by a fairly widely vaccinated population.

In Hennepin County, though, the vaccination rate is slipping. It's still pretty high at 85% of all two year olds, according to county public health officials, but they say it should be well above ninety percent in order to contain spread of the illness.

All of this comes to our attention by way of the Minnesota Health Department reporting nine cases of measles so far this month. That's more cases in one month than in the past five years combined.

All the infected are babes and kids - 4 months to four years of age. And five are from the Somali community where by some accounts there's a fairly high number of people not innoculated.

Parents cite all sorts or reasons for avoiding having their kids vaccinated, many with roots in less than scientific findings. There'll be another vaccination clinic for kids and adults this Sunday afternoon at Children's Hospital at 25th and Chicago avenue in Minneapolis.

Here's what the CDC says about measles.

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Get a Hennepin County masters in recycling

Posted at 4:45 PM on March 21, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability

Stalled at about half.

That's how Hennepin County residents are doing on their recycling efforts.

The county's reduce reuse recycle crowd wants to improve a rate that is static the past decade at not quite half its potential.

Volunteers are being recruited. Here's the gist of the matter from the scribes in the county's press release room:

Hennepin County is the first organization in the Midwest to launch a Master Recycler/Composter Program to train volunteers that will work to reduce waste generation and increase public awareness of opportunities to recycle and compost. The program is modeled after popular programs in the Pacific Northwest, including King County and Portland, Oregon.

"Industry experts" will teach how to prevent waste, the mechanics of recycling and composting. There'll be field trips as well. After completing the two month training, participants commit to volunteer 30 hours, teaching others at school and community events.

For more information or to apply for the program, call Carolyn Collopy at 612-596-0993 or click on the link.

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St. Paul RiverCentre now solar

Posted at 1:57 PM on March 18, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul

State and local officials today unveiled what they say is the largest solar thermal installation in the Midwest. The installation of solar panels on top of the Saint Paul RiverCentre has 144 solar thermal collectors, which they say will displace the city's carbon dioxide emissions by 900,000 pounds annually - that's equivalent to eliminating 90 vehicles from the road each year.

The panel installation is roughly half the size of a football field. Nina Axelson with District Energy St. Paul says during warmer months, any excess solar energy after the RiverCentre is heated will be distributed to other buildings in downtown Saint Paul.

"It's going to generate heat so there is a fluid loop that goes through the panel and it collects the energy from the sun and then it draws it back into the rivercentre to use for heating - so heating the rooms, space heating and then heating up the hot water for the restaurant the catering the bathrooms and then everything else."

The installation was partly paid for by a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's "Solar America Communities" program and matching funds from District Energy St. Paul. The city has secured an additional $1.5 Million in federal stimulus funds from the Minnesota Office of Energy Security to install solar panels on approximately 10 City facilities along the Central Corridor, including: Western District Police Station, St. Anthony Park Recreation Center and Rondo Library.

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What does progress in the Central Corridor look like?

Posted at 4:48 PM on March 16, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Public officials and urban wonks agree light-rail will have benefits that go way beyond moving people.

Economic development, vibrant businesses, and new affordable housing are among the desired outcomes of the planned Central Corridor line connecting St. Paul to Minneapolis. And now there's a new metric to assess progress made on such goals.

With help from Wilder Research, the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative today released a so-called "tracker" that will measure the impact of the new transit line. It includes 13 indicators, such as residents' accessibility to shopping as well as new construction jobs for women and minorities.

The report provides where the corridor stands today on these indicators, and it will be updated annually.

One of the stated goals of the funders collaborative is "effective coordination and collaboration," particularly when it comes to supporting existing businesses along the line.

Today is a big day for small businesses in the corridor for another reason: Light-rail planners are taking public testimony regarding the potential loss of business during construction. The planners recently concluded businesses would likely experience zero to 2.5 percent drop in revenues as part of their supplemental environmental assessment. Business groups say they plan to contest that finding -- and provide affidavits.

You can still catch the second hearing at 6 p.m. at Goodwill/Easter Seals, 553 Fairview Ave. N. in St. Paul. These comments will be entered into the public record.

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A visual history of pro basketball in Minneapolis

Posted at 2:32 PM on March 17, 2011 by Molly Bloom (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

As the Timberwolves and city of Minneapolis seek a $155 million upgrade to the Target Center (pictured above), let's take a look at how basketball used to be played in the Mill City.

Before the Timberwolves came to town, our hometown team was the Minneapolis Lakers. The team formed in 1947 and took home the championship title in their first three seasons (they won the first ever NBA championship in 1950).

Not only did the Minneapolis Lakers have championships and a big star in George Mikan, they also played in style.

Until they moved to Los Angeles in 1960, the Lakers played at the Minneapolis Auditorium, built in 1927.

Here's what it was like to see a basketball game there in the 1940s:

And here's the view from the court:

The Minneapolis Auditorium also hosted conventions, auto shows, concerts, speeches and other events.

The building was demolished to make way for the Minneapolis Convention Center in 1989, the same year the Timberwolves made their debut.

The Kimball Organ from the Minneapolis Auditorium, the largest instrument built by that firm, remains in storage.

All images of the Minneapolis Auditorium courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society.

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Signs of spring: tarp off Target Field

Posted at 12:56 PM on March 15, 2011 by Molly Bloom (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability

Could it be? Is spring actually here? With high temperatures above freezing for the foreseeable future and a chance at 50 later this week, spring fever is starting to spread.

A sure of spring has been spotted in Minneapolis: the tarp has been removed and Target Field has emerged from hibernation.

See the photo here.

Have you seen any of signs of spring? You have no idea how excited we are to hear them.

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Revel in spring! Hennepin County seeks wetlands volunteers

Posted at 10:12 AM on March 15, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability

Frogs singing, cattails swaying, dragonflies circling, snails crawling...springtime is coming and Hennepin County is looking for volunteers for its Wetland Health Evaluation Program.

Here's the specific call for volunteers:

Adult volunteers -- who do not need a science background or previous experience -- work under the direction of a team leader and receive training on wetland monitoring protocols, including both plant and insect identification. They wade through wetlands to collect and identify dragonflies, snails, cattails and more. The total time commitment is 20 to 40 hours throughout the months of May, June and July. All equipment is provided. Participating cities use the collected data to help determine the health of water resources and assist with natural resource management.
For more information or to become a volunteer, call Mary Karius at 612-596-9129 or visit the program website at www.mnwhep.org.

Every year I promise myself I'm going to make a stereo recording of frogs serenading me from the bogs along the Gateway Bike Trail. For a few weeks in April, they sing their little hearts out. Someday I'm going to put them on the radio.

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Norwegian reality TV casting for love in Minneapolis

Posted at 12:15 PM on March 9, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (2 Comments)
Filed under: Immigration, Livability, Minneapolis

Norwegians are crazy about Americans. Especially Americans who appear on Norwegian reality TV. Now's your chance:

Would you like to date interesting and beautiful Norwegian men and women? Nordisk Film TV is looking for participants for a brand-new TV series about single Norwegian-Americans looking for love.

This Thursday to Monday (March 10th-14th) we will be in Minneapolis/St. Paul looking for candidates.

I emailed a producer who provided more details:

When it comes to how Norwegian you have to be to qualify, we haven't made any absolute demands for this. Whether you are half Norwegian, or your grand parents Norwegian, or whether you speak Norwegian or not, we want you to contact us! The only thing we need is that you have some sort of personal relationship to Norway, and an interest in meeting single Norwegians...

Here's how the show works:

The four Norwegian American singles will be presented on Norwegian TV in an episode this May. Norwegian singles looking for love can then log on to the show website and send a date-request to one of the Norwegian Americans, and write a little bit about why they want to date this person or upload a video of themselves.

The single Norwegian Americans will then each select eight single Norwegians they want to get to know better. Those Norwegian singles will be flown to the U.S and will go on dates in the Norwegian Americans' hometowns. The Norwegian singles will the be voted off, one by one. Finally, the Norwegian Americans will have to choose which of the singles they want to be with. Will they find true love?

Norwegian Americans, this is your chance to reverse the mistakes of your ancestors who left behind the country that now enjoys the highest living standard in the world.

You wouldn't be the first Minnesotan to break into reality TV in Norway. Below, Kari Tauring (wearing white) from Minneapolis explored her cultural roots and wrote about it here.

And a Lutheran minister from Alexandria rose to celebrity status in Norway after his appearance.

Good luck!

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Haiti to Frogtown, Twin Cities builders lend a hand

Posted at 7:30 PM on March 8, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, St. Paul

It's wheels up Wednesday for a group of volunteers on their way to Haiti to help build a home for families affected by the earthquake.

This is the third trip for the group affiliated with the Builders Association of the Twin Cities, BATC, working with World Wide Village, a Twin Cities non-profit.

Parade of Homes visitors to the Dream Homes event sponsored by BATC are helping underwrite the home building with their admission fee.

The Builders Outreach Foundation is kicking in some help. It may lead to as many as five homes over the course of time.

These are some of the same folks who've been doing the same kind of work here in the Twin Cities, mostly in the Frogtown neighborhood of St. Paul since 1994.

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Where are the worst potholes?

Posted at 11:59 AM on March 8, 2011 by Molly Bloom (4 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs, Transportation

"Danger zone." "Sinking area." "The Widowmaker."

For the past month or so, we've been asking you, our lovely audience, to map the worst potholes across the state. We've partnered with SeeClickFix to help us track the potholes and alert the officials in charge of fixing them.

So far people have reported 125 issues with potholes in the metro and three of them have been resolved. The three most nefarious stretches of road (based on the number of people who want to see them fixed) are:

1) 28th Avenue between 38th and 50th Streets, Minneapolis: "I no longer drive on it - the road is too narrow to avoid the potholes, and the potholes are deep enough to do a lot of damage."

2) Washington Avenue North, Minneapolis: "Washington Ave is littered with potholes. Cars swerving to miss them are creating near accidents."

3) 46th and Hiawatha, Minneapolis: "I could probably bottom out a school bus on some of the holes in this stretch. And it's almost the only way to get to several of these businesses."

Check out the map below and vote for the potholes that you'd like to see fixed or add your own.

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Convoluted history of Fuji Ya site, a re-telling

Posted at 10:00 AM on March 9, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

Minneapolis riverfront mavens can get an update later this week on what the future may hold for the late Reiko Weston's Fuji Ya restaurant.

It hasn't been a fine dining establishment since the doors closed in 1990. That's when the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board purchased the building through eminent domain for $3.5 million to help make way for parkway expansion.

There's not enough space in the Cities blog to rehash the long and litigious contemporary history of the Fuji Ya site.

Minneapolis architect Tom Meyer will sketch the big picture - past and present - Thursday evening at 6:30 at the Mill City Museum in downtown Minneapolis.

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An office stench that shall live in infamy

Posted at 7:30 PM on March 4, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability

from an email I sent to the newsroom before leaving today:

My mom made me some very nice seafood chowder for lunch on President's Day (Feb 21). Yesterday (March 3), my husband said, "There's still some in the fridge. You'd better eat it for lunch." It was a very full container and I put it on top of my messy desk, had a long day, didn't eat my lunch and went straight home after my last interview without coming back to the office.

I got in this morning and the container had spilled onto a bunch of my papers. I tossed the papers away, rinsed out my lunch bag and left for a news conference. When I came back to the office, I tasted my soup and decided it didn't taste quite how I remembered it. I put the lid back on and went to buy a sandwich.

I should mention I can't smell.

When I got back, the newsroom was buzzing, "What's that horrible smell?!"

It was my cube.

Annie Baxter cleared off all the books with seepage in the bindings, Dan Olson came carrying wads of wet paper towels, Jess Mador passed organic lavender cleaning agent over the cube wall. Now I have four physical plant people spraying down my cube.

"Maybe we can bring up the extractor on Monday," one of them is now saying.

My deepest and most profound apologies to my coworkers for this soup incident.

I will stick to peanut butter and jelly.

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Gazing into the Central Corridor crystal ball

Posted at 5:07 PM on March 4, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, Race, St. Paul , Transportation

ISAIAH, the interfaith advocacy group, and a coalition of nearly two dozen community organizations, have been analyzing what life is like along Central Corridor, aka University and Washington Avenues in St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Their results help paint a picture of what life may be like when the light rail line is running.

Their findings raise interesting questions: 86 percent of the enterprises along the corridor are small businesses, collectively employing more than 4,000 people. Do those businesses have the resilience to survive light rail construction and the loss of 1,000 on- street parking spaces?

Their study finds that the educational attainment of people living on and near Central Corridor is slightly less than the rest of the Twin Cities, that the diversity rate is higher, that a fourth of the residents don't have a personal vehicle. How will the rail line affect their education, job and earnings prospects?

One of the most interesting findings is that gentrification of the area has already begun, it started a decade ago. Housing costs are on the rise, and in fact, the study finds that some of the poorer residents are paying as much as half their income or more for shelter.

Among the recommendations: Government should make plans now for preserving and creating affordable housing, rezoning of property should be done with utmost care to preserve housing and business opportunities for the people living there.

All of the findings will be on the table at a community meeting Saturday morning, March 5, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer on Dale street North in St. Paul.

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Hey! You're blocking the (Twin Cities) road!

Posted at 4:00 PM on March 3, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Transportation

MnDot says Minneapolis St. Paul area freeway congestion is up.

It increased about three percent last year over 2009 numbers.

But be careful how you read the report. The numbers were calculated before the completion of the Crosstown Commons. That was the four-year-long, $288 million project designed to relieve congestion in the south metro. The engineers say it's working.

Another caveat. Yes, the economy and the population are growing and they are factors contributing to roadway congestion.

However the traffic engineers say the bigger picture when all causes are poured into the congestion cauldrom looks like this: roadway "incidents," including crashes, stalls and our interesting Minnesota weather can account on a given day for up to half the freeway delays.

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Not the Oscars, but the (Met Council) winners are....

Posted at 5:04 PM on March 2, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs, Transportation

The Dayton administration's list of appointees to the Metropolitan Council is out, and their collective resumes are replete with other public sector service, including transportation, housing and natural resources.

Roxanne Smith from Champlin, Gary Van Eyll from Carver County, Gary Cunningham from Hennepin County, and Steven Chavez from Eagan all have experience with housing issues.

Jon Commers and Richard Kramer from St. Paul, Jim Brimeyer from St. Louis Park and Harry Melander from Mahtomedi have experience with urban planning issues.

Jennifer Munt from Minnetonka, Steve Elkins from Bloomington, Edward Reynoso from Ham Lake, Adam Duininck from Minneapolis and John Doan from Blaine know about transportation issues.

Sandra Rummel, a former state Senator from White Bear Lake, and Wendy Wulff from Lakeville, the lone Met Council holdover from the Pawlenty administration, know about environment and resource issues.

Lona Schreiber from Brooklyn Park is a former state lawmaker who follows issues related to the region's older residents.

Dayton appointed five women and eleven men. Make that six women when you add his earlier appointment of Susan Haigh as Met Council chair.

The Met Council is the Twin Cities' 40 year old regional governance agency that manages waste water treatment, transit, parks and planning.

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More money for safer Twin Cities walking, cycling

Posted at 2:20 AM on February 28, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Transportation

Transit For Livable Communities is aiming more money -- $1.172 million -- at safe walking and biking.

The largest amount, a million dollars, will go to add as many as 50 stations for the Nice Ride Minnesota bike sharing system. There'll be eight, for example, for north Minneapolis, an area not previously served.

Then there's money for a walking and biking connection in Fridley to the Northstar commuter rail station.

There's also some money to put those fancy talking, countdown street crossing signals in Minneapolis' Seward neighborhood.

This follows news earlier this year that Minneapolis will add up to 35 miles of bike lanes and trails to its system. That's noteworthy because typically the city adds about five miles a year.

Most of the money is from federal transportation funds.

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Transitions for two controversial Twin Cities developers

Posted at 7:00 AM on February 23, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

The recent death of Robert Boisclair recalls the arrival in Minneapolis of deep-pocketed investors from Japan.

Boisclair's wooing in the 1970's of a Japanese bank and construction company led to Lake Point on Lake Calhoun. The 20 story condo raised a ruckus with neighborhood residents but became a luxury destination and an enormous source of property tax revenue.

Two other Boisclair ventures, Riverplace, the so-called festive retailing project along Mainstreet across the Mississippi river from downtown Minneapolis and the Galtier high rise development in Lowertown St. Paul, were bold and big and apparently ahead of their time.

St. Paul developer Jerry Trooien had hoped to make such a mark with the $1.5 billion Las Vegas-style The Bridges of St. Paul, but the riverside development never got out of the starting gate. He's currently awaiting word along with the rest of us as to why the Feds raided his St. Paul offices last week looking for evidence of fraud as one FBI spokesman put it.

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Metro Transit lines ready for a name change

Posted at 2:47 PM on February 22, 2011 by Dan Olson (8 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs, Transportation

Here's a chance to have your kid, your favorite uncle or maybe Electra your cat memorialized forever in Twin Cities transit history.

The Metropolitan Council invites us to name the system many of us know as Metro Transit or, 'the bus.' To be clear, they're not changing the name of Metro Transit, they're inviting the public to name specific transitways, such as the blue line or the red line.

The Portland, Oregon light rail arm of their transit network is MAX, the commuter rail portion is WES.

MAX and WES, sort of the daytime soap opera approach to transit branding. Especially once you add MARTA from Atlanta.

In other cities, the systems are BART, DART and so on. In San Francisco, a city with an unbeatable mix of charm and hipness, their antique cable car system has named individual vehicles with labels such as, 'cable car 15.' Still a ways to go on the branding front there.

We can do better. Get that name in now, make history. Share your ideas here on the The Cities Blog.

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Thaw not enough to lift Mpls winter parking rules

Posted at 3:43 PM on February 18, 2011 by Elizabeth Dunbar (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

As snow and ice disappeared off of roofs and sidewalks this past week, some of us wondered if the Minneapolis winter parking restrictions would go away, too.

Not yet.

Tom Crann and Sam Choo of MPR's All Things Considered did a ride-along today with Mike Kennedy, director of transportation, maintenance and repair for the city of Minneapolis. Their reporting focused on potholes, but they also asked Kennedy about the parking restrictions, which call for parking on only one side of the street on non-snow emergency routes.

"Yes, we've lost a lot of snow cover," Kennedy said. "But the windrows that restricted the streets have not really receded as much. We still have very narrow conditions."

Without the restrictions, fire trucks would still have a hard time getting through, Kennedy said, adding that crews did some measurements during the thaw to make sure.

The other issue: Winter isn't over. It could snow again as soon as Sunday.

"If we get the 4 to 6 inches that they're talking about, we'll be right back to where we were when we had to implement [the rules]," Kennedy said.

So much for that hopeful "winter is almost over" feeling many of us got during the thaw.

Last year the winter parking restrictions went away the first week of March. Kennedy said the parking restrictions will be lifted by April 1 at the latest.

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Good, bad and indifferent Minnesota job news

Posted at 7:33 PM on February 17, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability

Well, not indifferent. Try sobering. The numbers out from DEED, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, this week are mostly sobering.

The good news.

Job vacancies late last year were up 30%. There were a fair number of health care, retail (mostly holiday hiring) and a reassuring bump up in manufacturing jobs available.

DEED spokeswoman Oriane Casale says when the numbers are boiled to their essence they work out this way:

There were slightly more than five unemployed folks seeking every job in the fourth quarter of last year compared eight or more folks seeking that elusive vacant job the year before.

Take a breath.

The rest of the news is the DEED survey of private sector employers showed that about eighty percent of them have no plans at the moment to hire additional workers.

If you've been looking for work, have you found it? Where, how?

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Minneapolis lists problem landlords online

Posted at 7:00 AM on February 17, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

The city of Minneapolis has launched a new website aimed at protecting residents from irresponsible landlords.

The new site posts the names of owners who've had properties condemned or demolished, or had their rental licenses revoked. The site is part of an ongoing campaign of stepped up enforcement aimed at cracking down on problem landlords.

Henry Reimer from the city of Minneapolis says poorly maintained rentals affect the livability of the entire community. He says they hurt property values.

Properties that are not well-maintained - that tends to set a standard that drags down the rest of the neighborhood in terms of maintenance.

Since 2005 the city revoked about 200 rental licenses - that's compared to just 11 revocations in the five years prior. City officials say the number of violations for irresponsible landlords skyrocketed during the housing crisis of the last decade. They say there has also been an increase in the number of single family rental conversions.

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Duluth Pack bags suddenly trendy in NYC -- and St. Paul

Posted at 4:03 PM on February 16, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, St. Paul

My mad dash to buy a belated Valentine's Day gift for my husband this week led me to BlackBlue, a menswear boutique on St. Paul's Selby Avenue.

It was wool cardigans and Penguin plaid galore. But I also spotted some gorgeous hipster man-bags made by Minnesota's own Duluth Pack.

My introduction to Duluth Pack came years ago on a canoe. It was my first excursion to the Boundary Waters. My northern Minnesota pals -- who are portaging diehards -- seemed to cram just about every piece of camping equipment they owned into their spacious Duluth Pack canoe bags.

But it's a bit thrilling, and ironic, that these rugged satchels made by the same company are now considered fashion-forward by urban trendsetters. Even Barneys New York is carrying them.

And according to the Star Tribune, plenty of Minnesota brands are popping up in unexpected retailers across the country. Ties by Pierrepont Hicks and bags by St. Paul's own J.W. Hulme Co. have also found their way to New York.

Why do you reckon the rest of the country is suddenly falling in love with Minnesota wear?

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Borders closings not a boon for Wayzata bookseller

Posted at 8:30 PM on February 16, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability

Borders says it's closing four of its seven Minnesota bookstores. They'll shutter outlets in Richfield, Minnetonka, Maplewood and St. Paul.

The Michigan-based Borders filed for bankruptcy protection today as it struggles with a mammoth debt.

Analysts claim Borders growth to 642 stores over the years pushed a lot of Ma and Pa booksellers out of business. However one of the independents still in business, Charlie Leonard, the owner of the Bookcase in Wayzata, is not dancing for joy as the giant stumbles.

Leonard says, yes, Borders' closings may mean a few more customers at his downtown Wayzata emporium. But he worries about trends hurting booksellers of every size.

Leonard adds the big discount chains - Target, Costco, Walmart - are selling the most popular titles at prices lower than what he pays for them wholesale. It's tough for other booksellers that offer a much wider array of titles to compete with that, Leonard says.

E-readers and other digital sources pose additional challenges to folks who cherish hard copy. Which do you prefer to read - the printed page or the glowing screen? Does it matter if the neighborhood bookseller survives?

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Hennepin County adds CDs, DVDs to list of recyclables

Posted at 2:58 PM on February 16, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

You tried to sell your collection of "Ernest Goes To..." DVDs to a pawn shop or used media place. To your dismay, they wouldn't give you one thin dime for all those magical hours of cinematic amusement.

There is now a more green alternative to throwing your discs in the trash. Hennepin County announced this week that it will recycle all sorts of media, digital and analog: computer disks, DVDs, CDs, Blu-ray discs, video cassettes, audio cassettes, game cartridges, Secure Digital (SD) memory cards, flash drives, plastic cases and jewel cases, ink jet and laser toner cartridges and vinyl records.

"It is unknown how much media is currently disposed of in the trash, but staff anticipates the new recycling service will be very popular among residents. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that every month approximately 100,000 pounds of CDs become obsolete in the United States and more than 5.5 million boxes of software are discarded each year."

To find out where to drop your boxes of CDs, DVDs and tapes that not even the most die-hard, garage-sale-kitsch-seeker would pay for, check out the county's website.

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Best New Chef Midwest nominees announced (we're watching you, Missouri)

Posted at 12:51 PM on February 15, 2011 by Molly Bloom (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Suburbs

Ocean trout from Sea Change (Sharyn Morrow via Flickr)

Every year, Food & Wine bestows the title of Best New Chef on the top up-and-coming chefs in 10 different regions of the United States. This year, they're opening voting up to the public in what they're calling, "The People's Best New Chef."

Minnesota is well-represented in the Midwest region (which includes Arkansas for some reason). Our nominees are:

Mike Brown and James Winberg - Travail (Robbinsdale)
Landon Schoenfeld - Haute Dish (Minneapolis)
Erik Anderson - Sea Change (Minneapolis)

Three out of ten nominees is nothing to scoff at. The only state with a better showing? Missouri. We didn't even know they were our Midwest culinary rivals, but now...it's on. The last time Minnesota took home the Best New Chef in the Midwest was Stewart Woodman of Heidi's (which re-opened last month after a fire damaged their old spot last year).

Check out the nominees and vote for your favorite here.

What do you think of the nominees? Who should have made the cut?

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You think potholes are bad now?

Posted at 4:32 PM on February 11, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

If you're like me and you drive to work over the same route every morning and evening, then you've memorized where you have to swerve or change lanes to avoid potholes. My eight-year-old car feels like it has the knee and hip joints of a 90-year-old marathon runner. There's not much 'cartilage' left in the suspension system to cushion the blow.

Well, the problem will likely get worse with the warmer weather. Today the city of Minneapolis sent out a press release reminding drivers that the daily thaw and nightly freeze will further damage already pockmarked roads. So the city is adding crews to work on weekends in addition to the round the clock work going on Monday through Friday.

Since the start of January:

· More than 5,000 truckloads of snow have been removed from City streets. That's in addition to the regular plowing efforts by Public Works.

· More than 200 tons of temporary asphalt mix, or cold patch, have been used to fix potholes.

· About 16,000 of the 20,000 corners in the City have been cleared of snow piles left after plowing.

City officials urge drivers to call 311 to report potholes. In the meantime, hold on to your axles. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

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Safer biking in Minneapolis? City stats say yes.

Posted at 2:12 PM on February 7, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

The rate of bicycle crashes of all types are down by nearly a quarter in Minneapolis the past 15 years. The new numbers are from Shaun Murphy the non motorized traffic (that means biking and walking) specialist in the city's public works department.

You can get all the statistics including state numbers here.

It's good news, of course, but as the numbers show there are still fatalities and plenty of life-changing injuries happening to bicyclists.

One way to reduce bike and car accidents is to create more trails. And according to Murphy, this will be a bumper year for bike lanes in Minneapolis.

Normally the city of Minneapolis adds about four miles a year. This year it's poised to add up to 35 miles.

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U of M exhibit looks at making old age more livable

Posted at 11:12 AM on February 2, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

The first wave of the nation's 70 million baby boomers hit age 65 this year. With this generation predicted to live longer - and live longer at home - planners are looking at ways to make homes and communities more senior-friendly.

Glenn Ruffenach wrote about this trend for the The Wall Street Journal's September 19, 2009 Personal Finance blog.

The University of Minnesota's Goldstein Museum of Design has built what they're calling a Smart House, where visitors can experience what the home of the future might look like. The house belongs to fictional senior couple Jim and Sarah, who renovated their traditional home with stuff designed to make life a little more accessible as they age - like special showers and kitchens. Where do you want to spend your old age?

Smart House, Livable Community, Your Future

The exhibit runs Feb. 5 to May 22. Opening Reception Feb. 4, 6-8 p.m.

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Homeless in the shadow of Target Center

Posted at 4:31 PM on February 1, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

Never let it be said that Minnesota Public Radio isn't green. We carpooled today to the announcement that the Timberwolves and Minneapolis want a renovated Target Center arena. The comment from one of the poolers, my colleague Bob Collins (offering, by the way, invaluable back seat driving instructions on where to park - he's a Timberwolves season ticket holder) hangs in my mind.

The comment? Something like this. How interesting that two of the Twin Cities' major entertainment arena's, Xcel and Target Center, have homeless shelters, Dorothy Day Center in St. Paul and Salvation Army in Minneapolis, in their shadow. That's it. Not exactly an original observation. Read into it what you want. Economic disparity is nothing new, won't be going away soon.

It's worth noting that the users of both facilities - touring shows, sports teams, conventions - return lots and lots of money in the way of fees and taxes to the state. The city of Minneapolis which owns Target Center asserts the facility has returned $120 million over its life to Minnesota on an investment of less than $8 million. And it's reasonable to assume some of the dough goes back into the economy to help kids and older people and maybe even the homeless.

The Target Center folks also point out they're a decent-sized employer with 200 full-time and 700 part-time workers. Anyway, brace yourself for a fresh round of debate over "how many professional sports teams...." or "how many stadiums does this state need....?" set against the question of how we find money to help the poor, fund child protection workers and fill potholes.

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Minnesota Visiting Nurse agency gets new boss

Posted at 10:59 AM on February 1, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Livability

Life for poor women who are pregnant is made measurably better by the Minnesota Visiting Nurse Agency. The Minneapolis based non-profit has a new boss. Jen Van Liew, Ph.D, a registered nurse with a business and health science background takes over this month from Mary Ann Blade.

MVNA visiting nurses give prenatal advice to poor women who are pregnant, and then the nurses stay with mom and babe for a time after delivery to make sure they're doing OK. There's more than advice. A corps of MVNA volunteers, mostly women, from the Agency's Club 100 raise money for clothes and other family necessities.

Minnesota has one of the lowest poverty rates in the country, but it's rising. And women and children are disproportionately represented in the numbers. MVNA gets hundreds of referrals a month but has limited staff and money and must pick and choose who gets help. Most of the Agency's work is in Hennepin and Ramsey counties. You may know the Agency from it's flu vaccination programs, one of the biggest in the country.

Mary Ann Blade ran the shop for twenty years as the Agency's annual budget grew from $3 million to $25 million. Jan Van Liew comes to MVNA from Iowa where she directed Visiting Nurse Services of Iowa.

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Why isn't Target sponsoring the LGBT national conference in Minneapolis?

Posted at 10:14 AM on February 1, 2011 by Laura Yuen (5 Comments)
Filed under: Livability, Minneapolis

If you agreed with the Advocate magazine's recent announcement that Minneapolis is the gayest city in America, well, it's about to get a lot gayer.

That's according to Russell Roybal, one of the organizers behind the National Conference on LGBT Equality, also known as Creating Change. It's billed as the nation's largest annual strategy summit for advocates of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.

The conference has set a record in the number of volunteers it's recruited - and the amount of corporate cash it's raised, Roybal said.

But while glancing at the list of sponsors, which includes local heavyweights Best Buy and Xcel Energy, we noticed one major Minnesota-grown company missing: Target.

While Target has never been a sponsor of the conference, company spokeswoman Amy Reilly tells me Target was at one time considering a partnership:

"We had discussions with the [National Gay and Lesbian Task Force] about a potential sponsorship, and we kind of mutually agreed that this year's conference wasn't the right opportunity for both of us."

Roybal, deputy executive director of the Task Force, acknowledges that Target's decision to contribute to a group backing former gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, who opposes same-sex marriage, "still lingers in the minds of many people."

Roybal notes that Target, through its policies and health benefits, has long been a model employer for the company's gay and lesbian workers. That caused many to view the company's decision to support MN Forward as a kind of betrayal, he said.

"The LGBT community is really loyal, they love shopping at Target," he said. "And when we see a friend do something questionable in our minds, we get upset by that."

It should be noted that Best Buy, one of the sponsors for this year's conference, also contributed to MN Forward.

But Roybal said Best Buy's senior brass quickly responded to the backlash from the GLBT community after the donation became public, and sent the company's CEO to meet with Task Force leaders and local advocacy groups in December:

"After that conversation, we decided that having a partnership and working together on the conference would be a good decision for both of us. We're in continued conversations with Target. We've not the same level of conversations with Target, and so that's where we're at."

Roybal says Target is sending several employees to participate or volunteer at the five-day event. And the door is open, he said, for Target to give money to the conference in the future.

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