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Photo by Amanda Kushner
(From left) Dan Elias, Kate Price, Chris Lee and Lisa Ofsteaal hang out in their temporary park on 3rd Avenue North.
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Community notebook: Park(ing)
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By Amanda Kushner
Downtown-wide
Putting the park in parking Click here for a slideshow about PARK(ing) Day. The creative agency space150 moved its North Loop office to the street on Sept. 18 for PARK(ing) Day — an annual event held in cities throughout the world to call attention to the need for green space in urban areas.
For the event, space150 hauled company furniture outside, left it in a metered parking space covered in sod and then spent the day working on laptops outside their office above Moose & Sadie’s, 212 3rd Ave. N.
Near the space150 park, MCAD students played leapfrog in their green space. And a group of friends played guitar around a fake campfire at another spot.
Participant Jacob Wascalus called the event “an exercise in public awareness.”
“I really like the idea of transforming a public space into something that is more useful for a lot of people rather than a single car,” said the urban planning graduate student.
He questioned the purpose of the publicly owned space and emphasized that it would be awesome to have spots around the city converted to public parks.
This year Solutions Twin Cities, an organization behind several creative events, decided to organize the Sept. 18 event, and about a dozen parks popped up in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Solutions Twin Cities founders Colin Kloecker and Troy Gallas said what they like about the event is that it emphasizes the importance of common space.
“One group of people for one hour, one day out of the year can transform the whole city into a totally new kind of surprising place,” Kloecker said.
Four parks were present in the Warehouse District, and people passing by asked about the event, stopped to enjoy the parks and helped to plug meters. One person that worked in a nearby building thought their dog Houma would enjoy the park, so he drove home and brought Houma to Wascalus’ park.
Dan Elias couldn’t find sod, but decided to set up a campsite, and he is optimistic that the event will be even bigger next year.
“The hope is that next year with all of these people watching they will want to do one, and we can line the streets, and no one will be able to park Downtown,” he said.
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Warehouse District
Hennepin and 1st switch to two-ways starts mid-October
The conversion of Hennepin and 1st avenues will begin the weekend of Oct. 10–11, weather permitting.
With the conversion it will be easier to navigate around Downtown with less around the block trips. A public meeting will explain the changes affecting drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists. The meetings will be at 5 p.m. on Oct. 5 in City Hall room 319, 350 S. 5th St.
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North Loop
First of three murals installed at Target Field
Three murals with themes of transit, baseball and sustainability will be added to the northeast exterior of Target Field.
The first mural, “Transit Then and Now,” which details the past and future of transit with the Twin Cities abstractly in the background, will be completed the week of Sept. 28, said artist Craig David. The mural has an old passenger locomotive and a light right on the opposite ends with larger than life people in the center.
The second mural, “The Story of Minnesota Baseball,” depicts the history of Minnesota baseball.
David said the key players in the mural are prolific pitcher Chief Charlie Bender, the first native-born Minnesotan to be inducted into the hall of fame, and Toni Stone, a black woman born in
St. Paul who played professionally in the ’40s and ’50s. It will also include a portrayal of Lexington and Nicollet parks. The second mural will be up by Nov. 15, David said.
The sustainability mural, “The Rebirth of Sustainability,” focuses on clean water including recreation and wind power. It will be up by Feb. 1.
The transit and baseball murals are each 30 feet by 8 feet, and the sustainability mural is 24 feet by 8 feet. David said as a native Minnesotan he’s honored to be working on this job.
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Krueger switches to citywide effort
Luther Krueger, formerly a community crime prevention analyst for the Minneapolis Police Department’s 1st Precinct, has moved to the SICM Division.
The administration wanted to have more analysis of crime prevention efforts to see if resources are allocated to the best effect for reducing and preventing crime, he said. Krueger also keeps the community engaged in his new role.
Krueger is reviewing rental-license conduct notices and monitoring neighborhood-policing plans. These plans are a partnership between the Minneapolis Police Department and the neighborhoods, so part of Krueger’s job is to help neighborhoods understand what they can do on their own and with this partnership, he said.
An example is a neighborhood can set up a walking crime watch group. While the group may not look for criminals they can look for the atmosphere that may make criminals more comfortable.
Also there will be a campaign over the next year to reach out to community members that are in crime hot spots and make sure blocks in these areas are organized, which will help crime go down, he said.
Krueger makes sure communities are aware of resources available to them in working with crime prevention specialists who will work directly with neighborhoods. He is also documenting and analyzing efforts to make sure everyone is working to the top of their ability, he said.
Reach Amanda Kushner at akushner@mnpubs.com.
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City declares snow emergency
UPDATED February 8, 2010, 1:28pm
By Cristof Traudes
With snow falling almost non stop since Sunday, the City of Minneapolis this afternoon declared a snow emergency.
Starting at 9 p.m. today, cars will not be allowed to be parked on either side of snow emergency route streets. From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. tomorrow, cars should only park on the odd side of non-snow emergency route streets, and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, cars should only park on the even side of non-snow emergency route streets. Cars parked on the wrong sides of streets will be ticketed and towed.
To look up what streets are affected when, click here. More information is at ci.minneapolis.mn.us/snow.
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Development update :: AIA MN kicks off weekend of pro bono design
By Gregory J. Scott
It could be a scene out of some Bravo reality television show. Beginning at about 8 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 13, teams of student and professional designers will have less than 24 hours to turn nonprofit proposals into graphic realities. The one-day scramble is part of the 23rd annual Search for Shelter Charrette, a weekend of pro-bono design organized by the American Institute of Architects Minnesota’s Housing Advocacy Committee. Nonprofits that lack the funds to hire a professional design firm submit wish-list building proposals — anything from a simple redesign of a lobby space to an inside-out renovation of an entire apartment complex. Then volunteer architects, landscape architects and interior designers collaborate to produce visual tools
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Park Board votes to open search for next superintendent
UPDATED February 4, 2010, 9:05am
By Cristof Traudes
President says Superintendent Jon Gurban has done great work but that moving on 'happens as the natural growth of an organization' The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is set to move beyond Superintendent Jon Gurban, voting 6–3 Wednesday night to begin a search for candidates.
It’s the will of Minneapolis’ residents, said a majority of the board that included all three new commissioners. The campaign trail sealed Southwest’s Brad Bourn and Anita Tabb’s decision, they said, while Northeast’s Liz Wielinski said people brought up the issue repeatedly last fall.
But three of the board’s longest-serving commissioners fought back, stringing along a discussion that dominated the night’s meeting.
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'Beyond Our Differences' screening on Friday
UPDATED February 3, 2010, 5:02pm
By Sarah McKenzie
There will be a special screening of the documentary “Beyond Our Differences,” a film exploring the positive impact of religion and spirituality in the world, at the Mayo Memorial Auditorium at the University of Minnesota campus Friday.
Peter Bisanz, the film’s director, will be on hand after the screening for a Q&A session.
Bisanz of St. Paul is the director and founder of New York-based Entropy Films. He is one of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders — a group of people committed to turning their visions for positive change into action on a variety of important social causes.
In a recent interview, Bisanz said the concept for “Beyond Our Differences” came about while he was at the Dalai
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Twin Citites janitors vote to authorize strike
UPDATED February 1, 2010, 10:38am
By Gregory J. Scott
A near unanimous vote by over 500 union members has given Downtown janitors the authority to strike. Over 4,000 janitors in the Twin Cities have been working without a contract since Jan. 8. Negotiations with cleaning contractors have made little progress since then, and last Saturday's vote gives the bargaining committee the power to call a strike. Two more negotiation dates have been scheduled over the following weeks, but the affirmative vote means that the janitors who clean the vast majority of Downtown office buildings could walk off the job at any time. One of the major sticking points in talks is the green cleaning agenda proposed by the janitors. SEIU Local 26 has sought a transition to day shift cleaning, which the union argues could reduce
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Northeast spotlight :: Crafty entrepreneurs
By Sarah McKenzie
Stroll into I Like You and you are bound to find something that catches your eye. There are adorably hip outfits for little ones, artwork by notable local artists like Amy Rice and Adam Turman and all kinds of other handmade odds and ends you likely won’t find anywhere else. Owners Sarah Sweet and Angela Lessman recently moved their store to the neighborhood after a couple years in Kingfield in southwest Minneapolis. They plan on offering craft classes this spring to inspire other people in the community to tap into their own creative powers. Sweet recently spoke with the Downtown Journal about the business. DTJ: What do you look for when thinking about items for your store? Sweet: We look for things that you
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Community notebook :: Janitors’ union sets strike vote
By Gregory J. Scott
1 Comment
Janitors’ union sets date for strike voteAfter two full weeks of working without a contract, a union representing more than 4,000 Twin Cities janitors decided last week to set a strike authorization vote over unfair labor practices. The vote was scheduled to take place on Saturday, Jan. 30, at the union’s weekly member meeting. At press time, the outcome was not yet known, but the Downtown Journal has been posting web updates regarding this story at downtownjournal.com. SEIU Local 26 — Minnesota’s Property Services Union, which represents security officers and window cleaners in addition to janitors — had arranged for two additional weeks of negotiations at the end of last year, pushing the final deadline for a new
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Study shows uptick in Downtown skyway traffic
By Gregory J. Scott
If you’ve noticed a bit more jostling during your skyway lunch dashes, you’re not alone. Foot traffic in the elevated corridors jumped 4 percent in 2009, and in some areas pedestrian counts reached a 10-year high. The uptick is the major take-away from a report issued last week from Minneapolis-based Pedestrian Studies, a national consulting firm that analyzes foot-traffic patterns for people whose business depends on that sort of thing — shopping centers, property managers, organizers of public events. Pedestrian Studies founder Peter Bruce has conducted annual skyway counts in Minneapolis since 1991. For this study, Bruce focused on the corridors connected to Downtown’s major buildings, including City Center, Gaviidae Common, Northstar
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Biz buzz :: The Forum
By Gregory J. Scott
New restaurant to open in former Goodfellows spaceA former executive at Cargill is opening a new restaurant in City Center, taking over the space previously occupied by Goodfellows. The new restaurant, called The Forum, will blend comfort-food favorites and traditional chop house fare. It will also offer a “changing destination menu” that every month highlights a different culinary tradition from a region of the United States. Chef Christian Ticarro, executive chef at the Canyon Grille in Coon Rapids, will head the kitchen. The opening is planned for early April. The Forum takes over one of Minneapolis’ most historic spaces, the old Forum Cafeteria, which operated from the 1930s to the 1970s. The space was most recently
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Proposal would double fundraising needs for planetarium
By Cristof Traudes
In a shaky economy, it’s hard enough just to raise money. Try watching thought-to-be-secured dollars fall away. That’s what backers of the Minneapolis Planetarium project have been doing in the weeks since Gov. Tim Pawlenty presented his 2010 bonding proposal, a bill that would delete $22 million that’s been guaranteed to the Minneapolis Planetarium Society since 2005. Without the bonding, the society is looking at more than double the amount of money they need to raise to get the long-planned project up and running. “If the $22 million goes away, I think we have to really reconsider how everything looks,” said Angus Vaughan, president of the Minnesota Planetarium Society. The proposed planetarium would be a $35 million
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A tale of two housing markets
By Gregory J. Scott
// What do the 2009 numbers mean for Downtown? //The number of sales swelled, but median prices plummeted. Affordability reached a record high, but so did foreclosures and short sales. Realtors feel a twinge of optimism, but economists keep a nervous vigil. Since its release two weeks ago, a year-end report on the 2009 Twin Cities housing market has generated mixed emotions and mixed data, matching nearly every encouraging sign of a turn-around with a reason to keep hopes in check. And while real estate watchers metro-wide have chimed in with outlooks for the Twin Cities as a whole, getting an isolated assessment for Downtown has proven more difficult. “We stray from offering specific, neighborhood-level
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