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MSP Home Tour

Just an hour a way from the home tour start. Karlene has everything under control.

Liz for Parks

Liz doesn't have much of a website up yet.  But it's there with her contact information.  If I were going to imagine the perfect possible Park Board Commissioner, perfection would be Liz Wielinski.  Liz has an extraordinary command of Park Board finances, and she's a Mom that became involved in parks originally because services were being cut, and she didn't understand why.  

I've been critical of the Park Board because I don't think that budgets have always been spent well, certainly not transparently (though they're getting better, I think) and most importantly, I think there are misspent priorities.  Check out the budget, and there's lots of money being spent on golf courses and ball parks.  Not as much on climbing walls, skate parks or other more contemporary activities.  I've written in the past about Richard Florida and his notion of building a local economy by attracting creative economy stars.  It's not that we don't need ball parks.  But it would sure be nice if the Park system took all of our residents, and all of our activities, into consideration.

We've got nearly a year before we cast ballots in Minneapolis elections so there's plenty of time to remember Liz's name.  Vote Liz for Parks.

Diversity of housing types

Sorry about the delay in posting. I was on a trip to SXSW in Austin Texas. Good times, and lots of work. While on one of the many planes I took to get there I picked up my copy of The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Still a good book. I love this passage from page 278 from my addition. “Elevator apartments do not produce standardization by virtue of being elevator apartments, any more than three-story houses produce standardization by virtue of being three-story houses. But elevator apartments do produce standardization when they are almost the only way a neighborhood is housed—just as three-story houses produce monotonous standardization when they are almost the only way in which a neighborhood is housed.”
The Minneapolis Planning Department has put great stock in increasing housing opportunities and unit density. There is also great stock put into housing diversity. However, just a gander at sections of North or South Minneapolis and all we have are huge tracts of three-story housing without any interruption. Jacobs point is that housing diversity creates vitality. Think about where housing diversity exists, and then think about where vitality exists.

Libraries

I’ve been reading Jane Jacobs’ “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” and been simply captivated. This evening, while dining, I read on pages 210 and 211 “Like many cultural enterprises, libraries are a combination of primary use and convenience use, and work best as either when they combine these attributes. In size and appearance then, and in its stock of books, the main library building is more significant; but in its role as an element of city use, the small branch is more significant, belying appearances. It is always necessary to think of performance in terms of users when trying to understand how primary mixtures work.” My wish is that our Library Board would have this in mind as they request their budgets. I don’t think for any reason that cutting operations at the Minneapolis Downtown Library should be out of the question. Let’s do it, and keep your community libraries open.

Micro lending

I was just visiting with a friend and learned some fascinating goodies. He works for the Department of the Treasury in the microlending department. In essence, his department ensures that community-building projects get funded. These include entry-level homeownership programs and small business loans, plus other stuff. I was fascinated when he told me that for five years the Bush Administration has attempted to kill his department. How ironic that the one department in the federal government devoted to fostering small time entrepreneurs and wealth creating behavior like home ownership is under assault. Our Government is doing us a disservice.
Though this is a federal department and I usually focus on state issues I still thought that it was important. Micro lending is what North Minneapolis and rural Minnesota depend upon, and these are the programs that our Congressional members need to step up and defend.

Washington on public investment

I’ve been reading more of Goerge Washington by Ellis and, in light of today’s story about light rail...

Housing

So, I’ve been pondering development for the past few weeks. I was at the 5th Congressional District endorsing convention this weekend and bumped into many allies from other communities who have stood before the Planning Commission pleading their cases. Minneapolis is going through one of its many transitions as we struggle to become a city with diverse housing, and diverse...

Density in planning continued

Referring back to yesterday’s post, I didn’t have an opportunity to mention what limits there are around residential density. Mr. Knowles uses the measurement of dwelling units per acre (du/ac). For everyone who can’t picture one acre it is about the first 91 yards of a football field and the full width of that same field. A low density...

The Solar Envelope

I’ve been out of the loop as of late. Busy doing family stuff. All good. In that time I did read a book about development and city planning. Professor Ralph Knowles from USC has published Ritual House, a book about meshing modern urban design and municipal planning with natural exposures. Mostly well reviewed, I found the book laying...

Eminent domain

Was surfing the Minneapolis List serve when a post for Councilman Gordan in Minneapolis. It reads “I join the Prospect Park/East River Road Improvement Association and many, many neighbors in strongly opposing the University of Minnesota's use of...