Preserve.Revitalize.Connect.
Gold Medal Park to Be Preserved for 50 Years
Letter to the Editor - Ideas for the Minneapolis Riverfront
From KARE 11:
Just in time for summer, pedalers and pedestrians now have more miles of roads to roll and walk on.
The new RiverLake Greenway opened Saturday connecting the Mississippi River to Lake Harriet providing a safer route through South Minneapolis.
From Brainerd Dispatch:
The University of Minnesota campus quite literally runs on steam —lots and lots of steam. It's used for heating in the winter, and powers equipment that provides air conditioning in the summer.
For decades that steam has been created at a university power plant fired by coal and natural gas. But after years of concern over pollution, university officials say they're going to drastically reduce the amount of coal burned at the facility near downtown Minneapolis, about 100 yards from the Mississippi River.
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Minneapolis Park Board HQ
2117 West River Road
The waterfall at the heart of our city - St. Anthony Falls - has powerfully shaped our city's past. Dakota people honor "Owahmenah" - falling water - as a sacred place. Before 1850, it attracted hundreds of artists, writers, and politicians, becoming one of the best known tourist destinations on the North American continent. Harnessing the falls for hydropower sparked growth of the city and transformed the Upper Midwest.
How will these falls shape our future?
A panel of experts will highlight key issues, and contribute to a lively discussion, with questions from the audience.
Geology, Spirituality, Tourism, and Early Settlement History
Karen Campbell, St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, University of Minnesota
River Health
Charlotte Cohn, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (invited)
Developing Hydropower, Building a City
William de la Barre (David Berg), Minnesota Historical Society
Hydropower Today
Matthew Miller, Xcel Energy
Public Issues in Hydropower Licensing
Susan Overson, National Park Service
For more information, contact Cordelia Pierson at 612-465-8780, ext. 212, or cordelia.pierson@gmail.com
From Finance & Commerce:
Since Above the Falls was adopted 12 years ago “a lot has happened,” Leighton told the sometimes fractious crowd. “But the more ambitious land-use plans [of converting a significant portion of the riverfront to housing] have not happened. Now the city is poised to move forward with redevelopment scenarios.”
From the Star Tribune:
The common carp, shown above, has been a problem in Minnesota beginning not soon after it was imported here from Britain in the late 1880s.
Asian carp — should they ever arrive in breeding populations — will be a bigger problem, still.
So far, the DNR believes only "pioneering'' individuals — most recently a bighead carp caught in the St. Croix River — are in waters as far north as the Twin Cities.
From The Journal:
The new riverfront headquarters for the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization is actually one big science experiment.
Staff will monitor a rooftop “salsa garden” of edible plants, comparing the water that pours off the green roof to water that pours off an empty roof nearby. They will plant and uproot different types of trees over time, so they can measure how much water the trees suck out of the ground. And they will check to see if pharmaceuticals and other new pollutants are starting to come down in rainwater.
“Our entire site is really all around that discovery piece,” said the organization’s executive director Doug Snyder.
Recorded June 2, 2011
“Our Development Future: The Above the Falls Policy Review and Implementation Study”
Eleven years after a visionary plan for the Mississippi River above St. Anthony Falls was adopted, the transformation of the Minneapolis riverfront is attracting new energy and attention. This focus is critical for Minneapolis - and the region.
Haila Maze and Thomas Leighton, Principal Planners with the City of Minneapolis Community Planning and Economic Development Department, provided an update on the findings of the Above the Falls Policy Review and Implementation Study. They highlighted key issues that shape new development along the City’s riverfront above the falls and reflected on the balance point between the visionary and the possible.
The Minneapolis Riverfront Partnership hosts this public forum series with the Above the Falls Citizen Advisory Committee (AFCAC), an appointed commission charged with supporting riverfront revitalization, including business, environmental and neighborhood representatives.
For more information, please contact Cordelia Pierson at info@minneapolisriverfrontpartnership.org.
Supporting Research Documents
Phase 1A Scan and Information Development Presentation
Phase 1A Scan and Information Development Report
Phase 1B Land Use and Market Trends
Phase 1B Redevelopment Scenarios
Letter read by Arlene Fried of Park Watch at June 1, 2011 Minneapolis Park Board meeting:
June 1, 2011
Commissioners:
I would like to thank you for your vote at the park board's last meeting to not execute Crown Hydro's rejected letter of intent.
It certainly is time that the Park Board put to rest any and all demands from Crown Hydro to acquire parkland at Mill Ruins Park for a hydro-electric facility. An inordinate amount of staff time and effort has been invested in evaluating the feasibility and desirability of this proposed project. Because it was to be on parkland, and because you are the stewards of all of our parklands, you are vested with the authority to make the final decision about whether or not this project was an appropriate use of parkland. And you, after 12 years of review, determined that this project as desired by Crown Hydro was not in the best interests of the Park Board and turned it down.
At the moment, the Park Board has many significant items on its plate which will require a good deal of staff time and effort. There is the recovery from the extensive and costly damage inflicted by the tornado and other time-consuming issues to be addressed.
It is now time to move on.
Thank you.
Arlene Fried
Bryn Mawr Neighborhood
Co-founder of Park Watch
From Steve Berg on MinnPost:
Nature may have left north Minneapolis a shredded mess, but Sunday's violent tornado seemed only to strengthen local resolve to restore nature along the nearby Upper Riverfront.
Perhaps no single action this week demonstrated as much faith in the North Side's long-term future as the series of design sessions aimed a choosing where exactly to begin the monumental 5.5-mile initiative. Three specific projects emerged as likely targets to complete within the next five years:
Mill City Times | 35W Bridge Memorial | Mill District Block Party | Mill City Media
Tuesday, June 14, 2011 at 5:00AM