Where Our Water Comes From - The Mississippi

Three-Sixty Journalism reporter Jake Hall reports on the treatment and quality of water from the Mississippi River.

Friends of the Riverfront Letter to FERC RE: Crown Hydro

If true, it could spell the end for the Crown Hydro FERC license:

"Rep. Mike Beard introduced a bill in March that would have given Crown Hydro the ability to bypass the Park Board, but the bill made little progress. Beard said he doesn’t plan on bringing it up during a special session."

Friends of the Riverfront Letter to FERC RE: Crown Hydro

View more documents from Mill City Times

Latest Issue of Minneapolis RiverCurrent

We'll start posting this great e-newsletter each week.  Some of it overlaps with our event list, but a bunch falls outside our main coverage.

Minneapolis RiverCurrent 7-7-11

View more documents from Mill City Times.

Crown Hydro Turning to Class Warfare? Or is the Downtown Riverfront Part of The Bizzaro World?

From Finance & Commerce (article behind a paywall):

“Do Democratic progressive values stand for anything in this town when the haves — the Democrats living on the gold coast of the Mississippi — have decided to pull up the drawbridge when it comes to commitments to clean energy?”

- Tim Keane, Crown Hydro lobbyist

http://finance-commerce.com/2011/07/crown-hydro-hopes-to-bypass-minneapolis-parks-board/

Being new to this issue - I first became aware of this long running fiasco this spring - my opinion of this project has been formed by recent events.  I've researched the public record, attended Park Board meetings, and discussed the project with residents and elected officials.  After months of research I can't shake the feeling that this whole situation is taking place in the Bizzaro World.

Consider:

- It has been reported in the Star Tribune that the person behind Crown Hydro is a supporter of Tea Party leader Michelle Bachmann, and held a fundraiser at his Lake Minnetonka mansion (which is in foreclosure).  Doesn't forclosure mean one is living beyond their means? Oops, "fiscal responsibility" only applies to the other guys, my bad.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/120660474.html

- The Republican sponsors of legislation to take away public land for the benefit of Crown Hydro want to use "Big Gubment" to take away "local control" from regular folk like Joe the Plumber.  Yep, there are plumbers who live on the Minneapolis Riverfront.  In fact, there are people from every walk of life and income levels who call the Riverfront their home.

- The folks with Crown Hydro seem to have a sense of "entitlement" to our parkland.  Do they really expect a free pass from the normal policies, approvals and requirements that every other Twin Cities developer must adhere to?  Is Crown Hydro part of some "protected class"?

- Oh yeah, and "entitlement" to $5.1 million in "subsidies"  - a give away of Minnesota residents hard earned money through, wait for it...wait for it..."redistribution of wealth".  Tea, er, Republican Party "values"?

- Clean, green energy has become the mantra for this project.  Last time I checked, the Republican Party believes climate change is a conspiracy fosted on us by "tree hugging socialists".

Which brings us back to the quote at the beginning of this article.  Now "rich liberals" are engaged in "class warfare" against...um...other liberals?  There can be only one explanation.  Like every other big issue ever contemplated, the answer comes from the Seinfeld show.  The Downtown Minneapolis Riverfront has been sucked into the vortex of the Bizzaro World.  Don't believe me?  Watch the video below and it will all make sense:

Update on Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 12:49PM by David Tinjum

Another quote from the Finance & Commerce article:

Keane, an old hand at legislative politics, said that a major irony during legislative debate gives him the feeling of “Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole.” To wit:

DFLers have been slamming a renewable clean-energy effort, and Republicans are supporting a move to subvert local control.

I've had this feeling all along, kudos to Mr. Keane for being the first to come out and just tell it like it is.

Crown Hydro Update

Updated on 1/21/2012 - See end of post

The latest news on the Crown Hydro project proposed for Mill Ruins Park on the Downtown Minneapolis Riverfront (documents in reverse chronological order):

Crown Hydro Requests New Location for Hydro Plant

Minneapolis Parks & Recreation Board (MPRB) Response to Crown Hydro FERC Termination Letter Response

Crown Hydro Response to FERC Termination Letter

FERC Termination Letter to Crown Hydro

Update on Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 7:19AM by David Tinjum

From local resident Doug Verdier:

The Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board will vote to approve its 2012 Legislative Agenda during the next regular MPRB meeting Jan. 18. One of the items on the Legislative Agenda is the following which addresses the Crown Hydro proposal:

PROTECT LOCAL CONTROL OF PARK LAND: Attempts were made last year to force the Park Board to grant a private entity the right to use park land for a hydroelectric facility. The Park Board and other local governmental units had serious concerns about the constitutionality of the legislation and the usurpation of local control, and no such legislation was passed. We will again fight any efforts to force the Park Board to relinquish control of its land to private entities.

Update on Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 7:04AM by David Tinjum

From local resident Doug Verdier:

This latest effort by Crown Hydro to advance the hydro plant at Upper St. Anthony Falls indicates that they now are trying to cut a deal with the Corps of Engineers to build the plant on Corps-controlled land, thus bypassing the MPRB and local government authorities. This letter announces that Crown wants to amend their license again so they can proceed with the project.

See the document above.

RiverFIRST: Possible Projects for the Minneapolis Riverfront

From the Minneapolis Riverfront Development Initiative Steering Committee meeting in late June, 2011.

View more presentations from MplsRiverfrontDesign

RiverFIRST: An Economic Development Strategy for the Minneapolis Riverfront

Minneapolis Riverfront Development Initiative Steering Committee meeting presentation from late June, 2011.

View more presentations from MplsRiverfrontDesign

Nonprofits and Government Agencies Working to Get Locals Acquainted with the Mississippi

From the Star Tibune:

On an overcast morning, seven people in a 24-foot voyageur canoe paddled by as jabbering swallows flocked around a sandstone cliff at the river's edge. Adding their voices to the river's chorus, the diminutive birds tucked their wings and flitted in and out of tiny holes in the cliff face.

The paddlers, part of a flotilla of six canoes, were not hundreds of miles from the nearest coffee shop or Wi-Fi hot spot. They were on the Mississippi, just downstream from the Interstate 94 bridge in Minneapolis, at the center of the metro area.

Read the full article...

RiverFIRST / Scherer Park Site Analysis & Design Concepts from the Minneapolis Riverfront Development Initiative

Things are quickly taking shape for the first project of the Minneapolis Riverfront Development Initiative (MRDI).  This document contains numerous artist renderings of what the new riverfront park might look like.

Upper River Forum - The New Lowry Avenue Bridge [Video]

From the June 28, 2011 meeting:

The Minneapolis Riverfront Partnership and Above the Falls Citizens Advisory Committee are hosting a series of forums to help us envision and shape a vibrant riverfront. Ten years after the visionary Above the Falls plan for the Mississippi River above St. Anthony Falls was adopted, the transformation of the Minneapolis riverfront is getting a jump-start.

Both the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and the City of Minneapolis will soon be making choices that will help shape the future of this segment of the river and our city for generations to come.