I’ve been wondering about non-urban cycling. Sure, New York City, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Minneapolis can support great cycling culture and strong bicycle infrastructure – density makes a difference. But what about rural or, as in Northfield, small town cycling? A new report from the Rails to Trails Conservancy via the League of American Bicyclists has a positive report about Cycling Beyond the Urban Core.
On Friday, my Council colleague Erica Zweifel and I (along with a St Olaf student who’s been helping with local commercial PACE program development – more about this below) went up to the St. Paul (Falcon Heights, actually) campus of the University of Minnesota for a forum on energy savings through the retrofitting programs available for Minnesota cities, counties and businesses. The forum was sponsored by the Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment at the U, Senator Al Franken, MPCA, Urban Land Institute, Minnesota Waste Wise (a MN Chamber of Commerce affiliate program) and the Clean Energy Resource Team.
Erica has been leading efforts to establish a commercial PACE program in Northfield working with representatives from many of the groups above. The Council agreed to put it on their workplan for 2012, so I’m looking forward to more discussion very soon.
How it works:
State law (adopted 2010) authorized local governments to “establish a program to finance energy improvements to enable owners of qualifying real property to pay for cost-effective energy improvements to the qualifying real property.” Very briefly, if Northfield created such a program, a commercial property owner could secure financing for energy improvements through a local financial institution (or, alternatively, the city could issue revenue bonds); the loan would be repaid by a special assessment on property taxes. PACE leverages the property tax collection system for repayment which can provide better rates and longer repayment terms. Assuming private financing is used, there is no upfront cost to the city except setting up the process for the special assessments.
PACE and other programs aim to make retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency easier with an immediate positive impact on cash flow for business and government. Northfield has the policy infrastructure directing us to move in this direction with the Comprehensive Plan, GreenStep Cities program, and the Energy Task Force plan. Indeed, Northfield has already taken steps in this direction with the Johnson Controls contract initiated which is financed by the energy savings created by the improvements to various city facilities.
These are not just tree-hugging amenities: the goal for the building owner is long-term cost savings as well as creating jobs in the building trades/energy industries (yes, critics, this IS about economic development).
More stuff about bicycling:
“The best streets to cycle down are illegal to build in the majority of North America’s suburbs, because they’re too narrow, too pedestrian-oriented, too enclosed. Even the ones that are very pedestrian-oriented often restrict cyclists to bike lanes when they’d be safer mixing with cars” writes Placeshaker Hazel Borys with links to more bike stats (like Grist’s Bikenomics series) and this great video about bike lanes.
And Jay Walljasper’s Winter? Schminter! in MinnPost providing some corroboration for my assertion that there is no bad weather (for bicycling, running, walking or anything else outside) just inappropriate clothing. Walljasper’s companion piece Bike Boom by the Numbers documents the increase in cycling in Minneapolis.
Finally, what all cyclists really want to know: How not to get hit by cars
Don’t believe everything you read in the Northfield News, especially not headlines like Redistrict? Council wants to eliminate wards.
The goal is balanced, accessible representation for the residents of Northfield. Dividing the city into geographic wards is one way to try to meet that goal, but not the only way.
The big advantage of the ward system is giving designated representation to each quadrant of the city by a resident of that ward. Ward residents know who to call if they have a problem. 2nd Ward residents have needed help with or had questions about street lights, snow-plowing (not this year, obviously), beavers, parks, mowing (or rather non-mowing of vacant lots), trees, city maintenance, and traffic near the soccer fields at Spring Creek Park. In turn, I keep closer track of what happens in the 2nd Ward and if ward-specific issues show up on the agenda – street projects are the most obvious – I have a special interest in making the best choice for the ward as well as knowing more about my home territory. Erica Zweifel has consistently advocated for her 3rd Ward constituents in the siting of the Safety Center, improving pedestrian and bicycle connectivity across Highway 3, and working with St. Olaf College.
But, consider some other factors:
Geography is often not relevant: most issues are not specific to one ward and it is difficult to identify a ward-specific perspective. This was one of 4th Ward Councilor Patrick Ganey’s reasons for raising the question.
No geographic division will cut cleanly: Neighborhoods cut across ward boundaries and there are multiple neighborhoods within each ward. As well, some constituencies are better defined than others. Would it make more sense to assign Council members to represent the colleges, retirement communities, non-English speaking residents, or any other identifiable group?
Some Council members are more responsive than others; wards with conscientious representatives get much better representation and conscientious reps get more work. Prior to the last election, I got a significant number of calls from two other wards because their own ward representative could not be reached.
Council members tend to have particular issues they care about, know about, and work to advance; we could each represent areas of government rather than areas of town. Have a land use problem? Call me.
The school board elects at-large representatives with the top vote-getters from the pool being elected (4 seats open, for example, then the top 4 win). If the Council adopted this system, we might imagine it could broaden the candidate pool – if there are openings on the Council, a candidate would not have to wait for the right ward opening, two strong candidates who live in the same area might both be elected, candidates might find it less daunting to run as part of a group knowing they didn’t have to get the most votes. On the flip side, campaigning only in one ward might seem simpler than a city-wide effort.
In practice, some of my time goes to ward-related constituent service while more of it goes to general city business like tax levies, policy-making, etc. For the city business part, wards are less important. But, when calls to city hall can’t get streetlights fixed or residents have questions about city issues and services that’s when having ward representatives or some other easy way to know who to call is crucial. Wards, whatever their shortcomings, make it easy: if you know where you live, you can figure out your ward representative.
The decennial redistricting is at least an opportunity to ask if we can do a better job of representing Northfield residents than the current system and, if we think we’ve found a better system, then we need to ask voters if they agree. It’s a discussion, not a decision at this point.
Would this work on Bridge Square?
Public policy and politics can get so serious; planning sparks passionate, often opposing, opinions. Why not think about how we can make cities fun? For more trends for 2012, see PopUp City’s Top 10 list.
