The scientific literature always contains differing opinions. I know of quite a bit of medical literature that supports bike helmets as a way to help prevent serious head injuries and brain damage. There are almost always dissenting views. I only hope that you read enough of both sides of the argument to make you feel assured that you aren’t giving public advice that might lead to a person, especially a non-skilled bicycling child, having a life changing head injury.

In research that concludes that not wearing helmets has not been associated with a greater number of serious injuries or deaths you would want to make sure that other factors in the study population--such as the skill/experience level of bicyclists, the culture and attitude of drivers with respect to bicycles, the biking environment (bike paths, etc) and other potential causes--have all been controlled for before the conclusions can be assumed as fact.

The title of your article implies that you have done the due diligence in determining that wearing helmets is more harmful than not. Is that true?

A blockheaded blogger named Griff
With cement twixt his ears caused a tiff.
He showed himself shallow
By doubting the value
Of verse that starts wet then turns stiff.

As the Ward 2 rep, she has indeed worked for exactly these sorts of things, and was extremely helpful when I was trying to get a bit of paperwork untangled. So, yeah, looks like my vote is clear.

Good morning, media folks!

I just returned from City Hall where I filed to run for Mayor. Here’s a little information, but there’s much more background at http://betseybuckheit.com/ of course. Looking forward to working with you all as election season progresses.

Betsey Buckheit

I’m running for Mayor because I can provide clear vision and strong leadership for Northfield’s long-term success, especially:

* Budget and planning. Like all cities, Northfield is struggling to balance its budget while maintaining service levels and limiting tax increases. We moved to a two year budget cycle, improved our capital planning, and reduced our reliance on local government aid. As Mayor, I will lead the Council to restructure our budget in the following ways:

* Sustainable development. Northfield’s long term economic success will require maximizing our existing infrastructure, improving our connectivity, and providing the best return on public investment for Northfield.

* Collaboration. Collaboration is more important than ever to reduce costs and stretch our limited resources. Partnering with the schools, arts organizations, colleges, and others will help Northfield grow and flourish.

* Consistency. Northfield has made real progress in the last 4 years on better budgeting, infrastructure planning and cost management, and economic development. Right now, Northfield needs a mayor with experience to build on what has been accomplished.

* Transparency. City government works for the public. As Mayor I will ensure that residents have the most accessible and complete information about our actions and the costs of our choices.

About Me:

I am 51 years old, and I have lived in Northfield since 1989. I attended Swarthmore College, Syracuse University, and the University of MN Law School. I have served on Northfield’s Library Board, Planning Commission, Non-Motorized Transportation Task Force, Charter Commission, Northfield Soccer Association Board, Complete Streets Task Force, Save Our Post Office group, Hospital Strategic Future Task Force, and I am currently the Ward 2 representative on the Northfield City Council. I have been a Humphrey Institute Public Policy Fellow and I have participated in the Blandin Community Leadership Program. My husband Justin London teaches at Carleton College and our daughter Elizabeth is a junior at Northfield High School.

The forces that create winner and loser cities in the metro are complex, and they involve clashes with other “muni” cities as well as private operators.

Farmington, for instance, is barely scraping by and asking a lot of serious questions about the future of municipal booze. Its residents’ commutes take them through two aggressive and successful municipal liquor cities, Lakeville and Apple Valley, in a business where convenience is crucial.

The only thing that would be likely to change that attitude would be to change the driving age to 19.

You say in #8:

But I don’t think Streetscape (downtown TIF) money should be used for art projects. “Aesthetic improvement of the Downtown” is admittedly vague language but it’s pretty clear to me that artwork itself is not what TIF money is for.

Could you unpack this a bit? Presumably, specific language exists describing appropriate and inappropriate use of these funds. Is this what makes the matter “pretty clear” to you?

Seems to me reasonable people could differ on the wisdom of this, or any, particular expenditure. And, of course, we might like or dislike the poetry itself. (Sidewalks in our neighborhood already sport plenty of dog prints; I’d trade them happily for almost any doggerel.)

In any event, I’m hard pressed to think of any better or more concrete example of art being used to aesthetic-ize a streetscape.

Kiffi and Hayes have both said, based on talking to city staff, that the poetry is being installed where sections of sidewalk needed to be replaced in any case. You complain about money being spent on poetry (although no taxpayer money went to the actual poets), but in 8.2.1 you complain that sections of old sidewalk were replaced without poetry included. Basically, I think you just like to have something to complain about.

There’s a big leap from promoting bike helmets to mandatory helmet laws. I don’t think groups should stop promoting bike helmet safety promotions (especially if it means providing free or cheap helmets to kids) but that it’s even more important to provide even more bike lanes, trails, etc to encourage biking (as an aside, from the corner of Woodley & Prairie there is no way to bike to Sibley Elementary without the kids biking in the street). We should make sure the message we’re sending isn’t “Don’t bike without a helmet!!!” but is “Bike!!!! And consider wearing a helmet.”

I think there is a huge generational shift regarding bike helmets. In a few decades, we’ve gone from basically never seeing a kid’s bike helmet to it being surprising to not see little kids wearing them. Just as much of the stigma regarding tattoos have gone away, so will the stigma regarding bike helmets (although I’m sure there will be cool and uncool ones that I won’t be able to distinguish between).

We have a long way to go before we can pretend to share Europe’s bicycling worries…

In question is the funding for it, both the source (TIF money) and the amount.

Both TJ and Joe Staph have told me that the site selection for the poetry was based off of sections of the sidewalk that needs to be replaced.

You will need to talk to the Arts and Culture Commission on why only one poem was installed.

I’ve added two photos to the blog post above. Left photo: I don’t understand why only one poem was installed in this new section. I understand the aesthetic of white space but 8 huge panels and only one poem? It seems excessive.

Right photo: This section of sidewalk appear to be relatively new. Yet no poems. Was the sidewalk so bad that it couldn’t have waited?

But as far as the city paying overtime etc, i.e., all the issues you mention above.. the question is why the city was doing these things, and why have a contract that is structured in this way, or did the contract impose these overtime payments on them, and why even enter into a contract like that if they disapproved… do you see what I’m saying, Curt?
Both parties that have a contract have structured that contract, and are bound by it.
Why is it now all the fault of the Rescue Squad for the existing situation? and
Why doesn’t the article explain the contractural agreement better, instead of just raising a lot of questions in the reader’s mind, and not satisfying those in the written piece? and
Are the Rescue Squad accounts required to be public or not? and

As I said, IMO, too much innuendo…