Council unanimous decision: No fees for at least a year for sidewalk dining, with or without alcohol

By Griff Wigley, on July 7, 2008, 10:47 pm

The sidewalk dining ordinance passed back in May but at last night’s City Council meeting, the Council unanimously passed the permit fee structure: no cost till at least next May, 2009. Yay! Community Development Director Brian O’Connell said to me that he’ll have one of the City’s summer interns visit all downtown establishments in person Real Soon Now with a simple permit form for them to sign.

Left: After I left the Council meeting, I found some of the NDDC board members at the Cow, socializing a bit after a meeting. I told them the news. See the happy thumbs.
Center: Division street could soon be looking like 14th Av. SE in Dinkytown, in front of the Loring Pasta Bar.
Right: Eventually, sidewalk dining could spill out onto Division St. like this restaurant in Monterossa al Mare in the Cinque Terre region of Italy.

We raised the issue of sidewalk dining (with alcohol) in a 10-minute discussion on Locally Grown podcast #7 back in Feb. of 2006. The NDDC raised the issue way back in April of 2005. They added it to their agenda for downtown and we’ve both been pursuing the issue ever since. Here’s an index of blog posts:

Locally Grown

Locally Grown podcast #7: (topics included outdoor dining on public spaces in downtown), Feb.11 2006
Locally Grown podcast #16: Sidewalk dining; Northfield Library expansion report, May.5 2006
Locally Grown podcast: downtown streetscape, library expansion, sidewalk dining, etc., Oct.9 2006
Podcast: real estate guide wars, news racks, sidewalk dining, outdoor smoking, May.21 2007
Whither the changes to the sidewalk dining ordinance?, Jun.20 2007
Sidewalk dining on Division St: two ways to do it, Jul.8 2007
New issues arise with the proposed sidewalk dining ordinance, May.8 2008
Let’s Stage a “Sit-Out”, May.22, 2008
Are you willing to be arrested? Sign up now!, Jun.20 2008

NDDC

NDDC Seeks Stakeholder Input, April 8, 2005
Interim City Administrator Shares Perspectives at NDDC Forum, Oct 30, 2005
Forum Attendees Agree, Sidewalk Dining is Worth a Try, May 2nd, 2006
Sidewalk dining in Italy, May 9, 2006
Arts Consultant Recommends Outside Dining, May 16, 2006
Barbara Flanagan, My Soulmate, April 26, 2007
Decline and Fall of Western Civilization, May 3, 2007
Rehearsing Outside Dining?, July 7, 2007
EDA Joins Chamber and NDDC in urging the City Council to try sidewalk dining this summer, March 13, 2008
The End of Sidewalk Dining?, May 20, 2008

Democracy works, albeit slowly.

So which Northfield eating and drinking establishments are likely to offer sidewalk dining yet this year?

Griff Wigley says:

July 7, 2008 at 10:56 pm

Dave Hvistendahl, owner of Froggy Bottoms, deserves credit for raising the issue in 2005 when he successfully petitioned the Council for a temporary dining permit on the Riverwalk adjacent to his pub.

July 8, 2008 at 8:49 am

Ross had two NDDC blog posts in 2005 where he mentioned outdoor dining. I’ve added them to the NDDC list in my blog post. I’ve also added the sentence “The NDDC raised the issue way back in April of 2005.”

Ross Currier says:

July 8, 2008 at 9:43 am

Griff -

Both you and Hvisty deserve much credit for keeping this initiative off of the dust-gathering shelves and in front of the eyes of the decision-makers. The NDDC’s E R Team, Joe Grundhoefer, Keith Covey, Roger Kelm and the Summas, also worked hard and systematically on this issue for many years, gathering information from other cities and fine-tuning the details for our unique community. Finally, although Council Member Pokorney and I may have some philosophical differences on the private sector’s use of public spaces, he, too, refused to let this one go quietly into the darkness and deserves specific recognition for his efforts on this matter.

But let’s not get too hung up on the names of the individuals involved. Let’s note above all how long the process took to achieve some results, how many different people had to take a shift in pushing this stone up the hill, and how, through what could be considered a public-private compromise, their efforts were ultimately rewarded. Perhaps other small groups of people, working to push some other stone against the forces of nature, can find some hope, and tips, in this example.

Finally, let us remember that this process continues. We should follow the implementation, gather feedback from the businesses affected by the new ordinance, note the anticipated “sunrise” that follows the “sunset” of this ordinance next Spring, and be alert to any additional ordinances that may be proposed to change the way that the private sector may share the public space. Our work is never done.

Thanks much,

Ross

Locally Grown: on sabbatical starting Aug. 1 (21)
- Griff Wigley: This is comment #35,085 made on the last of 2,976 blog posts, with 187 podcast episodes tossed in for good measure. Now shut down for August. The LoGroNo office at GBM is vacant. But you can follow Ross, Tracy, and I on our...
- Bright Spencer: Good bye and good luck to all!
- Griff Wigley: Jane/William, I’m pretty sure I’ve trained you both to behave but I’d have a hard time during the sabbatical not paying attention to see if that was actually the case. I think the more places in Northfield...
Kathy and Sandy have a new Prairie’s Edge Humane Society segment on KYMN (6)
- Griff Wigley: Jeez, Ross. You adopted Chance? Now we’re going to have to add your new PEHS dog to our About page. No, we’re not changing from the Triumvirate to something four-related, ie, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
- Ross Currier: Yup, we adopted Chance.
- Sandy Vesledahl: Ross – Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!
What’s a college degree worth in the Great Recession? (34)
- Phil Poyner: Yes, but where would we put all the egos?
- Phil Poyner: Ray, I believe 11 states or so have full military pension exemption, but many others (including MN) have some sort of partial exemption or tax credit. But I know for many veterans taxes are not the number one factor when...
- Barry Cipra: Ray, here’s a thought that ties these threads together (and which I think will appeal to Paul): Let’s not tax the income of people with PhDs from accredited universities. When you don’t tax PhD income, you tend...
Where’s the public process on City’s budget cuts? (84)
- Ross Currier: Sorry Griff, but that article concludes with the inside-the-same-old-box type of ideas. I suppose that’s what you get when you ask people inside-the-municipal-box for solutions. Hopefully, there will be citizens,...
- Griff Wigley: Strib: Citizens try to solve cities’ budget woes http://www.startribune.com/pol itics/local/99519729.html
- kiffi summa: Norman and Ross… let me be so bold as to add an observation about this ‘opportunity’̷ 0; I find it so bizarre that mr. Walinski would come up with this staff consolidation plan as a ‘going away...
NHS recommends trees be removed in front of Scriver Building; Council agrees (14)
- Griff Wigley: Here’s a silent video of me walking the area around the Scriver Bldg. Note: * the cozy canopy that the trees provide * that there’s only one small tree nearby in Bridge Square * how nicely the two trees frame and...
- norman butler: Hayes: Many thanks for the ADA costs, almost $750,000. I assume that additional to this is the remodelling of the second floor etc, at a total cost of, say, $1,000,000 to make this wonderful, ancient, iconic, historic,...
- Griff Wigley: I’ve added a straw poll on the trees. See the upper left sidebar.
Let’s use a Border Collie to solve the geese problem now (26)
- Griff Wigley: Straw poll results: How should the City solve the geese poop problem along the Cannon River in downtown Northfield? * Harvest the geese for area food shelves (36%, 24 Votes) * Use border collies to chase the geese away (24%, 16...
- David Ludescher: Griff: It doesn’t make sense to me that we spent a half of million dollars on places where geese like to sh*t.
- Phil Poyner: Excerpt from “Development of a Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard Program at Langley AFB, Virginia.” Canada geese- In June 1999, more than 225 resident Canada geese were molting at Eaglewood golf course adjacent to the...
Anonymous comments on the Northfield News website (338)
- Michelle Hawkins: As far as Mr Denison and past records of those serving or wishing to serve in public office, I think the public is smart enough to judge for themselves rather than rely on only what they find in a newspaper, for their...
- Michelle Hawkins: If a person lives in a drug infested,alcoholic ridden apartment complex and also works on a one to one basis with such while at the same time receives threats as a result of that volunteer work and their work with battered...
- Patrick Enders: Carol, Jerry was a plaintiff in a lawsuit in California which Scott found interesting. Scott posted about it here on LGN, and Jerry (Jerold) answered about it here.
Northfield School Board election: Which seats are up? Who’s filing? Anyone? Anyone? (5)
- Griff Wigley: Nfld News: File for school board, Dundas council Aug. 3
Aug. 10 Northfield City Council primary election: what do we know about the candidates? (31)
- Griff Wigley: I’ve added photos I took at the League of Women Voters candidates forum on 7/29 to the blog post above.
- Griff Wigley: KYMN Radio video: 07/29/10 League of Women Voters Candidate Forum (Archived)
- Griff Wigley: Nfld News: Council candidates weigh in at forum During the first half of the forum, which focused on the Fourth Ward candidates, Gehring expressed his support for an aggressive plan laid out by Mayor Mary Rossing to hire a new...
Kitty Mania at the Prairie’s Edge Humane Society, by Sandy Vesledahl (1)
- Sandy Vesledahl: Don’t miss out on “Kitty Mania” today at Prairie’s Edge Humane Society. If you have been thinking about adopting a cat now is the perfect time to do so!
Using blogs and Twitter to leverage your influence as a Northfield community leader (12)
- Griff Wigley: Thanks, Tracy. I’ll look at that City Mgr blog in Ventura, CA. I’ll be interested to see if he’s better blogger than former Northfield City Administrator Scott Neal who’s been a blogger client of...
- David Ludescher: Amen, Jerry.
- Jerry Bilek: I look at all of this technology as a tool. it has the potential to do good things or is a huge time waster. some blogs are amazingly helpful while others just a way to kill time. For business use, it can be beneficial, but it...
Friday night’s thunderstorm did some damage (10)
- Griff Wigley: Nfld News editorial: Fix the poles, bill who’s responsible
- Griff Wigley: Nfld News: Corrosion may be behind light pole collapses
- Griff Wigley: Josh, use our Contact form. It has a file upload feature: http://locallygrownnorthfield. org/contact/
Who’s ready for some goose egg omelettes? (1)
- Robbie Wigley: So… where ARE those raccoons when you need them!
LoGroNo site cleanup (55)
- Bright Spencer: orange and yellows are the colors that draw people in, and stimulate intellectual inklings. But, like the sun, too much is not so good.
- Bright Spencer: orange and yellows are the colors that draw people in, like the sun, too much is off putting though
- Griff Wigley: Would there be a combination of colors that might make the site more agreeable to the eyes? Lots of gray and blue now. Tracy, want to take a whack at it?
Let’s Wiki a City Budget (43)
- norman butler: Tracy; the article you quoted above made mention of the city of Maywood’s services now being provided by a neighboring city: “…The [parking] ticket was issued by enforcement clerks for the neighboring city of...
- kiffi summa: If you look at the disbursements in the Council packets, you will see the janitorial work IS being contracted out; here’s some numbers from the July 6 disbursement list: 6/11/10 May City Hall Cleaning – 1282.50...
- Tracy Davis: From the Wall Street Journal, 7/19: Cities Rent Police, Janitors to Save Cash
Sand needed in brick paver crosswalks downtown: how to tell the city about it? (11)
- Griff Wigley: A competitor to SeeClickFix is CitySourced: http://www.citysourced.com/
- Griff Wigley: Phil, services like SeeClickFix take that into account, ie, people can weigh in to endorse what someone else has submitted. For example, see the service in action at this CT newspaper: http://www.journalinquirer.com / Click...
- Phil Poyner: I see a downside to what you’re saying. Theoretically it may make sense to have a single problem submitted just once. But my experience has been that until a group of people submit the same problem, the problem can be...
Cycle America’s cross-country tour: a day of rest in Northfield (2)
- Griff Wigley: Hey Don, great to hear from you… and that you’re still doing the outdoor thing. I’d never heard of water cycling.
- Don Haugo: Cycle America was started in 1988. In 1997 Greg Walsh took it over and has been running it since. I live in Bloomington, Minnesota and am about to start marketing a couple of new outdoor adventure events for next year, the...
Pedestrian signals with countdowns now up (30)
- Sean Hayford O'Leary: That’s a shame, Erica. But since we now know that a (brief) crossing period can be accommodated without interrupting traffic at that particular intersection (which has the shortest crossing distance and relatively...
- Erica Zweifel: It appears that the automatic crossing was temporary, this Saturday I had to push the button to get the pedestrian signal at 5th Street.
- Griff Wigley: Sean, I’ll try to capture the audio at a low traffic time so everyone can hear the loud beep-beep and the quiet messages. And I’ll check the 5th St. intersection but all the improvements there look to be the same as...
Storm sirens: deployed too quickly? (110)
- Griff Wigley: MPR’s Question of the day: Do you depend on sirens to alert you to severe weather?
- Griff Wigley: Jane/Josh, thanks for the reports. I’ve blogged your comments with some photos at: http://locallygrownnorthfield. org/post/18720/
- Josh Dale: I live on the north-east corner of St. Olaf property, off Highland Ave. The power went out shortly after 1am. No power=no warnings, other than a lightning strike, blown transformers or downed power lines…it was a good...
Crazy! Team Coldwell Banker South Metro hugs for the food shelf (2)
- Griff Wigley: You’re welcome, Jeanette. The slimy handshake was memorable!
- Jeanette Nelson: Hi Griff, Thanks so much for receiving so graciously, however reluctantly, a hug from a fellow Norwegian! Oh, and also for the wet slimy handshake.
Should Crazy Daze be two days? (3)
- Kathie Galotti: What Rob said–about Crazy Days. I kinda like the new layout of LoGroNo, though, myself.
- Rob Hardy: No. I LOVE downtown Northfield, but I prefer its charming everyday self, not the hyped-up crazy version. I grinchily observed Crazy Daze this year by riding my bike out to Target. Also: while I’m being a Grinch, I hate the...
- Bright Spencer: You mean have Crazy,Crazy Daze? Always have a plan B and maybe even C. C?
Podcast: Jane McWilliams on the proposed police and fire facilities (11)
- kiffi summa: Jane: you are correct about the randomness of the discussion that followed… in some ways that is understandable as someone (MNDOT) had just thrown a big wrench into the works of the Council’s fast moving train. I...
- Jane McWilliams: I was pleased to read that the council has decided against a November referendum, but I was dismayed at the randomness of the discussion which followed. It would serve them well to put the whole project on ice for a few...
- David Ludescher: Ray, It might happen now with a number of new Council members and a new City Administrator, especially if this Division Street site is a real, and not a fanciful, option. It sounds as if the City Council still doesn’t...
Relay for Life of Rice County, August 6th, Rice County Fairgrounds. By Sandy Vesledahl (3)
- Sandy Vesledahl: We will be selling luminaria’s on Bridge Square during Crazy Daze for Relay for Life of Rice County. If you would like to purchase one to be lit at this year’s event to honor a loved one who has been affected by...
Budget cuts: an opportunity for local government to deliver services WITH citizens. Social media can help. (40)
- kiffi summa: Forgot to mention that I believe this agenda item was titled specifically to avoid controversy. It is true that the position also entailed the Welcome Center duties , that may have been the majority of the job’s hours, but...
- kiffi summa: Was doing the Observing for the LWV… so yeah… Council voted 4-3 to table ’til the Aug 3 meeting. C. Pownell had asked C. Zweifel to table the issue (Zweifel had asked for the reconsideration) because C. Pownell...
- Tracy Davis: Funny, Griff, I posted this link on the wiki thread before I saw you put it here!
Fourth Street reconstruction Phase 1B way behind schedule; NDDC’s unskilled workforce to blame? (18)
- Griff Wigley: 4th St. between Division and Washington was paved and striped yesterday.
40 days and counting: a floating yellow barrier in the Cannon River with nothing to do (4)
- Griff Wigley: Thanks, Bart. FYI, 4th St. between Division and Washington was paved and striped yesterday.
Hwy 19 between Northfield and I-35 closed starting today, July 21 (1)
- Griff Wigley: The detour barricades at Old Dutch Road were being put up at 6 am.
Running without running shoes (41)
- Griff Wigley: NPR yesterday: For Humans, Slow And Steady Running Won The Race Be sure to watch the video: Running With And Without Shoes
On Watermelons and Widgets, by Tom Swift (6)
- David Henson: Tom, food prices have fallen for years and years (decades and decades) in the USA (free market). And the government in every country mentioned for riots has grown so your cause and effect seems either driven by an emotional...
- Griff Wigley: I forgot to tell Tom to link to his Writer’s Notebook blog: http://tom-swift.com/weblog/ I’ve added it to the bottom of his blog post above.
- Griff Wigley: Kaufman has a blog and he’s got the pdf of his Food Bubble article on it. His blog has links to other media that have covered the article.
Google to help get The Monkey off my back (9)
- Tom Swift: Here’s one response to those numbers, Griff: “If we use the ratio from the last quarter, it implies Amazon has sold around 22 million Kindle books so far this year. That’s just the equivalent of 6 percent of the...
- Griff Wigley: NY Times: E-Books Top Hardcovers at Amazon Amazon.com, one of the nation’s largest booksellers, announced Monday that for the last three months, sales of books for its e-reader, the Kindle, outnumbered sales of hardcover...
- Bright Spencer: Rob, I read about half and skimmed thru the other, I have never liked to read through the excess of words that are often set before us because people are getting paid by each word they write. I will give myself a chance to...
Community event in-kind grant program: What needs fixing? How to control costs? (14)
- Tracy Davis: I met with Rhonda Pownell yesterday on another issue and asked her about this. From her comments I wondered again whether the Council was given adequate and thorough enough information upon which to base their decision....
Photo album: thunderheads south of Northfield (2)
- Griff Wigley: Penny Hillemann has some thunderhead photos on her blog at: http://penelopedia.blogspot.co m/2010/07/southern-cloudmass.h tml
Photo album: downtown 4th of July fireworks by Mark Heiman (3)
- Jessica Paxton: Wow. These are stunning. Too bad the City didn’t consider looking in its own back yard and hire someone like Mark to produce its promotional video….

Locally Grown Northfield

Straw Poll

Membership Sideblog

Members only

Log In

Recent photo albums

Feeds

Subscribe and Follow

Council unanimous decision: No fees for at least a year for sidewalk dining, with or without alcohol

3 comments to Council unanimous decision: No fees for at least a year for sidewalk dining, with or without alcohol

Current Discussion Threads

Recent Commenters (30 days)

Monthly Archives