Category Archives: Community

Hager clarifies financial relationship between city and NTV

December 30, 2008 – 8:12 pm

Note: This is a story in progress. You might want to join the existing conversation on this topic. I’m excited to read about what people have to say! Please email me directly at RepJNorthfield@gmail.com if you would rather not post publicly.
Paul Hager, president and founder of Northfield’s public access television station (NTV), emailed me last [...]

By Bonnie Obremski | Also posted in Government, Media, Non-Profits & Civic Orgs, RepJ Stories | Comments (2)

Public access TV takes investment of time, money

December 20, 2008 – 9:27 am

Note: This is a story in progress. Please see my bulleted questions in green and help me move the story forward. I would like commenters to write the question(s) they are addressing into their post. You might want to join the existing conversation on this topic. I’m excited to read about what people have to [...]

By Bonnie Obremski | Also posted in Businesses, Government, Media, Non-Profits & Civic Orgs, People, RepJ Stories | Comments (5)

NTV’s future uncertain after 23 years of providing public access

December 15, 2008 – 2:47 pm

Note: This is a story in progress. Please see my bulleted questions in green and help me move the story forward. I would like commenters to write the question(s) they are addressing into their post. I’m excited to read about what people have to say! Please email me directly at RepJNorthfield@gmail.com if you would rather [...]

By Bonnie Obremski | Also posted in Arts & Culture, Businesses, Fluff & Faux News, Government, Media, Non-Profits & Civic Orgs, Podcasts, RepJ Stories | Comments (58)

Carleton’s Plans for the Arts Union (Old Middle School)

December 5, 2008 – 12:20 pm

Carleton College has a terrific informational website for its new Arts Union building (the old Northfield Middle School). In addition to showing floor plans, architectural renderings, and a 3-D “fly-through”, the website also features a “Neighborhood wiki” as a vehicle for communication with the community. The wiki/blog requires registration. Kudos to Carleton [...]

By Tracy Davis | Also posted in Arts & Culture, Colleges | Comments (21)

Neighborhood associations in Northfield - where are you?

December 1, 2008 – 3:55 pm

As most LoGro readers probably know, the new Comprehensive Plan is finally done and was adopted by the City Council last month.
The Land Development Code Advisory Group is now reviewing Northfield’s new draft ordinances, which are/were being written concurrently with the Comp Plan by the consultant from ACP Visioning & Planning of Columbus, OH. [...]

By Tracy Davis | Also posted in Government | Comments (15)

Is Locally Grown the “liberal blog” in town?

November 20, 2008 – 8:11 pm

Over the past week or two, there have been a couple of comments indicating that Locally Grown is, or is perceived to be, a “liberal blog”. I find this both interesting and amusing.
One of the things I’ve always appreciated about local politics is that the issues we deal with are non-partisan, and [...]

By Tracy Davis | Also posted in Blogosphere | Comments (41)

No, It’s Not a Coup

November 20, 2008 – 3:03 pm

Last night, planning commissioners Alice Thomas, Suzie Nakasian, and I hosted a “get-to-know-you” party for our newly elected female councillors and the Mayor-elect.
Before I issued the invites, I checked with City Attorney Maren Swanson to determine if Alice, Suzie, and I could be at the same place and even [gasp] potentially discuss items [...]

By Tracy Davis | Also posted in Government, People, Politics | Comments (12)

City Boards and Commissions: Opportunities to Serve

November 10, 2008 – 12:43 pm

By Tracy Davis | Also posted in Government | Comments (4)

“Chicks Rule” in local races

November 4, 2008 – 10:55 pm

‘Nuff said. Or maybe I should add, “It’s about time.”
See full results on MN Sec’y of State website

By Tracy Davis | Also posted in Elections, Government | Comments (3)

Much Ado About Autos

October 31, 2008 – 4:00 pm

An recent op-ed the Sacramento Bee had an interesting angle on some of the traffic and transportation issues facing many parts of the U.S., including Northfield.

We’re stuck with the landscape we’ve built over the past 60 years, much of which is literally uninhabitable without a car. Trying to make our communities less car-dependent simply by [...]

By Tracy Davis | Also posted in Environment, Government, Health, Transportation & Streets | Comments (8)

RepJ reporter teams with Carleton student on story

October 29, 2008 – 1:47 pm

Hi, my name’s Ben Haynor. I’m a math and physics major at Carleton College. I ended up in a journalism class this semester and began looking at Northfield’s opiate problem. I met Bonnie on Friday and we decided to collaborate on a story. We had already been gathering information, conducting interviews and looking at [...]

By Bonnie Obremski | Also posted in Colleges, Health, RepJ Project, RepJ Stories | Comments (4)

CAC hoping hot meal program numbers level off

October 18, 2008 – 6:05 am

A free meal program called Thursday’s Table is attracting high numbers of guests as the economy worsens. There is plenty to go around now, but Northfield Community Action Center administrators are wondering what might happen if many more poeple begin to show up.

Click play to listen. Two minutes. Or download the MP3. Also see [...]

By Bonnie Obremski | Also posted in RepJ Stories | Tagged | Comments (2)

Candidates’ Forum Yesterday at the UCC

October 13, 2008 – 6:43 am

The Northfield East Side Neighborhood Association organized a candidates’ forum which was held yesterday afternoon. I attended for part of the forum but was unable to stay for the entire event.
Participants (listed in the order they appear in the photo, left to right) were mayoral candidates Paul Hager and Mary Rossing; 2nd Ward candidates [...]

By Tracy Davis | Also posted in Elections, Politics | Comments (23)

Student-Teacher Ratio in Northfield - Someone’s Numbers are Off

October 7, 2008 – 10:19 am

Bert Sperling has been generating “best places” lists for some time now. His lists are deemed more accurate and credible than many, owing to the proprietary algorithms he uses in calculating a number of weighted factors. Sperling is co-author of the book Cities Ranked and Rated, and regularly produces lists for Money magazine, USA [...]

By Tracy Davis | Also posted in K-12 Education | Comments (4)

Rediscovering the Human Scale

October 6, 2008 – 5:20 pm

I have no confidence whatsoever that this won’t be polarized into a partisan issue, but it certainly shouldn’t be.

By Tracy Davis | Also posted in Transportation & Streets | Comments (11)