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By Griff Wigley, on October 20, 2009, 6:58 am
I haven’t had the flu since I was a kid. I never get flu shots. I wasn’t planning on getting an H1N1 shot when it becomes available but after listening to yesterday’s Midmorning show on MPR, I find myself now considering it. Medical myths and H1N1. Are you going to get the shot or not?
Continue reading H1N1 vaccine myths
By Sean Hayford O'Leary, on October 18, 2009, 6:32 am
 As I’ve mentioned on Northfield Nonmotorized, Northfield is in the process of making full sidewalk coverage the standard. In the last few years, they’ve consistently added sidewalks during street reconstructions — many on both sides. All new roads within the last fifteen years (save for a few rogue culs de sac) have sidewalks. However, there are definitely some areas that are missing this essential piece of a safe roadway. Note that these roadways are not limited to city-maintained streets or the city limits. This is about Northfield-area problems, and I do note when an entity other than the City of Northfield is responsible. (continued) Continue reading Guest blogger Sean Hayford O’Leary: The Sidewalks That Weren’t — Northfield’s 10 worst
By Griff Wigley, on October 17, 2009, 7:54 am
By Griff Wigley, on October 13, 2009, 5:47 am
  My sweetie happened to walk by the KYMN studio window as we started recording this week’s show. Tracy waved her in and before I knew it, instead of discussing the politics of Northfield, we were discussing the politics of household chores, triggered by last week’s blog post on Deciphering the paradox of declining female happiness. This toilet-related Argyle Sweater cartoon by Scott Hilburn featured prominently in our discussion. Where were you when I needed you, Ross?
Click play to listen. 30 minutes.
Continue reading Podcast: who cleans the toilets at your home?
By Griff Wigley, on October 8, 2009, 9:17 am
  
Ross Currier sent out a Tweet yesterday morning that he was "Trying to arrange my schedule so I can attend a gathering of few motivated citizens to discuss the potential of the historic railroad depot." About the same time, I was chatting with Bob Will about it at GBM. Bob indicated that the Northfield Rotary Club was considering it as one of their long-term projects. (continued)
Continue reading Is Northfield’s train depot worth saving?
By Griff Wigley, on October 7, 2009, 7:25 am
 James McWilliams, author of the new book with the Northfield-oriented title Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly, has a guest post on the NY Times Freakonomics blog titled Do Farmers’ Markets Really Strengthen Local Communities? It got me thinking. And wondering whether his argument could be applied to locally owned retail stores. (continued)
Continue reading Northfield’s farmers’ market: are there really communal benefits to locally grown?
By Griff Wigley, on October 6, 2009, 9:15 am
 The August publication of a 2007 paper titled The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness by Justin Wolfers and Betsey Stevenson has created a bit of a media storm recently. Wolfers lists some of the coverage in his NY Times’ Freakonomics blog post: Happiness Trends Lead to Some Strange Places. Strib columnist Katherine Kersten wrote about it last weekend: Does greater equality mean less happiness? The authors, however, "…are still quite puzzled about just what lies behind [the paradox]". I’ve no clue but then I’ve not yet discussed it with Robbie or any other Northfield women. Here’s my chance.
By Griff Wigley, on October 6, 2009, 8:29 am
Our show took a ‘bye’ last week, using the Twins’ schedule and Tracy’s vacation as an excuse. We were back at it this week, though, meandering (intelligently, of course) from topic to topic (Victor! MTT! CIP! Open meeting laws!) without a guest to anchor us.
Click play to listen. 30 minutes.
Continue reading Podcast: the Triumvirate, back in the saddle, meandering
By Griff Wigley, on September 30, 2009, 8:52 am
By Griff Wigley, on September 29, 2009, 12:06 pm
 I wonder how Northfield’s public education leaders will react to President Obama’s $4.35 billion "Race to the Top" fund competition. So far, the NEA is not happy. Among other reasons, they really don’t like charter schools, a fact noted by the Sunday Washington Post editorial titled Charter Success: Poor children learn. Teachers unions are not pleased (reprinted in the Strib today with the watered-down title More proof that charter schools work). More background: (continued)
Continue reading Obama’s school proposals challenge the education establishment; what will Northfield do?
By Griff Wigley, on September 28, 2009, 2:58 pm
Update 9 pm: at 2:58 today, I posted the headline of the 1:48 PM Nfld News story titled: Summa admits poaching petition, won’t face jury with an excerpt of the first three sentences and the blog post title “Summa admits guilt; criminal charges dropped.” (continued) Continue reading Summa has a court appearance; what happened?
By Griff Wigley, on September 28, 2009, 6:37 am
We got this email from Victor Summa over the weekend. I’ve added the links and photos.
  Here’s a challenge for LG. It’s called using our history … retaining our meaning.
In the 9[26]09 N News there’s an article on the Palmer Fossum vintage tractor collection being auctioned. [see] the auctioneer’s E page on the collection. The Fossum farm is east of town on 100th street. (continued)
Continue reading Palmer Fossum’s vintage tractor collection: an economic development opportunity
By Griff Wigley, on September 26, 2009, 8:03 am
 Today’s Nfld News: Hospital Board meetings likely broke law. "Hospital officials likely broke open meeting laws by routinely closing meetings to the public to discuss executive departures from the city-owned enterprise…" In mid-August, Northfield Hospital‘s Bobbi Jenkins contacted me about posting a news release (see below) from the search committee "seeking input from the community regarding the most important qualities for candidates for the President/CEO position." (continued)
Continue reading Hospital CEO search lacks transparency
By Griff Wigley, on September 25, 2009, 8:56 am
 Ray Cox, Kathy Feltes, Julie Pritchard and Mitchell Sellner have applied for an open position on the Northfield School Board, recently vacated by Diane Cirksena. A subcommittee of the board has been interviewing the four reviewing the four’s applications and will make a recommendation at next Monday’s meeting. For more, see the Sept. 18 Nfld News story: Four apply for open school board spot. Who should the Board appoint and why?
By Griff Wigley, on September 24, 2009, 9:43 am
 Our radio show/podcast guest this week: David Ludescher, a partner at Grundhoefer & Ludescher and a member of the Mayor’s Streetscape Taskforce, talking about the the lack of a decision-making rubric for the expenditure of public dollars, particularly for capital improvement projects like downtown streetscape enhancements. (Comments on this post are disabled. Join the existing discussion attached to David’s guest blog post.)
Click play to listen. 30 minutes.
Continue reading Podcast: David Ludescher – Where’s the rubric?
By David Ludescher, on September 21, 2009, 9:05 am
I have been a member of the Mayor’s Streetscape Task Force  since it was formed by Mayor Lansing. Why Mayor Rossing was foolish enough to invite me to re-join and why I was foolish enough to accept are separate questions from my questions to the readers today. By way of background, the City of Northfield currently has $1,2000.00 of property taxes that are set aside. To assist the City Council in determining how to allocate these funds, a Streetscape Committee has been formed. (continued) Continue reading Guest blogger David Ludescher: Bike Paths, Parking Lots, and Skate Board Parks — Wise Uses of Public Money?
By Griff Wigley, on September 17, 2009, 12:05 pm
  Last spring, the Northfield City Council adopted a vision statement and four goals for 2009. (See pages 47-56 of the April 6 meeting packet.) Two documents (PDFs) are now available on the Council’s web page: 1) a one-page vision and goals statement; 2) an eight-page outline of the goals and related initiatives. This new Council has been in office for 9 months; it’s been 5 months since the goals were adopted. How are they doing? (continued)
Continue reading City Council goals for 2009: how are they doing?
By Griff Wigley, on September 16, 2009, 10:11 am
 There must be others like me whose eyes glaze over when a discussion of local property taxes and the budget comes up. So let’s try to make sense of Northfield’s property taxes, both residential and commercial, and their relationship to the 2010 budget.
Resources: (continued)
Continue reading Making sense of Northfield’s property taxes and the proposed budget
By Griff Wigley, on September 15, 2009, 7:51 am
 Our radio show/podcast guest this week: Amy Merritt, the new Executive Director of the Northfield Union of Youth, whose youth center is known as The Key. Former ED Josh Hinnencamp blogged about her hiring back in August.
Click play to listen. 30 minutes.
Continue reading Podcast: Amy Merritt, Executive Director of the Union of Youth
By Griff Wigley, on September 14, 2009, 9:31 am
 On Tuesday, Aug 11, I had a double red cell donation appointment at 1pm at the Northfield Ballroom. When I arrived, donors were told that some supplies had not yet arrived from St. Paul and that it would be a 45 minute delay. I had other things scheduled so I departed, irritated because they have my phone number and could have alerted me. But I’m more irritated now that no one has contacted me in the month since it happened.(continued)
Continue reading Red Cross mishandles a blood donation appointment
By Griff Wigley, on September 13, 2009, 8:01 am
 On the Agenda for Monday’s Council meeting (pages 18-20 of the packet) is Approve RFP for Prosecuting City Attorney Services. Evidently, the process for selecting civil legal services is proceeding with the four finalists but they’re starting over for criminal prosecutorial services. It’s not really clear why, other than the oblique statement: (continued)
Continue reading What’s up with the City Attorney selection process?
By Griff Wigley, on September 12, 2009, 6:58 am
 I got this email from Nancy Soth this week about Charter Cable:
Charter, to non-digitalized, non-bundled customers has taken off two important channels, while retaining most "trash television". These channels are: (continued)
Continue reading Charter Cable yanks two Basic channels. Can anything be done?
By Griff Wigley, on September 5, 2009, 8:33 am
 Today’s Northfield News has a story titled, Community Resource Bank move on hold. In July, the paper ran a story titled, Bank moving south on Division, and included a photo with the caption “The building at 618 Division St., pictured here in 2008 with co-owner Randy Lutz, will soon be the new home to the downtown Community Resource Bank.” A July 31 editorial stated “An opportunity arose this week in the form of Community Resource Bank deciding to relocate to the Phoenix Building at 618 Division St.” (continued)
Continue reading Northfield News mishandles the Community Resource Bank move story
By Griff Wigley, on September 4, 2009, 10:24 am
 I spoke with Northfield Supt. Chris Richardson this morning. He’ll have a statement on the District’s web site around noon, basically stating that the District is leaving it up to the classrooms teachers on whether or not to show President Obama’s speech to students live, recorded, or not at all. I think that’s the best approach, unlike the recommendation from Northfielder Charlie Kyte, executive director of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators, to show the speech later. I’m hoping teachers show it live, as events are always more compelling when they’re live. I still remember watching President Kennedy’s inaugural address live as an 8th grader. I suppose others remember President George H.W. Bush’s speech to students in 1991.
Continue reading Obama’s speech to students: show it live
By Griff Wigley, on September 4, 2009, 7:01 am
 I found these two commentaries in last Sunday’s StarTribune to be interesting and am hoping it can jumpstart another food fight like the one on the right. 1) Greg Breining: Does the local-food movement make a difference? Not really. “Local food has many joys, especially at this time of year, but saving energy and boosting the local economy are not among them.” 2) Steve Calvin: Does the local-food movement make a difference? It sure helps. “Buying locally grown food connects us to our roots. And since you’re putting it in your mouth, wouldn’t you like to know where it comes from?”
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