Yesterday the EDA/City Fiberoptic Task Force met to plan their application for a technology grant from the Blandin Foundation. At the last City Council meeting, the council OK'd matching funds if the City is awarded the grant. The grant's purpose is to fund feasibility studies for deploying open networks (defined as those which "enable [...]
Kiplinger personal finance magazine recently came out with an article on “The Best Cities for Every Stage of Your Life”.
These stages were defined as Singles (25-29); Mid-Professionals (married, no kids, or single, 30-44); Families (married, with kids, through 64); Empty-Nesters (married, no kids or single, 45-64); and Retirees (65 and above). Cost-of-living factors were weighted [...]
Our guest this week was Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, Executive Director of the new Latino Enterprise Center (LEC).
Regi talked with us about the Center’s mission to help Northfield “capitalize on the larger economic opportunity created through the growth in the local Latino population.” He also discussed plans for a Latino Civic Engagement Center.
Click play to listen. 30 [...]
February 5, 2007 – 8:08 pm
Our Locally Grown podcast guests this week included (center) Ward 2 City Councilor Scott Davis and (right) Erin Mayberry, Recreation Coordinator for the Community Services Division at the Northfield Public Schools. Click photo to enlarge.
We first talked with Erin and Scott about Saturday’s Northfield Community Volunteer Festival in the Northfield High School lower cafeteria . [...]
February 3, 2007 – 12:40 pm
We’ve started inviting a variety of community leaders to submit commentary pieces here on Locally Grown. The first to respond is former Dundas mayor Glenn Switzer, co-owner of Switzer’s Nursery and Landscaping.
He sent us this audio commentary, touching on the Dundas Business and Professional Group, the County State Aid Highway 1 (CSAH 1) Corridor [...]
January 29, 2007 – 9:50 pm
The discussion is continuing in the Downtown retail: struggling, thriving, searching message thread (now up to 86 comments as of tonight).
And with more downtown-related discussion on tap at next week’s NDDC downtown forum, the three of us tried to make sense of it all today.
We failed miserably, and got a little grouchy.
Click the photo to [...]
January 10, 2007 – 12:05 am
California rail transit agency Caltrain wants to replace its diesel locomotives with efficient Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) rail cars, whose benefits include faster speeds, lower fuel costs, and lower maintenance, as well as less wear and tear on the train tracks. However, due largely to their lighter weight, EMU trains are not compliant with [...]
January 1, 2007 – 9:36 pm
Here’s the 3rd part of our series of podcasts related to our interview with Dave Fellon, president of Progressive Rail.
(Part 1 is blogged here; Part 2 is here.)
The three of us did this ‘post-mortem’ last Friday in Tracy’s office. (The photo is an oldie.)
Click play to listen (28:25 minutes). Segments: 0-5:15: commuter rail; 5:15-11:00; freight [...]
December 15, 2006 – 8:26 am
At yesterday’s Northfield Rotary lunch, member Doug Jones (left) presented a history of rail in Rice County and economic development arguments for its continuing expansion. In attendance was the president of Progressive Rail in Lakeville, Dave Fellon. (Click to enlarge.)
See this previous blog post and comments on how I got to know Dave last week.
Tracy [...]
November 12, 2006 – 10:53 am
Collegeville Communities President Colleen Hollinger Petters was such a good sport about my faux news piece that I decided to do her a favor. A couple weeks ago, I blogged the new view of downtown Northfield from the condo that Robbie and I are buying on the north edge of downtown.
That’s not the only ‘new view’ [...]
October 25, 2006 – 6:19 am
The Northfield CQE held a Vote Yes! wine-tasting event last night at the James Gang Hideaway in support of the proposed operating levy and capital projects referenda on Nov. 7. Left photo (click to enlarge): Anne Maple and Julie Pritchard speaking to the crowd; right: HideAway owners Joan and Jim Spaulding. (Full disclosure: I [...]
October 24, 2006 – 11:31 am
On last week’s Locally Grown show, Tracy and I discussed transportation, particularly east-west vehicular connections and its relationship to an upcoming Rice County corridor study. I had mentioned a list of community priorities, summarized below, and several people have asked me about the source. It’s basically my summary from Chapter 8 of the Comprehensive Plan.
To [...]
October 18, 2006 – 5:51 am
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council to encourage “green building†by establishing common standards of measurement, promoting best practices, recognizing leadership in the building industry, raising consumer awareness, and ultimately to transform the building market.
One of the things the Northfield Planning Commission [...]
October 17, 2006 – 9:34 am
On Saturday, my wife Robbie and I got a tour of Northfield Crossing on the northwest edge of downtown Northfield since we’re buying a condo there. Click photos to enlarge and see more photos of our tour in this album.
October 15, 2006 – 9:18 am
Oh, the barbs and arrows that I suffer…
Although I told Griff that I was going to be out of town for the most recent podcast, he forgot that small detail and joined Tracy in slandering my good name, adding insipid music to the show, and, perhaps most offensive of all, putting a red “x” through [...]
Locally Grown has been chosen to test an innovative project called Representative Journalism (RepJ). Bonnie Obremski is the RepJ reporter/journalist currently assigned to Northfield.
RepJ stories by Bonnie Obremski