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.)
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?
City workers installed another wayfinding sign last week, this one at 5th and Water. See some of our other wayfinding and streetscape-related blog posts.
In this week’s episode of Locally Grown radio show, we opine ad nauseum about last week’s contentious Council meeting.
But we segued nicely to the downtown streetscape planning process and finished with a flourish about industrial land development.
Unlike last week’s R rating, this week’s show is PG-13, with Tracy providing a colorful adjective and verb. Ross, by contrast, was amazingly restrained, at one point saying, “That’s a bunch of… of… balderdash!” when he clearly wanted to say ‘bullshit.’
No one can deny Griff’s rapidly developing photographic skills. Just think, some day when his name is mentioned in the same breath as Brady, Capa and Lange, you’ll be able to say “I knew him when…”.
Many of Griff’s images are of the civic “art” known as Streetscape. His photos have included the Library Plaza, the Riverwalk Arches, and the Parking Lot Screening. All of these pieces are part of a larger scale and longer term effort to visually enhance our town’s infrastructure.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, November 6th, there are two opportunities to hear about future plans and projects and give the City of Northfield feedback. From 8:00 am to 9:15 am the NDDC’s Monthly Forum, in the Riverview Conference Room of the Archer House, will focus on this topic and then from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm there will be a Neighborhood Meeting in the Council Chambers of City Hall on the same subject.
Hear the details about and talk to the people guiding this work. It’s a great opportunity to help shape your community.
The new streetscape project at 3rd St. and Hwy 3 was mostly completed last Saturday. I took photos of Architect Spencer Jones there with a crew from Grove Landscaping as they finished up. All that’s left is the installation of a wayfinding sign.
Plates have been added to the two downtown archways that were installed two weeks ago. Click thumbs to enlarge. Left: Second Street Bridge, 1886-1973 Center: Fifth Street Bridge, 1886-1963 Right: West Side Streetscape improvements to intersection at 3rd and Hwy. 3 at Water St. According to Suzy Rook’s article in the Nfld News:
An enhancement to the northeast corner of Highway 3 and Third Street – deemed one of the city’s gateways – will include signage, a stone wall with iron railings and various plantings. The railing, also designed by [Spencer] Jones, will again reflect the bridge design.
I’ve turned off comments for this post. Discussion continues here.
At today’s downtown forum on downtown retail strategies, Randy Jennings and Elin Odegaard from Neuger Communications Group took the crowd through this Powerpoint presentation on the preliminary designs for a wayfinding sign program for the downtown historic district. (Click photo to enlarge.)
Click forward and backward through the 21 slides.
Click play to listen to this 11 minute audio of the presentation while you flip through the Powerpoint slides. You can also download/view the PDF of the presentation.
It’s not going to be a democratic process for deciding on the theme but I’m interested in people’s reaction to the three proposed on Slide #20.
[poll=5]
Randy emailed me additional details:
At the joint NDDC/Chamber of Commerce forum this morning (February 6), Neuger Communications Group presented the preliminary designs for a wayfinding sign program for the downtown historic district. This design project was commissioned by city staff as part of the larger streetscape planning initiative.
From October through early December we conducted an informal series of meetings and conversations with a variety of constituent groups interested in the vitality and identity of downtown. Informed by these conversations, we have prepared a set of designs that capture three distinct community identities: historic Northfield, classic Northfield, and contemporary Northfield.
To view a pdf of the PowerPoint presentation that provides a very brief summary of the project, background materials on several aspects of community identity, and the three preliminary designs, click here.
Over the next several weeks we will be meeting with a variety of groups (the Mayor’s Streetscape Task Force, the Heritage Preservation Commission, and others) to gather responses to the designs. There will be at least one, and probably two open public forums to solicit community responses. The dates and locations of the public forums have not yet been determined.
Toward the middle to the end of March, we will consult with city staff and will select one design treatment to present to the city council for action.
Howard Merriam, Director of Resource Planning for the City of Northfield, was the guest for Friday’s Locally Grown show (May 19), discussing plans for the downtown Streetscape & Way-Finding Plan (bike racks up first) and the ArtsPlan06 project. (L to R: Howard Merriam, Morgan Weiland, Ross Currier, Tracy Davis.)
Click the play button to listen (30 minutes), or download the MP3 File, or subscribe to the feed, or subscribe with iTunes. Join the ISSUES discussion list to continue the conversation on these and other issues. Attach a comment to give us feedback. See the Locally Grown page for previous episodes and more on the show.
kiffi summa: Our mothers consider the ‘bunched panties’ remark too squalid to pass either their sainted lips, or those of their darling daughters… and seriously doubt whether it was said during your father’s time!
Jane Moline: Griff: you really didn’t know my mother and how do you even know if I wear panties?
Griff Wigley: Jane/Kiffi, I did some family of origin research and it turns out your mothers actually said “A stitch in time saves nine” and “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” about 3-4 times more often than...
kiffi summa: Jane: Both our Mom’s were smart, and they knew about the problems with “borrowing trouble” i.e don’t stir up problems that are non existent; there’s enough current problems to deal with, and even some of...
Jane Moline: I can’t believe I have to bring up my mother’s advice: DON’T GO BORROWING TROUBLE! If some women want to join the fire department in Northfield, we must be afraid that our fire department MIGHT respond like North...
Vicki Dilley: How many lives can we even begin to count that have touched by the Youth Exchange program? Northfield has been involved in Youth Exchange since 1969 when we hosted our first student…since then 100′s of High School...
Tom Durkin: This event supports one of the crown jewels of the Northfield Rotary Club – the Youth Exchange Program. Northfield can be proud that we send out more than fifteen students annually for year abroad study programs. We also host several...
john george: Kathie- I knew I was sticking my neck out on that one!
Kathie Galotti: Geez John. Don’t get Griff restarted on the geese!
john george: Yes, more beaches would certainly accomodate more geese. We have to remember to be waterfowl friendly.
Susan Hvistendahl: I totally agree with you re the need for more beaches in Northfield, having just returned from a week in Puerto Vallarta. Could have had rum punches there but….well, after we visited a local tequila distillery and got to...
Bright Spencer: Oh, you both look so happy! Thanks for sharing. More pics please!
kiffi summa: Griff: whither goest thy right arm if it starts to “whither” (sic) ? sorry; couldn’t resist… stuck at home with a bad knee provides way too much time on computer!
Bright Spencer: i’ve been looking thru a site, crazyguyonabike.com that has lots of journals and photos from around the world.
jane fenton: Congrats, Griff! That’s my son Cliff in the orange hat. He’s revamped the recycling bin prototype. You should see it!
Griff Wigley: Don, I’ll keep ping pong in mind. I’d hate to have my right arm start to whither from a lack of racquetball. In the meantime, I’m trying to excite as many Northfielders as I can about mountain biking. I’ll...
john george: Griff- Iris will have to work real hard to keep you in focus on everything else. I shutter to think where this could go.
Griff Wigley: Name: The Local Joint Description: A handmade and vintage collective in Northfield, MN. COLLECTING.CREATING.COLLABORAT ING. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheLoc alJoint Nfld News: Store to open in former ‘digs’ space
David Beimers: Hmmm… fans? air conditioners? ice cream?
Jessica Paxton: I know. But I don’t wanna spill the (cool) beans!
Megan Tsui: Edward, Sorry you weren’t able to attend. We’ll be posting notes from the meeting on the NEC website and if you send me your email, I’ll make sure you get a copy! If you (or anyone else!) would like to chat about it...
Edward Smith: I wanted to attend this, but was unable. Does anyone know if there will be a summary posted anywhere?
Kathie Galotti: My kid had a pretty decent AP Environmental Science class 2 years ago….he’s not a great math/science student, but this one got him interested in at least knowing enough science to create good policies. I remember...
Paul Zorn: A few years ago one of my daughters spent a year working in Copenhagen, largely in an office setting. All desks in her office could be raised or lowered to permit either standing or sitting positions. I have no idea whether such...
Griff Wigley: In today’s Strib: Office-dwellers stand up to ‘sitting disease’ Dr. James Levine has reviewed the statistics: One in three Minnesota adults is either diabetic or pre-diabetic, and one in four is obese. And he thinks...
Bright Spencer: The All Pro Game last Sunday between the AFC and the NFC was so enjoyable. The stess, the anger, the anxiety all gone…well I didn’t watch all of it, as I rarely do watch an entire game, usually just the beginning and...
Griff Wigley: Today’s Strib: Hockey safety goal expanded to youth In an unprecedented mid-year change, Minnesota Hockey is toughening the penalties for checking from behind and boarding. The change will affect 40,000 hockey players in the...
Bright Spencer: I like hockey and all sports very much. I was a star basketball player in my day. I don’t remember anyone suffering any major injuries in all my hs and college days. I feel certain that coach’s know who does what and...
john george: You are correct. That is why I didn’t allow my children to attack the character of their siblings just to support their position. There do need to be some kind of ground rules in any discussion so as to keep individual...
kiffi summa: The issue could be considered to be: what is “conflict”, and what are two sides of a discussion… see #33 re: the Mayor’s admonition to Peter Dahlen at the joint Council/ChartComm meeting. I don’t see how...
john george: Kiffi- This is a good article, and I agree with most of it. Just thinking about my kids in their youth, there was always some conflict between them, but our goal as parents wasn’t to force them into some weiner form but to help...
kiffi summa: A very interesting article in the Jan.30th New Yorker magazine on the nature of the dynamics of creative discussion; it’s entitled “Groupthink; the brainstorming myth”. Based on studies done by a psych professor at...
Griff Wigley: Kiffi/Kathie, I didn’t have that reaction. But I’ve put up a new blog post to discuss it and everything else related to the Fire Department so let’s shift the discussion there.
Kathie Galotti: I read Betsey’s blog and, like most of Betsey’s blog entries, found it well-written and making a very good point. Though I agree that geographic districts aren’t the only way to represent different constituencies,...
john george: Griff- The NN editorial presents the difference between geographic representation and ideological representation. Right now, the wards establish geographic representation. With this approach, depending upon the voter turnout, a person...
kiffi summa: I hope that people will use the link here on LG to read the current posting by Councilor Buckheit on her blog, re: wards versus all at-large, and take the opportunity to comment. Once again, the NFNews has not given a very well...
Griff Wigley: Nfld News editorial: Keep the current ward system intact
Sean Hayford Oleary: In any case, this issue doesn’t seem like it needs to be another opportunity to dis/agree with the current council. Regardless of how focused on the downtown (or not) they are, it’s clear this change would not...
Griff Wigley: In today’s NY Times: Turning to Kettlebells to Ease Back Pain Kettlebells, cast-iron weights that have been used for centuries to train Russian soldiers and athletes, appear to be a promising therapy for back and neck pain, new...
Sandy Vesledahl: UPDATE ON RHONDA: We are very happy to report that Rhonda was adopted over the weekend by a local family. Rhonda’s new mom is a Family Counselor and Rhonda will be going to her office with her and helping with her clients. So...
Megan Tsui: Griff, The NEC is moving forward with the idea of a non-profit Coworking Incubator/Accelerator space. Megan
Megan Tsui: What do you think? Come to the Community Dialogue and tell us! January 31st from 2 to 4 pm at the Archer House lower level conference room. Share your ideas, thoughts, and dreams about a Coworking Incubator/Accelerator space in...
kiffi summa: I would hope the City’s Historic Preservation Commission would explore this option, and the appropriateness/allowability for use on properties within the Historic District. Thanks, Jim.
Jim Haas: I was reading a story by Porter Fox about his visit to Copenhagen. He mentioned in passing that the city is vigilant about removing graffiti using high-pressure washers with ice crystals as a mild abrasive. I did a little rudimentary...
kiffi summa: The LWV observer reports are meant to be a summary of actions taken, not a ‘blow by blow’ transcript. This is the reason that anyone deeply interested should watch the meeting for themself, if they want a full...
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.)
Comments are closed 
Current Discussion Threads