Archer House renovations are complete, including the ADA-compliant restroom facilities that are available to the public daily from 6:00 AM to 12:30 AM.
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.
A year ago, the first Wayfinding sign appeared on 4th St. between Division and Washington. Then it disappeared for a while, coming back in early October.
Left: Now it’s moved to the intersection of 4th and Division on Bridge Square, next to Community Resource Bank’s downtown location. Where will it be next?
Right: there’s a new Wayfinding sign at 3rd and Division.
The City installed another downtown streetscape Wayfinding this week, this new one at the SW corner of Division and 2nd. (See this Oct. blog post about the first and this Sept blog post about the streetscape arches.)
Thanks to NHS head honcho Hayes Scriven for the alert. I’m assuming Hayes is happy about this sign, as the NHS is featured on both sides. I see they’re a provider of tourist info and toilet facilities, too.
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.
Once again, another week goes by and I’m not sure where it went. I attended or participated in several meetings of various City and civic orgs this week, and I thought some of you would find this information both interesting and helpful.
On Tuesday, the NDDC had a meeting of the Retail Strategies group at the Grand, where they presented an overview of their Work Plan. The first slide presented the list of opportunities identified in the EDA’s Economic Development Plan, some of which are clearly within the purview of the NDDC’s:
Retail Support Strategies
Summary 1 – Economic Development Plan
Opportunity 1: Diversifying the Economic Base
1a: Land for Business Expansion 1b: Concentrate on Needs of Existing Businesses
1c: Implement a Targeted Recruitment Strategy
1d: Raise Awareness of Northfield within the Region
1e: Explore Options for Leveraging Existing Fiber Networks
Opportunity 2: Maintaining Northfield’s Quality of Place 2a: Maintain and Enhance the Existing Downtown
2b: Develop Coordinated Retail Strategy
2c: Redefine Northfield’s Relationship to its Neighbors
Opportunity 3: Attracting and Retaining Talent
3a: Increase Connections with Current and Former Students
3b: Continue to Engage the Leadership of the Colleges in Economic Development
3c: Increase the range of Housing Options 3d: Create Entrepreneurial and Innovative Start-Up Opportunities
3e: Take Steps to Integrate City’s Growing Latino Population
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.
Peter Seebach (Seebs): John, someone forwarded me a thing which helps explain why I do not believe the current situation provides adequate legal protections: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =ah4ke16g1DI Watch that, and then tell me with a straight...
Peter Seebach (Seebs): California in general has very high rates of “drug use”. And frankly, there is no place in the US that can be meaningfully called “very accepting” to gays. More accepting than others, sure. Why, I...
David Henson: Peter, you have the Internet you do the research. Use San Francisco as a baseline (an accepting place) – gays there have very high rates of depression and drug use.
Peter Seebach (Seebs): Those are fascinating beliefs, but conveniently for us, the research has already been done, and they’re wrong. Legalizing gay marriage has no effect on the observed incidence of homosexuality, and the concept of...
David Henson: John, I understand sexuality to be a continuum and not a hard and discrete fact. I earnestly believe that if gay marriage is approved many more people will experiment with gay sex and some numbers will get AIDS (and depression and...
Griff Wigley: Good turnout last night for the Cannon Valley Mountain Bike Team meeting at the high school. I’ve blogged a summary with the ppt presentations.
Griff Wigley: Jordan Osterman, the new Sports Editor for the Northfield News, scooped me on Saturday. I’m glad! Northfield high school mountain bike team forming As a club sport, mountain biking would have no official affiliation with either...
Griff Wigley: Good suggestion, Curt. I’ll do that for next week’s blurb. I have been verbally emphasizing the importance of having girls on the team, especially since their points on race days count more than boys’ points. Other...
Curt Benson: Hey Griff, I wonder if you shouldn’t put a bit more emphasis on the idea that you’re recruiting both boys and girls for this team. And that the scores for both the boys and girls make up a team score. I think that in the...
Griff Wigley: It should be noted that this team does not yet exist! So this meeting is for those student-athletes (and their parents) who might be interested in joining this new team.
Griff Wigley: Suzy Rook has a sidebar to today’s Nfld News update on last night’s Council meeting. Excerpt: The city administrator and finance director say they have asked for the information on several occasions, including last month...
john george: Living where we do, it is only a few blocks walk to North Street and a grand view of the sunsets. Also, with our neighbors’ mature white pines & spruce, our covered deck affords outdoor enjoyment with a fair amount of...
Griff Wigley: Props to the newspaper and Suzy Rook for mentioning LoGro twice in the story: Fire Department officials, including Fire Chief Gerry Franek, did not respond to several requests from the News for association financial records or...
Griff Wigley: Posted to Northfield News at 1pm: Ethical questions arise over Northfield Fire Relief Association expenses Donations made to Northfield Fire Relief Association aren’t public dollars, but that hasn’t extinguished city...
Griff Wigley: Curt/Robert, There’s a summary of the Rescue Squad on Page 21 of the 2009 NFD report to the City. It doesn’t mention that there’s a Rescue Squad Association. The last paragraph states: The Northfield Rescue Squad is...
Robert Palmquist: If Hvistendahl’s motivation was to keep the financials from getting known, his submitting a memo like that just really backfired. I agree, why would these financials be such a secret??? And why did the NRSA hire a lawyer to...
Curt Benson: So Hvistendahl has found another place to wet his beak. You ask a good question, “Why is it important that the City not know the Northfield Rescue Squad Association financials?”
Jim Haas: Happens to me a lot. So much that my lovely wife had to coin a term for it: she says I have datelexia.
norman butler: Since coming to my adopted country 16 years ago I have observed, amongst other things, that not putting the day with the date is both common and peculiar to Northfield (MN? USA?).
John Thomas: Just a reminder, advance tickets for Girls Night Out 2012 can be purchased on The Grand’s website at http://www.thegrandnorthfield. com/public-events. Your tickets will then be available at a special “Will Call” at...
Liz Reppe: This is a great place to buy plants! Jeni is very knowledgeable and they are both really helpful. You get great service and plant expertise, but the prices are not higher than other places in town.
bill metz: While most of how Jake is being remembered revolves around, and rightly so, his great and wonderful talent as an artist and teacher and the works of sculpture he has left for our and the next generations enjoyment, I have had the...
Ross Currier: It was an honor for me and the NDDC to work with Jake. His pieces of sculpture in our community send a powerful visual message that Northfield is an Art Town. I still marvel at his clever and creative approach to building social and...
paul krause: The memorial service will be held at 11am. Doors to the Chapel will open at 10am for a chance to visit with family members and friends to share memories of our dear friend. Anyone who would like to view the documentary Harvest (which...
kiffi summa: Come on, Griff… you say you’re “more than a little clueless about about investments” but you “just happened to notice”… and from what you said, were reading analytically, etc etc… Once...
Griff Wigley: I’m more than a little clueless about investments but I noticed on page 14 in the April 24 Council packet that the Fire Relief Association has 85% of its pension portfolio in stocks. Isn’t that a bit risky/aggressive for...
Griff Wigley: Has there been any media reporting on the intergovernmental meeting in Bridgewater Township that was held on April 25 re: the Rural Fire Protection District and the City of Northfield?
Jim Mangan: I noticed this morning that a few of the newly planted trees along South Highway 3 have a pronounced lean. Could it be storm damage?
Ross Currier: It’s great that someone is enhancing the connection between downtown and uptown. I know they coordinated their work with MNDoT, City staff, and the Streetscape Task Force. Uh, raise your trowels in a toast to the Northfield...
Vicki Serreno: I wish I’d known – this is my neighborhood since I left Northfield in 2010. I’d have shown up to support them.
Kathie Galotti: My neighbor and sometimes babysitter Maggie Kennedy appears in this video as well! Go Maggie, and Cliff and Sophie and Parker and everyone else! Well done, guys!
Peter Seebach (Seebs): Heh, we had those when I was in college. Guess we’re making progress, they’re starting years earlier now!
Sandy Vesledahl: Thanks for blogging our garage sale Griff! We are at 2018 Jefferson Rd, Suite 1, thanks to the Jasnoch Family for allowing us to use the space. We will be there until 5:00 today and again from 8-2 on Saturday. We’ve had a...
Bright Spencer: I have an 8 year old dog that has not been neutered, has not reproduced and never been out unleashed except in our yard. It costs nothing to care for your pet properly.
Bright Spencer: To see this makes me so happy! Best of luck to you!
Peter Seebach (Seebs): For what it’s worth, I’m pretty happy with the whole process so far, although we found exciting new things out about the land development code, such as “the rules for calculating how tall a building is for...
Peter Seebach (Seebs): Not a hot tub, a swimming pool. One of those backyard pools you can get at k-mart, and the greenhouse is so we can use it a couple months earlier in spring and later in fall.
Arlen Malecha: I wish more establishments had outdoor seating & dining. Now that our offices (Coldwell Banker South Metro www.CBSouthMetro.com are downtown, I love to see people sitting and dining outside. It is fun to walk up and down...
Sean Hayford O'Leary: I would say the current configuration of Division Street makes me grateful not everyone is doing it. Sidewalk dining brings a lot of livelihood to the street — but I’ll admit that I’ve been occasionally...
Griff Wigley: Rebecca, there are several Northfield eating and drinking establishments that have outdoor dining with tables and chairs, serving alcohol, but not SIDEWALK dining. Downtown ones that come to mind: The Tavern, Chapati, The Cow, Froggy...
Rebecca Bliss: Timely post, Griff -I didn’t realize this. I was just commenting to my husband about how nice it would be to dine al fresco now that the weather is getting warmer. Guess this is another discovery for the new...
Patty Gallivan: MOST Northfield volunteers are waiting for someone who DARES boost a program with evidence of effectiveness to come forward with leadership to actually make a difference with students in our Northfield schools. Make sure to let us...
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