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.
kiffi summa: Grff: your third paragraph above does not make a succinct argument, MO, in that Kris Vohs was expressing such feelings of being at odds with his council/city role (except for the fine work of the HRA), that he ultimately resigned,...
kiffi summa: Griff: I was dong the LWV observing at the Council meeting you reference above; I do not recall hearing , or seeing in the packet materials, this vote by the firefighters that you reference. I, of course, could be wrong and/or just...
kiffi summa: Griff: regardless of Mr. Madigan’s explanation, the ISO rating is awarded by the insurance company, and yes… it takes into account several factors i.e. response time etc.; however the ISO rating NF residents enjoy does not...
Griff Wigley: Kathie, What are the FFs’ issues that have not been heard? They all had a chance to talk individually to Soldo and long before that, several spoke against the reorganization plan to the Council. They’ve been listened to,...
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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!
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Griff Wigley: Nfld News editorial: Keep the current ward system intact
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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...
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