Category: <span>Featured</span>

Published March 19, 2009 by

Public leadership, transparency and the world of social media

levy-articlePaul Levy “They all get the idea that if we’re transparent about what we’re bad at as well as what we’re good at, we’ll get better.”  That’s a quote by Paul Levy, President and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, speaking about his staff. Levy maintains a leadership blog called Running a hospital where he regularly shares “thoughts about hospitals, medicine, and health care issues.” You can also follow Levy on Twitter.

I’ve been thinking about Northfield area public leadership, transparency, and social media tools this week for four reasons. (continued)

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citizen engagement leadership Paul Levy Social media transparency

Published March 19, 2009 by

Podcast: Dean Kjerland on Northfield’s new Riverwalk Arts Quarter

Dean Kjerland, Griff Wigley, Ross CurrierRiverwalk Arts Quarter mapOur podcast/radio show guest yesterday: ArtOnWater’s Dean Kjerland, discussing the latest developments with the Riverwalk Arts Quarter which was funded last fall by the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF). Dean blogged about the Riverwalk Arts Quarter on Northfield.org last September. Update 3/20: The Riverwalk Arts Quarter website is now up, and there is a Riverwalk Arts Quarter Facebook group, too.


Click play to listen. 30 minutes. You can also download the MP3 or subscribe to the podcast feed, or subscribe directly with iTunes.

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Dean Kjerland Riverwalk Arts Quarter SMIF Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation

Published March 18, 2009 by

Lessons for Northfield from Roseto, Pennsylvania

Outliers The first chapter (free on NY Times) of Malcolm Gladwell’s latest best-selling book, Outliers, details the 1950’s medical mystery of Roseto, Pennsylvania. Why such a low incidence of heart disease, suicide, alcoholism, drug addiction, and crime?  Researchers ruled out diet, exercise, genetics, and environmental conditions… and eventually declared that it was the town itself that was responsible. The hard and soft social capital of the Italian community  was what made the difference.

A blogger in Lowell, MA details this wonderfully in a blog post titled:  Malcolm Gladwell, Social Capital, the ‘Roseto Effect,’ and Lowell.

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Cultural issues Featured Reflection

outliers social capital

Published March 13, 2009 by

Ron Griffith, R.I.P.

ron-griffith-loves-downtown-northfieldWord came yesterday that Ron Griffith, former Planning Commission member and co-founder of Just Food Co-op, died peacefully at home in the company of his family. Ron had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year. A memorial service is planned for Saturday, March 28; the details will be determined later. Ron’s family is requesting that people donate to the Ron Griffith Young Leaders Fund (blogged here earlier) in lieu of flowers.

Councillor Betsey Buckheit paid tribute to Ron on her blog, and the notice in the Northfield News provides some brief biographical information about this wonderful man, whom I felt very fortunate to know. (continued)

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City Civic Orgs Featured People Podcasts

Published March 12, 2009 by

Podcast: Prairie Creek Community School director Caroline Jones on Charter schools

Ross Currier, Tracy Davis, Caroline Jones Prairie Creek Community School construction Our guest this week was Caroline Jones, Director of Prairie Creek Community School (PCCS), discussing the school’s 25th anniversary, an update on its expansion/construction, and Charter school-related bills moving through the legislature.


Click play to listen. 30 minutes. You can also download the MP3 or subscribe to the podcast feed, or subscribe directly with iTunes. (continue for more PCCS construction photos)

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Caroline Jones Charter schools Prairie Creek Community School

Published March 7, 2009 by

Whither the humanities in an economic downturn?

humanitiesAs a philosophy major (C- GPA!), I found this Feb. NY Times article to be interesting: In Tough Times, the Humanities Must Justify Their Worth.

I think my BA helped prepare me for life in some significant ways. OTOH, I think my alma mater, St. Thomas, failed to make explicit how, both when it came to a career and my life as a citizen. It wasn’t until I read What Color is Your Parachute? in 1972 that I came to understand that I was well-equipped to create meaningful and satisfying jobs and careers for myself throughout my life. And it wasn’t until I went to work for Utne Reader in 1990 that I realized I was well-equipped to contribute as a citizen. (continued)

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Colleges Featured

humanities

Published March 6, 2009 by

It’s enrollment lottery time for Northfield area Charter Schools; Legislative threats loom

charter-sshot Caroline Jones, Director of Prairie Creek Community School, will be our podcast guest next Wed. PCCS is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year (a K-6 Charter school since 2002).  Their enrollment lottery is March 16. The Northfield School of Arts and Technology (ARTech) is a 6-12 Charter School that opened in 2003. Their lottery is April 6. Both PCCS and ARTech are sponsored by the Northfield School District. A new K-8 Charter, the Cannon River STEM School (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) opens this fall, sponsored by the Audubon Center of the North Woods. It holds its enrollment lottery on March 14. While all seems healthy for local Charters, there are some ominous changes being considered by the Legislature. (continued)

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ARTech Cannon River STEM School Charter schools Northfield School of Arts and Technology PCCS Prairie Creek Community School

Published March 5, 2009 by

Promoting Local Business AND Building Our Community

TasteOfNorthfield_WigleyPhoto.JPGReflecting back on “Retail and Business Promotions that Really Work” on my plane flight back from Chicago, I was suddenly struck by a thought. It seems that the line between promoting local businesses and building our community is beginning to disappear.

The presenter, Kathy LaPlante of the Main Street Center, quickly moved through 100 examples of business promotions from communities all around the United States. They ranged from “Earlier than the Bird” in Livermore, California, through “Let’s Wine about Winter” in Libertyville, Illinois, to “Shop Your Ath Off” in Athens, Georgia. The creativity generated by all of these grass roots efforts was quite impressive. (continued)

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Businesses Featured

Published March 5, 2009 by

Podcast: The Triumvirate on Main Street 2.0

The LG Triumvirate It was just us co-hosts yesterday, primarily doing a post-mortem on Ross’ trip to Chicago for the National Mainstreets Conference with its 2009 technology-related theme, Becoming Main Street 2.0. (And what is Web 2.0? ) See the live-blogging organizers did during the conference. Ross has posted to his NDDC blog about the conference here, here, and here and on LG here and here.


Click play to listen. 30 minutes. You can also download the MP3 or subscribe to the podcast feed, or subscribe directly with iTunes.

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Mainstreet 2.0 NDDC