76th Street

This is an expansion to my original comment on Facebook. While Facebook can be a good place for quick short quips, the space unfortunately is not good for getting more complex thoughts out. Councilman Pat Elliot is right be to upset about my comment, and I do feel the need to clarify it.

“It isn’t age as much as lack of diversity in life experience. While many of those on the commissions and city council like to tote their life long connections and residencies to Richfield, that is actually a bad thing especially in today’s …world. Think about it. Would you hire someone for a position that required critical thinking when previously they worked at the same company for 30 years since they were 16 years old or would you want someone that has worked different companies and acquired trouble shooting skills while working at each of those companies?”

First off, having a life long connection to a neighborhood or community is not a bad thing. In fact I do believe that many issues today is due from the transient nature of our society and the inability to put down roots and to stand up for the community that you live in. However, when it comes to community politics, it always appears to be an over-played card.

Not having lived directly in Richfield while growing up, I certainly have orbited it by living in East Bloomington in my childhood and then in South Minneapolis in my teens. I also went to Holy Angels for High School and then settled here buying my Grandparents house they themselves bought back in 1947. I certainly would not trivialize my connection with Richfield in dealing with issues of the day.

However, my thoughts about the need for diversity in life experience in the political ranks come from two different live experiences of my own.

Example One: STAY vs SNO

In my spent much of my 20s and some of my 30s living in Northeast Minneapolis. This was not the hip and happening Northeast of today. This was the old East European, dying part of Minneapolis back in the 1980s. During that time, artists including myself were located their because of the cheap warehouse space after being kicked out of the warehouse district in Minneapolis by real estate speculators buying up the warehouses for “Loft Style Living” condos. The warehouses in Northeast were basically Superfund Sites so no real estate speculator was ever going to touch them.

This was the old Northeast Minneapolis that threatened the new owner of Mayslack’s Bar to stop poetry readings he was trying out to attract new customers  or they would have his liquior licence pulled. This was because it was drawing in patrons that were showing up dressed in black and sporting pink and purple hair . However, the titty bar, “24th Street Station” up the street was ok.

While I was there I followed the local politics and at one point I sought to get involved in the neighborhood and attended a neighborhood meeting of the local neighborhood council, “Sheridan Today and Yesterday” (STAY). It appeared the group was made up by older neighbors that obviously had lived in Northeast their whole lives. And they had a problem, they were very focused on crime and they were trying to figure out how to get young families to move into the neighborhood. However, it was apparent they “knew” what young couples wanted – The housing stock was too old – Northeast was too old. They need to complete with the suburbs so they needed to tear down old Northeast and replace it with new suburban housing with attached garages and split level designs like those in the sububs. The commitment to demolishing was evident in it’s allocation of 1/3 of its Neighborhood Revitalization Program funds for demolition projects. (1)

It was during the particular meeting I attended they were listening to a developer and architect talk about their proposal to turn the Grain Belt Brewery into a hotel and Marina. The problem was the plan literally turned the building’s back to the neighborhood and did everything but wall it off reminiscent of the Riverplace and St. Anthony Main developments several years earlier. Oddly enough,I also happen to know that lawsuits were filed against the architect’s previous building that was built in the uptown community. I brought up these these issues and mentioned that the building or at least the out buildings should have something to do with the neighborhood like say – a library or community center with the development reaching into the neighborhood. The architect explained that the lawsuits were against the contractor and the materials not the building design. Simple explanation.

After the meeting I was approached by one of the members of STAY and he proceeded to scold me for coming in as an outsider and try to through a wrench in the works. I did not bother returning to any more meetings after that.

Years later I come to find out (with no surprise) that Sheridan Today and Yesterday (STAY) group lost its Minneapolis Community Development Agency NRP participation contract to the Sheridan Neighborhood Organization after the STAY imploded (2) and SNO was recognised as the true representative of the neighborhood. And in this case it was a group made up of the talents old timers as well as and the talents of many young non-natives. The new arrivals also had different ideas and priorities that have breathed new life into the vitrified husk of old Northeast Minneapolis. They stopped the wholesale demolition of Northeast realizing its historic character was an asset not a liability. STAY also had an enormous amount of NRP money budgeted for crime prevention. While crime and safety are important in any neighborhood, Northeast had been a surprisingly stable lower crime area. The NRP money given to crime prevention was way out of proportion to the actual problem so the money was reduced. (3)

SNO dropped programs that STAY had developed in total, like The Cop on Every Block program allocated up to $50,000 per property to purchase and demolish a house. The lot would then be offered to a Minneapolis police officer. The officer would then finance the construction of a house on that lot.
Instead money was either increased or newly allocated to programs like the following: Community Health Program, Expanded Pierre Bottineau Library Support, Eastside Food Co-op, Bicycle programs, Business Exterior Improvement Loan Program. Their current phase two plan includes funding for the arts and parks.(4)

The result is with the new blood and creative thinking Northeast has been able to transform itself from a stagnating community pessimistic about its future to one of Minneapolis’ trendiest neighborhoods with enormous economic growth.

Example Two: Social Work

I worked for 6 years at St. Joseph’s Home for Children. One aspect that I have come to appreciate was how hard they worked and how progressive they were in their hiring practices. While they hired they usual college graduates in social work, they also would also hire people without college degrees but lots of life experience. This policy led to some amazing hires and very creative thinking. A staff who is American Indian and has had to deal with homelessness in his life is something can’t learn through a social work degree at the University of Minnesota or the University of St. Thomas and needless to say he had ways of connecting with the kids who usually were minorities  from economically underprivileged backgrounds that many of the other staff simply could not.

After leaving St. Joseph’s Home for Children I went to work for two similar organizations whose policy it seems was to hire only staff with college degrees in social work from either the University of Minnesota or the University of Saint Thomas. The result was of the organizations’ handling and care of the children was at best comical and at worse downright horrible treatment to the children. Not that the staff were not smart, capable, or well meaning or that social work programs at the University of Minnesota or the University of Saint Thomas are terrible programs (they are not) ; it’s just that they all read from the same playbook and shared similar life experiences of white middle to upper middle class kids growing up. All of them came up with the same solutions which the kids they worked with were already wise to. None of the staff could think outside the box for solutions in working with the kids.

Conclusion

So when I talk about “lack of diversity in life experience” I am also talking about how it leads to Group Think and a lack of creative problem solving. It’s not that the Richfield city council members and commissioners are not smart, well meaning, or even capable, but there is a need to diversify life experiences of the group by bringing in more people who have lived life outside of Richfield and outside of their life experience economically and culturally. And while political climate is not nearly as bad as Northeast Minneapolis, their are aspects of it that are eerily similar. Like Northeast, they have to stop looking for White Knights (Private Developers and State Government) to come in and save them. They need to creatively think of the solutions themselves. Like Northeast they have to stop assuming and start researching. Given where Richfield is in its development life cycle is it really realistic to focus on attracting “Young Families” when it would be more realistic and successful to focus on attracting young singles and couples? If Richfield does not have the skill set to attract this demographic (which it has demonstrated over and over it does not have) then maybe it should seek out professional advice.

I understand getting new comers to come out and participate is easier said than done. Sadly citizen participation is at an all time low. Not only does the economic situation prevent people from participating when both parents have to work, and often people have to work two jobs each in order to make ends meet, but in is increasing difficult to get people to turn out to meetings because, pathetically, they can’t be bothered to miss their TV programs like “Jersey Shore.”

1. http://www.mnpreservation.org/pdf/…/1999/PAM2_1999.Vol_2.N_01.pdf
2. http://www.citypages.com/1998-09-30/books/fear-and-loathing-in-sheridan/
3. http://www.sheridanneighborhood.org/nrp/nrpplan/plan%20review%20draft.htm
4. http://www.sheridanneighborhood.org/nrp/phase2/phase2planfullweb.pdf

I just had an incident that builds on what I was discussing in a previous post “Open Government, Transparency and Civic Engagement (or lack of) on the City of Richfield’s Website” While this did not occur on the city’s web site but rather on the City’s Facebook page, it does bring up some very significant issues with Richfield’s refusel to develop open and transparent citizen engagement.

When I went to the City’s Facebook page I noticed a post about the video for January 24th  special work session being posted on the city’s web site and asked why they couldn’t keep the city council meetings up indefinitely like our neighboring suburbs. When I looked back to my astonishment I discovered that while my post was responded to (only partly) they had however deleted my original post. Now don’t get me wrong, it is the City’s site and they can set the guidelines. Even I would agree that Facebook is a not a great tool for doing meaningful engagement. However, deleting a rather benign comment because it asks a somewhat uncomfortable question about the city’s services is a bit over the top. More appropriately would have been to direct the discussion to a city blog where appropriate official could engage them a in public discussion or maybe even offer a guest post with an alternative view. However, unlike several other of Richfield’s neighbors the city chooses not to even offer a blog.

Richfield’s reactions so far have also shown the wrong way to respond to negative comments. Instead of trying to engage in honest conversations with its citizens on a democratic platform, the City of Richfield replied angrily by deleting a post.

Below are screen shots of the City of Richfield’s Facebook site. Showing each comment and response and subsequent deletion. It does not include my original post which was much more polite than my subsequent posts. I did not have the foresight to make a screen shot since I really did not expect my comment do get deleted. However, after it was deleted I pretty much expected any thing else I posted to get deleted as well so I figured I would at least give them something worthy to delete -but not until I took a screen shot.

Edina

After my screen shots showing my engagement on Richfield’s facebook page, I have included screen shots of my postings on Edina’s Citizen Engagement Blog where I asked a question that I could only assume would get deleted anywhere on Richfield’s social media sites. Interestingly, even though Edina may shirk it’s responsibility when it comes to affordable workforce housing it does a good job on engaging its citizens AND as evedenced by their interactions with me, a non-citizen.

Not only did they post my comments, they sought me out on the Richfield SOS site to make sure I comply with their guidelines (I did not include my last name in my comment)so they could post my initial first comment (I sheepishly admit to not having read the guidelines before I posted) .

Richfield’s Reactions

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Edina’s Reactions

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One thing that has become apparent after working on the Pillsbury Commons project and looking into housing policy are issues of open goverment and transparency with City of Richfield, especially if you compare it with what other city governments are doing. Government transparency is important because it allows the public to be informed about what the government is working on as well as the policies they are trying to implement. Government transparency gives insight to the public on how decisions are made and hold elected officials or public servants accountable for their actions.

More and more people are expect to be able to access the information they need instantly online. Sometimes given the lack of resources and funding that expectation can be wishful thinking especially when it comes to historical data such as government records created in the pre-digital age. However, with newly created public documents there little reason they cannot be made available online and remain archived online for public accessibility.

The Matrix

Below is the result of some noodling around the city webs sites of Richfield, Edina, Bloomington, Eden Prairie and St. Louis Park. I was frustrated by what I precived as a lack of transparency and open government by City Richfield so I created a Matrix to compare the each city to one another. The results are interesting. Hands down, Edina is doing some of the best work in citizen participation. Not only do they open up their Facebook page to posts as well as comments from its fans but it has what it calls a Citizen Engagement blog where they actively seek out and engage comments on projects and budgets. Something not done by any of the other cities. The only one that comes close is Eden Prairie which does have blogs but has turned off comments on the “City Manager’s blog” the one blog they should be seeking comments on.

One common action across all web sites is live streaming of city council meetings. All cities provide a way for people to watch meetings live online. Most with the exception of Bloomington stream their Planning Commission meetings. However, one area Richfield does shine is livestreams its HRA meetings as well.

Live Streaming is one thing but what if you want to view an older meeting? All web sites do offer some way of archiving their older city council meetings and all but Bloomington archive their past videos of Planning Commission meetings. Since Richfield is the only one filming its HRA meetings it stands to reason it is the only one that can archive it which it does.

However, Richfield does have one big fail when compared to the other cities. It has a policy to only archive older videos of meetings for two months before pulling them down. Edina, Bloomington and Eden Prairie all have video archives of their council meeting going back several years. Given the plummeting cost of digital storage it is odd that Richfield would continue such a policy. It is important to note that all cities including Richfield have their meeting minutes (in PDF or HTML form) posted online going back several years.

One the things the matrix does not measure is the time it takes post agenda notices and the meeting minutes after they are approved which for Richfield seems to be a cronic problem. Other sites like Egan allow people to sign up with their email address to get the agendas and minutes automatically emailed to them like an e-newsletter subscription.

Civic Engagement

Social media is more than just claiming a Facebook account and posting information on it, it is about dialog and focusing on the “citizen” not the “customer” by seeking to engage its citizens as owners of and participants in the creation of public services, not as passive recipients of services.

The matrix reveals each cities thoughts on citizen engagement. Edina, Eden Prairie and St. Louis Park all have policies that allow its “fans” to post directly to the cities Facebook page. However only Edina and Eden Praire have “view all posts” as the default view rather than only posts by the city which going the extra mile for citizen participation. Unfortunately both Richfield and Bloomington do not allow their “fans” to post to their page. Ironically both Edina and Eden Prairie are affluent communities. It may stand to reason that they have less controversial 100% density low-income projects Pillsbury Commons that they have to wrangle by their citizenry like Richfield does or West Bloomington has to with East Bloomington.

South Metro Open Government/Transparency Matrix

I have heard it come from the city council before, why didn’t we have the gift of foresight? EX: “If we did we would have built the new city maintenance garage two years earlier we would have saved boat loads of taxpayers money.”

Unfortunately foresight is not a superpower or a secret ninja skill possessed by most city governments. However hindsight is a super power possessed by all and we can use it to learn and act on future projects provided we use the superpower of “Political Will”

What I am talking about is Richfield has an opportunity to save a pile of taxpayers dollars if they finish the trail and bike paths from 11th Ave to Cedar Ave. How so? First, construction costs are down as are material cost with the housing an d building slump. Waiting would only guarantee a higher cost down the road. Secondly, the road west of 76th Street is already being torn up and refinished, we would benefit in cost savings of tying into a larger project.

This happened to me just recently, I negotiated a price to have a company cut down my very dead red maple tree. I then priced out what it would be to have them come back out in three to five years to cut down my dying blue spruce. It was very pricey. I asked them what they would charge me if they cut down the limply pine when they were out to cut down the red maple. They gave me a ridiculously good price.

Now I have a ridiculously large amount of firewood.

Not only are we saving tax dollars by doing it now, in a time of economic downturn for the construction industry, Richfield is creating much needed jobs. Finishing the parkway is not only economically prudent and pro-business, it is downright American and a win-win for all.

The March 2008 issue of the Atlantic Monthly published an article titled “The Next Slum?” by Christopher Leinberger, had reinforced what I have learned on the changing tide of suburbanization. That renewed urban allure to Gen-xers and the Millennials, the second largest demographic in history after the baby boomers, combined with the disillusionment of urban sprawl, long commuting times and high gas prices (and home heating prices) have led to a critical glut in McMansions at metropolitan fringes and housing, and that the urban core, once a bargain twenty years ago,  are now going for a premium. 

The article isn’t dismissive of all suburbs and that while there is a shift underway to walkable environments the author, Leinberger, doubts that the swing from suburb to city will be as dramatic as the swing from city to suburb was in the 20th century. Many will still prefer the big house/car lifestyle. However those suburbs with access to shorter commute times or close mass transit will be among the suburbs fairing well.

Those suburbs that are on the wrong side of town, and poorly served by public transport, are already suffering decline finding long time residents replaced by Low-income people, displaced by the gentrifying inner cities. He make an interesting prediction, that much of the future decline is more likely to occur on the fringes in recently developed areas, that many of the the McMansions will be resale at rock-bottom prices to lower income families and will suffer eventual conversion to apartments.

I have heard apocalyptic suburban ruin wishful thinking before and I am sceptical, however, there is definitely some truth in the matter.   It is becoming increasing costly to runaway from problems instead of dealing with them. The days of cheap subsidised land are coming to an end, the costs are off-set by the cost of gas prices and home heating and the harder to measure but still costly – ever increasing commuting time.

There is also the issue that the article mentions I think has had a large factor in the return to the cities; most of the Gen-xers and Millennials have chosen not to have kids. The Baby Boomer’s parents generation (the settlers of Richfield), more than half of all households contained children, by 2000 they were only a third and by 2025 it will be closer to a quarter and there will be about as many singles households as family households. Schools, which once were a big selling feature of new suburban communities, hold less allure than they did fifty years ago. 

Speaking of the value of city planning :

Having once owned a home on Saint Paul’s West Side and having been lived next to West Saint Paul has made me very much appreciate Richfield, which like West Saint Paul, initially started with little or no urban planning but unlike West Saint Paul has made serious efforts since the 1980′s to correct it’s previous blind eye to unplanned development and have some design standards and not be afraid of urban planning.

The sad thing is, with it’s rolling hills West Saint Paul probably had some of the most stunning landscapes in the Twin Cities area and has pretty much made a sows ear out of a silk purse.  The following video was submitting to the Walker Art Center  for their “Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes” exhibit and pretty much captures the spirit of West Saint Paul living at its finest.

So there has been a series of interesting articles and blog entries about the metro area cities attempts to market themselves. The Pioneer Press came out with a piece on cities in the metropolitan area attempts to brand themselves usually with all the flare and charisma that one could expect when you have the office intern, or your very talented high school age son or daughter execute your city’s marketing plan, except many of these cities paid good money to ad agencies to come up with city slogans and branding like “A ‘Small Town’ City” (Mahtomedi) the mouth full that North Saint Paul uses, “a small-town atmosphere in a large metropolitan area”. They talk about the old stale standards that cities aways fall back on when coming up with these things; bodies of water, community, geographic gateways and history are usually popular.

In case if your wondering what Richfield’s slogan is, it is “Your urban home town in the heart of the Twin Cities.” A slogan I certainly would not confused at least with, say, Moorhead, Minnesota.

I have been harping on city officials at meetings on the need for marketing and developing Richfield’s brand. Unfortunately Richfield’s brand at present is more like “Laurence Welk Village” and less like “Johnny Carismaville.”

Unfortunately what most cities fail to understand, including Richfield, is that brand is more than just a catchy slogan. It is an essence. Imagine going into a Starbucks and finding it looking instead like a White Castle. A brand is a promise, an expectation on want to expect. If employees are rude at Starbucks that effects their brand. If the restrooms are dirty that effects their brand because it effects the customers experience.

Most cities create a bad slogan and leave it at that when thinking of brand, and some might push their brand identity as far as people’s impressions of their school system or even street scapes, but most go no further than that.

Most corporations are very concerned about brand control. To most cities, brand is a by-product something to react to.

The blog “twin cities sidewalks” whose post on the subject inspired my post, paraphrases Louis Mumford and American historian known for his studies and writings on cities, I will quote him here

Creating memorable places is really the key to attracting people and business to your area. Cultivating streetcorners and sidewalks worth walking on, emphasizing historical landmarks like a watertower, old church, library or city hall, and trying to get people to come together physically in the same spaces at the same times are all ways to really brand suburban cities, and to replace empty spaces with memorable places.

Brand for a city is more than just one element. It is about creating an experience. Looking at the city holistically.

Is Richfield’s brand really perceived by most people that we want to locate here as: “Your urban home town in the heart of the Twin Cities” or is it perceived more like my friend puts it as: “God’s Waiting Room”?

Personally I think our brand Slogan should be more like: “As Sexy as South Minneapolis, only with big backyards.”