votewojcik.org

A little plug for County Planner Phil Wheeler:  He saw this coming years ago.

USA today on the changing makeup of communities: USA Today

This is part of the reason why many of the downtown or close in developments like Orchard Hills Villas, The Hamilton, Cascade Creek have been successful while places like Pebble Creek in distant sprawled out areas have been failures.  It is also the reason Mac Hamilton’s new building and Metropolitan Market Place will be coming online (and there are more coming…)

From a policy standpoint I think it is crazy that we continue to heavily subsidize sprawl instead of make the users bear the full cost.  I opposed the rate increases to the Sewer fund because that in and of itself was a $60 million development subsidy.

Young Millennials and older Baby Boomers are rejecting traditional suburban lifestyles in favor of urban living and shorter commutes. Many want to live near city centers so they can walk to work, shops and restaurants or take public transportation. They also prefer smaller homes because they’re single or have no kids and don’t want to spend their free me maintaining their homes.

“It’s the kids (ages 18 to 32), the empty nesters (Baby Boomers with no kids at home),” says Chris Leinberger, president of Smart Growth America’s LOCUS (Latin for “place”), a national coalition of real estate developers and investors who support urban developments that encourage walking over driving. “These two generations combined are more than half of the American population.”

The housing bust of the last five years hit hardest in subdivisions in remote suburbs, drying up financing for such development. At the same time, gas prices soared and so did environmental consciousness, giving consumers pause about living in distant suburbs away from services, jobs and entertainment.

Dear ZWP Members,

Over the last several months ZWP Planning Coordinator Norman Senjem has been working on a sediment reduction plan for the Zumbro River Watershed. This is an implementation plan funded by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to satisfy the requirements of the Zumbro turbidity Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study completed last year. Norman has held three public stakeholder meetings and also sought the input of ZWP’s technical partners in reviewing preliminary drafts of the plan. Using feedback from these meetings and partners, he has updated the plan to its most recent version. He would like to let you know that the Draft Plan is now posted on our website (http://www.zumbrowatershed.org/projects/active) for a final public review. Please take a moment to review the plan and provide comments by Tuesday, May 29th. Comments provided will be incorporated into a final draft which will then be routed to MPCA for approval.

After this plan is finalized, Norman will be turning his attention to developing the larger, comprehensive watershed management plan for the Zumbro.

Please let Norman or I know if you have any questions.

Thanks again for your help!

Lisa

Wayfinding on our trails can be very difficult for visitors.  This should help.

BPAC Members,

Please see the web site below to find out about wayfinding signs and QR codes. It has current edition of e-newsletter from Olmsted County to inform Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP) activities. Just a reminder May is National Bike Month. Thanks

http://www.co.olmsted.mn.us/OCPHS/programs/community/ship/Documents/SHIP Log May 2012.pdf

Muhammad Khan

Senior Transportation Planner
Rochester-Olmsted Planning Department
(507) 328 7134
e-mail: khan.muhammad@co.olmsted.mn.us

Election Campaign

$ 633 raised.

Choose donation amount: $ 100 $ 50 $ 25 Other

Powered by Donation Can.

For years Rochester and Olmsted County have been developing a bicycle masterplan.

Many meetings and opportunities for feedback have finally resulted in a plan that the city council got to review.  For this to be implemented we will need your advocacy and support at the Rochester City Council and Olmsted County Board meetings.  Even after we get these plans adopted we need to make sure that they are not ignored.  There is so many good recommendations here that I encourage you to take the time to read this, write down your thoughts, and make sure your elected leaders vote to adopt and follow the plan.

To make this plan a reality we will need to spend about 2.5% of our transportation funding on this system.  This SHOULD be an easy sell given the fact that:

• 12% of all trips in Minnesota are by walking or bike (higher in places like Rochester)
• biking receives about 1.5% of federal funding
• results in more than 9% of all traffic fatalities in Minnesota
• the industry represents has more than 1500 jobs in MN
• the industry contributes $145 million annually to the MN economy

And just in case you hear this nugget:

According to County Planner Phil Wheeler’s presentation to the city council, only 1.8% of transportation funding comes from the gas tax.  So don’t buy that tired talking point.  Biking is far more cost effective for taxpayers than more and bigger roads.

http://www.bikeleague.org/conferences/summit12/factsheets/State_MN.pdf

Here is data on bike commuting in major cities:

http://www.bikeleague.org/news/acs2010.php

Here is the link to the yet to be adopted masterplan:

http://www.co.olmsted.mn.us/planning/trnsprtnplng/bpac/bikemasterplan2011/Pages/default.aspx

Here is the downtown bicycle study:

http://www.co.olmsted.mn.us/PLANNING/TRNSPRTNPLNG/BPAC/Pages/dwntwnbikestudy.aspx

Here is a link to our Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee:

http://www.co.olmsted.mn.us/PLANNING/TRNSPRTNPLNG/BPAC/Pages/default.aspx

From executive director Sarah Stauder:

Hello, all.  I just wanted to share with you that artist John Gossage was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography. You may recall that he exhibited at the Art Center in 2010 and his exhibition catalog was inserted in the Post-Bulletin in January 2010.

2012 Guggenheim Fellowships Awarded to Ten Photographers The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has announced the winners of its 2012 Guggenheim Fellowships. The winners include ten photographers: Elizabeth B. Barret, Peter Bogardus, Stephen DiRado, Dornith Doherty, Douglas DuBois, Wendy Ewald, John Gossage, Bill Jacobson, Fazal Sheikh and Sara Terry. In addition, Peter Galassi, former curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, has won a fellowship in photography studies. Guggenheim Fellows receive a grant to pursue a project; the Foundation does not disclose the amount of money they receive.
Founded in 1922, the prestigious Fellowship program is intended to “add to the educational, literary, artistic, and scientific power of this country, and also to provide for the cause of better international understanding.” The Fellowship supports individuals in mid-career “who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.”

Past recipients of Guggenheim Fellowships include photographers Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, Lewis Baltz, Robert Adams, Brian Ulrich, Richard Mosse and Penelope Umbrico.

Information on all the winners can be found on the Guggenheim Foundation web site.

We don’t play games.  We don’t unallocated LGA.  We don’t cut market value credits.  We don’t retroactively cut CDBG.  We don’t steal from school districts.  We don’t shift fees to other governments. We don’t inappropriately borrow against future revenue streams.  We sometimes get beat up for setting taxes that actually pay for our expenses.  We prioritize stewardship over talking points.  We have still managed to reduce our expenses nearly 20% in real terms over the last decade. We are still a great community to live in.  And that is why S&P says that we are still AAA rated and stable, while Minnesota and the US Governments are not as a result of their diffusional tax policies.

Dear Minnesota and Federal politicians, take a look at how responsible stewards do it…

Statement from S&P

I assure you that it is not cheap shoddy housing like we see in places like 22nd Avenue in Cimarron Court in Northwest Rochester.  That as it turns out is very expensive housing, just ask our law enforcement agencies.  (And yes, I realize some good people live there, I have met them.)  In order to better understand what affordable housing is we must define it.  I have said many times that cheap housing is never affordable housing.  In order to consider the total costs of home ownership, I propose we look at a HEAT Index.

Here is something I have been kicking around.  What do you think? Read the rest of this entry »

Rochester Day at the Capital appears to have had an impact on Rochester’s #1 priority the Mayo Civic Center and Olmsted County’s #1 priority a Zip Line study.  Here is Sen. Senjem proudly wearing his badge supporting the MCC project.  In addition Sen. Nelson also affirmed strong support and indicate that she was actually the person introducing the bill.  Previously Rep. Liebling and Rep. Norton have expressed support in the house.  City staff, officials, and residents met with a tremendous number of legislators in both parties and chambers and they most all said 1 thing.  “If we have the support of Sen. Senjem supports the project, it will happen.”  As an elected official in Rochester my goal is to have our state and federal reps deliver for us, so I was delighted to confirm the senator’s support.  We also heard similar support for the Zip line study so we are looking good there as well.

This is the request for proposals to evaluate operations at the Mayo Civic Center.  We have a pretty good staff out there, but we also have a pretty old building in need of some repairs and rejuvenation.  It only makes sense as we move toward rehabbing and expanding the facility that we ensure our operations is the best it can be.  I personally have a few concerns, and I know there are community members with additional concerns.

Here is the entire Request For Proposal (RFP), unedited.  Not quite sure what a “pubically” owned civic and convention center is though…

Read the rest of this entry »