On the Commons: the Mississippi River as a Public Good

From River Talk:

You won't find many who are nostalgic for the 1970s--that hair!  Those clothes!
But one thing I miss from the 1970s is a sense of things that we shared as a community, and our common responsibilities to protect and steward the things that made all of our lives richer.  I saw this a lot in planning for public spaces, in resource management planning and design projects.  There was a sense that there was an "us" and that, together, we could protect and enhance places that we shared in common.

Like the Mississippi River, for example.

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Minneapolis Riverfront Design Competition set for Jan. 27

From KARE 11:

The Minneapolis Riverfront Design Competition challenges four landscape and urban design teams to each create an over-arching vision for five and half miles of Mississippi riverfront from the Stone Arch Bridge to the city's northern limits.

Built on the Park Board's award-winning 2,000 master plan and addressing current demands as well as future needs, the winning design will be a comprehensive, integrated vision for the Upper Riverfront that establishes parks as the engine for economic development, transforms the river into a connector rather than a barrier between east and west banks, and refocuses Minneapolis toward what is one of the three great rivers of the world.

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Early Morning Minneapolis Riverfront

Downtown Minneapolis as shot from Nicollet Island. Reflections are courtesy of the Mississippi River.

Register for Snowshoeing at Boom Island Park this Saturday

From Mill City Times: 

This Saturday, January 22, from 10:00am-11:30am, you can snowshoe at Boom Island and check out the Mississippi River.  See a winter wonderland that is difficult to reach in the deep snow.  Watch for winter wildlife as you tromp through drifts. Snowshoes provided.

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DNR Misses Deadline on Mississippi Corridor Rules

From the Star Tribune: 

A year of work-group sessions, drafts, redrafts and heated debate on regulating development along the Mississippi River may have been for naught.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, ordered by the Legislature to establish new rules for a 72-mile stretch of the river, missed a key deadline, meaning its authority to make the rules has expired.

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Saint Anthony Falls Lab, Where Water Meets the Future

From The Line:

When I was a kid I loved to go down to the local park after a heavy rain. Water running down to the river in the channels alongside a dirt path could be dammed up with mud--for a few minutes. But water is relentless and eventually it will find a way to squirt through and completely destroy your work. It was wonderful, dirty entertainment for an eight-year-old. After a summer thunderstorm, I could get in a good couple of hours of hydro-engineering.  

I had no idea there were grown-up people with jobs like that.  

Some of them work out in the channel of the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis, in a boxcar-shaped building perched on the edge of St. Anthony Falls. They build river deltas, demolish dams, dig channels, and restore wetlands. And their next job is to help shape the future of renewable energy.

The building is the University of Minnesota's St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, and Fotis Sotiropolous is its director. 

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Establishing New Design Guidelines that Blend Old and New in St. Anthony Falls Historic District

From The Line:

Over the past 30 years, the St. Anthony Falls Historic District in Minneapolis, which testifies to the city's origin in milling and trade and includes the Mississippi River's main waterfall, has seen marked changes.

In response, the city is calling for professional services to help get new guidelines in place that are in keeping with the times and take a more holistic view of the area.

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Looking at the Upper Riverfront Through Youthful Eyes: Will New Parklands be Safe Places?

From MinnPost: 

Chances are that kids growing up in south Minneapolis or nearby suburbs have a pretty good appreciation of nature, given the closeness of the Chain of Lakes and the connecting parkways. To share space with a flock of geese or to notice differences among tree species while strolling around Lake Calhoun or Nokomis is, for them, no big deal. Understanding that urban life is part of a delicate ecosystem is easier when the evidence is all around you.

It’s harder if you’re a kid in the north or northeast quadrants of the city where industry has claimed the banks of the Mississippi River, placing nature out of sight and out of mind.

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Minneapolis Riverfront Corporation Presentation at Bridgewater Lofts

From Mill City Times:

Last night Cordelia Pierson, Executive Director of the Minneapolis Riverfront Corporation, and Scott Vreeland, Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board Commissioner, lead an interactive presentation with residents of the Bridgewater Lofts regarding organizations and initiatives related to property along and near the Mississippi River.

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Why I Love this Place

From the Twin Cities Daily Planet: 

It's not that the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board created a Mississippi Riverfront design competition. It's not that they partnered with the Walker Art Center and the University of Minnesota's College of Design to elevate creative considerations. It's not that competition finalists will present their designs in a public meeting. No, I love this place because the presentation tickets are sold out.

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