The City of Northfield Transportation Plan has begun to take shape, and interested citizens can take a look at the plan web site. I’ve seen a draft of the Transportation Plan goals and objectives (not yet posted online) and they look promising in their commitment to a sustainable, multi-modal transportation system. One item I was encouraged to see: “Objective 4.3 - Establish an area transportation advisory committee with the state, counties, and adjacent municipalities and townships to coordinate and strategize regional transportation planning initiatives (TH 19 between Northfield and I-35, Cannon River Crossing/CSAH 1 Preservation, NW Corridor).”

Does anyone know, are there models out there for this kind of regional advisory committee, ones that Northfield might emulate?

Today the Northfield area submitted its grant proposal to the Safe Routes to Schools program, which in Minnesota is administered by our state Department of Transportation. Our proposal is for what is called a “non-infrastructure” grant. That is, we’re not proposing to build anything with the money we might receive. Instead we would use the money to do planning and technical analysis of safe routes around schools and to create educational, encouragement, law enforcement, and evaluation programs that support children walking and biking to school.

Our proposed project is called “Pathways to Healthier Students (PaTHS): Planning Enhanced Access to Northfield Schools.” The proposal asks for $15,000 for the planning/technical analysis component (most of which would be used to hire an engineering firm), $10,000 for education and encouragement programs, and $5,000 for law enforcement programs (including crossing guard training and equipment). The project would involve Northfield Public Schools’ three elementary schools and its Middle School. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday was Laity Sunday at my church, the United Methodist Church of Northfield. Three of us - myself, Ron Griffith, and Rev. Mary Keen - were asked to prepare short talks that would take no more than five minutes to read - in effect, mini-sermons. Here is what I said:

I was asked to comment on the topic of my discipleship and the care for creation, and I want to relate that to our reading, the parable of the ten lepers (Luke 17: 11-20). I take several lessons from the parable: first, it is God who makes us well, but to be completely well, to receive all of God’s gifts, we must have faith; our faith makes us well. Second, God asks us to give thanks and praise for his gifts. Third, God heals and cares for all people, even the foreigner, the stranger, in this case the Samaritan. Here as always, Jesus is an example to us; we are asked to love and care for the alien, that strange other who is also our neighbor, though we often resist seeing him or her that way.

Now I relate this to our care for God’s creation in this way: We are to give thanks and praise for creation, to make our faith in God central to our lives, and to follow the example of Jesus as healer – healer not just of our immediate neighbors, not just the members of our nation, but the people of all nations.

Now I ask, are we acting as healers today in the way we live? In many ways we are not, I believe. And here I extend our notion of care for the stranger to our care for God’s creation, which sustains all of us. The food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink, these are part of creation. They sustain all of us, and to the extent that we endanger them, we endanger our neighbors; and when we care for them, we care for our neighbors. Read the rest of this entry »

The Northfield Middle School participated in Walk to School Day last Wednesday, October 3. Organizers counted 123 walkers in the morning out of a student population that numbers over 900.

The weather was splendid that day, particularly in the afternoon, as you can tell from the photos above and below.

The event was organized by the Task Force on Nonmotorized Transportation, on which I serve as chair, in cooperation with the Northfield Public Schools. I participated on the day of the event as well, monitoring one of the designated routes in the morning and surveying things more generally in the afternoon.

In the morning I was struck by this impression as I rode my bike to my post at Truman Park: so many cars! I was on the lookout for walkers and bikers, but there were very few in the area I was in. The commuters were on their way to work or school, and the car was the overwhelming transportation mode of choice. When I got to the Park I did see some people out for an early morning walk, and two students walked through talking on their cell phones, but my park post was clearly the quietest of the Walk to School routes.

It shouldn’t be surprising that people largely get around in cars here, but when you sit and watch it and are roughly tallying people’s transportation choices, it really sinks in: the car is king.

It’s been too long since my last post. I was preoccupied with work connected to our city’s Task Force on Nonmotorized Transportation, which I chair. The group organized two October 3 events: Walk to School Day at the Northfield Middle School and a community meeting on biking and walking that evening.

I’ll report more on those events in another post shortly.

It was a strange summer for news here in Northfield, Minnesota, most of which brought unwelcome notoriety to this quiet college town. Here’s a quick overview:

• Early this summer, the Northfield police chief held a press conference announcing that there was a significant heroin problem among Northfield youth. He claimed that 150 to 250 youth were heroin users and that many of them were addicts who were contributing to a rapidly rising crime rate. These numbers were later questioned, as were the chief’s publicity methods. The chief later took a leave of absence for medical reasons and before doing so made it known that the city administrator was being investigated on some financial matters.
• Our mayor was the subject of regional press coverage regarding alleged improprieties involving city decision-making on a property owned by his family.
• Last week, the city thought it had approved a road project on a 4-3 vote, only to learn that approval required a 6-vote supermajority. Now they need to revisit their vote.

That last item doesn’t sound all that sensational, but it’s an issue that I’ve been involved in through my role as chair of our Task Force on Nonmotorized Transportation. It was strange to learn that no one had considered the need for the supermajority.

Those bullet points don’t capture all the alarm and drama that has surrounded these events. For that check out our local news sites: the Northfield News, Northfield.org, and Locally Grown Northfield.

Richard Cretan is a dear friend and one of the most talented writers I know. In his blog, Glebe Cow Drooled, he recently commented on my efforts to improve snacks at my daughter’s pre-school. Here is an excerpt, written in Richard’s inimitable style:

Against bureaucratic feet-dragging, I had earlier advised [Bill] to wage a campaign of surrealism and hijinks by staging an anti-junk food demo at the school: march the kids around holding giant self-portraits in which they’re transmogrified into the quivering jellied ovoids that are apt to rise from a diet of Pop-Tarts and doughnuts. Bill may have found this a bit much for Northfield, Minnesota.

Now comes news that shouldn’t be too surprising. Earlier this month, a new Florida State University study found Americans see being fat as normal. So maybe the pre-school has been onto something all along. Cheese puffs: gateway to cultural literacy!

Back in March and May, I wrote about the snacks at my daughter’s pre-school. I’m happy to say that the doughnut holes and Pop-Tarts are gone from the August snack menu, but the cheese puffs remain. Are they gone permanently? We shall see.

If gone permanently, is that a step in the right direction? Probably, since those seemed to be two of the three snack items that had the least amount of nutritional value. However, lots of processed food snacks remain on the menu that I wouldn’t feed to my child regularly, so we’ll continue to send a snack along with her.

And yes, lest you think we are too food-puritanical in our household, we do eat our own share of processed foods, and I often eat doughnut holes at our church when the nice ladies put them out after the service. I’ve not downed a Pop-Tart in a long time, however, and my waist line, already expanded, says thank you.

This blog is now featured in a blogger “spot” on the Northfield.org sidebar, under “N.org sponsors.” You’ll only see it occasionally there as it rotates through a number of different spots. Thanks to Adam Gurno for including me in this. See the Northfield.org blog and feed aggregator for a complete list of the Northfield blogosphere.

About the picture: yes, the bike helmet never comes off. You can never be too safe.

Another major Northfield web site, Locally Grown Northfield, run by Griff Wigley, alerted me to the Northfield.org update. Thanks, Griff.

This development has prompted me to add to my short list of blogs on the left sidebar. Thanks to those who have done the same for me!

I used to think I might write humor in the manner of heroes of mine such as Evelyn Waugh, Woody Allen, or Garrison Keillor. Well, somewhere along the way I read too many op-ed pieces and too much journalism and got way too serious.

However, Brendon Etter - a Northfield playwright and blogger - hasn’t forgotten how to be funny. See his blog post, If Suburbs Were Named Based on Reality.” My favorite: Dontwalkfield.