Northfield Downtown Development Corporation

I’m not sure why, but when I think about the past year, what comes to my mind first surprises me. I think of those people that have passed on.

The first folks I think about are the musicians. Regular readers of this blog know that I enjoy putting images of the famous and almost famous artists into my entries in order to “lively up” the page. Pictured above are R. L. Burnside, Vassar Clements and “Gatemouth” Brown.

R. L. Burnside was a “Bluesman”. He enjoyed some success with the traditional style during the folk boom of the late fifites and early sixties but then experienced a dramatic resurgence when he mixed the drone-like blues style of his home in the Mississippi hill country with the emerging hip-hop beat. Although some “purists” criticized his occasional use of electronic drums, it was hard to dismiss someone who had been performing since World War II. He was a source of inspiration to more recently recognized acts such as the North Mississippi All-Stars.

Vassar Clements was a fiddle player. He pretty much played with everybody who was anybody, including Earl Scruggs, Jerry Garcia, Paul McCartney, John Hartford, and, in a break-through collaboration between the old and the new, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their seminal Will the Circle be Unbroken. He was often described as playing “Hillbilly Jazz”. In fact, he made a huge contribution to keeping traditional music fresh and meaningful to new and emerging audiences.

Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown worked with the roots of both African-American and European-American Folk. Brown was born in Vinton, Louisiana, and was raised not far from the Gulf Coast in Orange, Texas. He learned guitar and fiddle from his father who played and sang the tunes of the region, including French traditional songs and even German polkas. During his long career, Gatemouth played Bayou Blues, Texas Swing and American Rock, among other things, while influencing artists from California to England.

All three of these artists started with their local roots music, expanded into regionally popular styles and eventually had a substantial impact on american music. They retained their individual distinctiveness even while becoming part of the national melting-pot or, as musicians prefer, added ingredients to the musical gumbo.

Next on my list is Peter Drucker. While growing up, I always remember my father’s copy of Drucker’s Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices on the shelf of our house. While part of the workers’ collective at the New Riverside Cafe in Minneapolis, I bought my own copy and read it. It inspired me to earn my MBA at the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

Drucker was born in Vienna. He fled to the United States in 1937 after writing articles critical of the Nazis. Drucker wrote over 40 books, mostly on management but also a few on Japanese painting.

A number of Drucker’s ideas have been of great interest to me. These include a desire to make everything as simple as possible (Drucker believed organization and individuals should focus on their core competencies), a belief that too many of our leaders are backwards-looking (Drucker believed that our corporations and governments have a natural human tendency to cling to “yesterday’s successes” rather than seeing when they are no longer useful), a true understanding of scientific management (Drucker believed that work can be broken down, analyzed, and improved, most effectively by those actually performing this work), and the recognition of the need for community (Drucker believed that corporations should strive to meet individuals’ social needs, although he later suggested that volunteering in the non-profit sector might be the key to community).

Drucker also argued that individuals’ participation in organizations would, and should, be guided by their individual ethics. This was in opposition to the concept, popular in the 1980s, that individuals could “leave their ethics at the door” when joining a corporation.

I only learned about the final person on my list through his obituary. His accomplishments were fascinating to me. Herb Bloomberg was a successful businessman who decided to try to stimulate local economic development through the arts.

Bloomberg built a new home for Excelsior’s Old Log Theatre in 1960. As I know from my own experiences in the “wilds” of New England, these often eccentric little theaters brought cultural experiences to communities that would have otherwise gone without and enriched the lives of those living out “in the middle of nowhere”.

In 1968, he designed and built what was then known as the “Chanhassen Frontier”. Bloomberg continuously expanded the renamed Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, adding stages in 1970, 1974 and 1978. The facility now operates three stages serving nearly 250,000 patrons a year. What began as an effort to preserve part of the community’s cultural fabric grew into a big business.

All of these people were what I would call Creative Professionals. All of them were innovators and all of them made significant contributions to our society. All of them inspired me and, I hope, can be inspiring to others.

Perhaps that’s why when I look back on 2005, I think of them.

…not really, but the efforts to develop a building where creative professionals can live and work in Northfield continue.

As some of you may recall, long before the Historic Middle School became vacant, the School Board had set up a Reuse Committee. This group determined that an arts-based reuse of the building would provide the greatest boost to economic development in the community. A Minneapolis-based developer, Artspace Projects, working with a number of local groups and individuals, made an effort to achieve this type of redevelopment. For a variety of reasons, Artspace withdrew and Carleton College decided to buy the property.

The Artspace-driven vision included 22 affordable residential rental units, 10,000 square feet of studio space, plus a possible educational component in 1954 portion and a performing arts component in 1934 portion. The Historic Middle School property became unavailable but the community’s vision lived on.

NDDC Board Member Bardwell Smith then sat down with property owner John Mathern, of Mendota Homes, to talk about developing the community’s vision on one of his properties. John agreed to pursue the concept. NDDC Board Member Brett Reese had previously held discussions with John Mathern about the NDDC being a non-profit partner in one of Mendota Homes’ Northfield projects. The so-called “Arts Building” seemed like a logical candidate.

The property in question is the old Byzantine site. Bounded by 2nd Street on the north, Cannon River on the east, West Bank of Downtown on the South, and Water Street/Highway 3 on the west. (Click image to enlarge.)

The concept, now called The Building for Creative Professionals, as is currently conceived includes 42 residential rental units (half affordable, half market-rate) and 9,000+ square feet of studio space. The residential units include a mix of one, two and three bedroom units. The studios are presently sketched out as 1,500+ square foot shared studios designed for creative professionals with high ceilings, lots of natural light, beefed-up utilities, loading dock, wide hallways and doorways, and plenty of storage space.

The studio spaces are based largely on the output of the 2004 Charette (conducted by the NAG for the Old Middle School) and the finding of a series of (to date) over three dozen 2005 meetings with individual artists and other creative professionals (conducted by NDDC staff and board). The uses most in demand appear to be Digital Media, Printmaking, and Ceramics.

Although there are some ideas on paper concerning the design of the studio spaces, which will no doubt continue to evolve, the operational model for the completed spaces is still being discussed. The spaces are currently being described as shared studios, controlled by 6 to 12 artists (meaning the responsibility for rent costs and the opportunity for access to the facilities) under some kind of cooperatively managed system. It is also expected that there will be some kind of commitment required by the studio cooperatives to regularly scheduled and long-term community programming

The NDDC has three goals for its involvement in the project. First, that the studios be available to all artists and all art groups. No group or individual can have exclusive control or exclude other individuals or groups. Second, the project should make a substantial contribution to economic development in the community. This impact should be experienced beyond the users of the facility. Third, the NDDC seeks long-term community control of the space. If substantial community resources are invested in the project, the product of this investment should remain available to the community.

NDDC staff and board members are continuing to hold meetings with individuals and groups about the design and use of the space. All are encouraged to comment and/or participate.

Preliminary design concepts can be viewed below:

Left: Building site plan; center: residential floor plan; right: 1st floor plan.

Council Members Galen Malecha and Jim Pokorney recently approached me about the much talked about Traffic Light at 3rd Street and Highway 3. We met for the first time last week. Galen and Jim basically said they sense that a majority of community members believe that a traffic light at that intersection is important and they want to work together to get one installed.

Our plan was to assemble the pertinent information in December, get a Council Resolution and letters of support in January and then meet with MNDOT in February. Our goal was to get the light installed during the 2006 construction season. We divided up the work and agreed to meet again this week.

Galen was supposed to get information on cost estimates and traffic warrants. Instead he brought the source of this information, Director of Public Works Heidi Hamilton, to the meeting. Smooth move, Big Guy. (Click to enlarge photo.)

As she has stated previously, Heidi said her reading of the Manual of Uniform Control Devices does not convince her of the need for a traffic light at this intersection in order to address pedestrian safety. However, when coupled with the desire for increased economic development and the vision of improved urban design, she believes that there are potentially compelling arguments. She committed to working with us to obtain the traffic light.

Heidi suggested that we wait until we had prepared a model of the projected traffic flow for that segment of the highway after installation of a traffic light before getting a Council Resolution. She thought the model could be completed by February. Galen and I stressed our belief that some kind of official action by the Council in January was important to the community and the process. She said she understood and would prepare something. Look for action at the January 9th Council Meeting.

Griff, Tracy and I did the podcast thing again. I think that it is of interest to the community that there is so much agreement between an EDA member and a Planning commissioner on the importance of the Q Block and it’s impact on the future of Northfield. I also foreshadow a future Forum topic during the Dog Park discussion. And you can probably guess what I have to say about the Traffic Light at 3rd and 3.

Today’s topics: The outdoor swimming pool (0-08:00 min); the Q Block development (08:00-14:30); traffic light at 3rd & Hwy 3 (14:30-17:15); Q-Comp (17:15-24:45); a dog park (24:45-30:00). Length of show: 30 minutes.

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I got a call from John Mathern, developer of The Crossing, Friday afternoon. He had read my blog entry on suburban parking requirements and wanted to talk to me about it.

We had vigorous discussion about our vision of a pedestrian-friendly downtown district, the hope that all the new residents moving to downtown would leave their cars parked at home, the desire to better unite the east and west sides of town, the economic value of creating a safe crossing of Highway 3 and the importance of two story structures in realizing these concepts. He recognized the validity of all these ideas but then expressed the concern that if it took longer than anticipated for these theories to become reality, he wanted to be sure that the commercial portion in his development had adequate parking.

He offered an idea. If he built a structure on the north east corner of the intersection of 2nd Street and Highway 3 that had only a single story of floor space inside but a two story presence on the outside, that might address both of our concerns. It seemed like a decent compromise.

We then waxed poetic for a few minutes on the various vaulted coffehouses, libraries, restaurants, chapels and pubs that we’d seen in our lives, wished each other happy holidays and went Christmas shopping in our authentic downtown. As I came out of River City Books with a couple of items, I saw John coming out of the NAG shop with a very full two-handle bag.

Ho, Ho, Ho and Happy Holidays!