Northfield Downtown Development Corporation

The Retail Support Strategies Task Force, a group assembled by the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce and the Northfield Downtown Development Corporation to complete a work plan for the Economic Development Authority, has asked to meet with the EDA.

The purpose of the meeting is to present their recommendations on “How to make Northfield more business-friendly”. They will share the needs of existing businesses and identify obstacles to economic development, illustrated with examples from actual “real-life” experiences. The RSS Task Force hopes that the EDA will join with the Chamber, the NDDC and the Task Force in working to make Northfield more business-friendly.

One Task Force member joked that maybe all we needed to do was to change our sign slogan to “A Business-Friendly Community”. Ah, if only it were that easy.

This year’s ArtSwirl, the fourth annual, will be better than ever. New events, for an even wider range of ages and interests, are being added.

The festival, a ten-day celebration of local arts, will run from Friday, August 2nd through Sunday, August 12th.

The planning group includes Alley Beyer, of the Rare Pair, Liz Carpentier, of the Art Store, Jessica Paxton, of Carleton College, Nick Sinclair, of By All Means Graphics and Grezzo Gallery, and the founder and organizer, Jill Enestvedt, also of the Rare Pair.

There’s still time to join the fun. Interested artists, art lovers, or just plain folks looking for a little creative expression should contact Jill Enesvedt.

Division Street will become Diagon Alley, at least for a night. That’s what a group of Northfield retailers are working on for Friday, July 20th.

At midnight on that date, the final Harry Potter book will be released. Downtown merchants are planning a variety of activities for the hours leading up to twelve o’clock.

Those people participating in the planning to-date include Jon Lee, of River City Books, Norman Bulter, of Chapati, Julie Bixby, of the Contented Cow, Jerry Bilek, of Monkey See, Monkey Read, Linda Schneewind, of digs, Dave Machacek, of ArtOrg, and Sue DeMalignon, also of River City Books.

Last week an e-mail was sent out to retailers, inviting them to participate. Interested merchants should contact Linda at digs.

I was walking across Bridge Square on my way to the post office the other afternoon when I heard someone calling out my name.

It was Bruce Anderson (the photographer for this picture), along with Bill Ostrem, and some guy in a bike suit signed by Lance Armstrong (no kidding).

The mystery guy was Steve Rusk. He is the chair of Edina’s Non-Motorized Transportation Task Force (or whatever they call it up there). Steve was in town to meet with the Northfield group to discuss lessons they’ve learned in that community to our northwest. Edina also has an authentic downtown surrounded by historic residential neighborhoods, so I’m sure they’ve had some experiences worth considering.

Bill told me that he’s going to blog about it as soon as he and Neil Lutsky get back from the gathering of state bicycle leaders.

The Northfield Union of Youth (NUY) Northfield’s Union of Youth, the Key, is so successful at serving our young citizens that the time has come for the need of a significant expansion of their cramped facility.

The NUY presented to Northfield City Council Monday night with the agenda of asking the city for their currently rented building (which is city-owned). The representatives brought their recent annual report and, according to several attendees, “one heck of presentation” to the councilors.

Marie Fischer, Andrea Lovoll, and Ruth Amerman (pictured) gave a general overview of what the NUY is all about and then transitioned into asking for the city-owned building.

The NDDC has long been aware of the importance of The Key as a place for youth in downtown and the role that youth play in downtown.