Northfield Downtown Development Corporation

The scene outside Goodbye Blue Monday this morning would warm the hearts…

…of Infrastructure Geeks.

It looks like the City of Northfield is doing some much-needed curb repair. More thanks to City of Northfield Director of Public Services Joel Walinski and his team.

Now, this might not be much of a thrill to you, but I can’t wait to tell Joe Grundhoefer, Vice President of the NDDC Board of Directors and fellow Infrastructure Geek. He’ll appreciate it.

In an effort to solicit public opinion and encourage discussion of a new wayfinding sign program for the downtown historic district of Northfield, Neuger Communications Group will hold two open public forums in March.

The forums, which are scheduled for Tuesday, March 6, from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m., and Thursday, March 8, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m., will be held in the meeting room of the Northfield Public Library.

The Wayfinding Sign concepts were introduced at the recent Downtown Forum (pictured here) and the presentation can be viewed on the Locally Grown site.

Both public forums will include a brief presentation and explanation of each of the three designs (historic, classic and contemporary), a question-and-answer session and an open discussion for interested Northfielders to share their thoughts on the proposed designs.

For more information about the forums or the wayfinding sign project, please contact Randolph Jennings of Neuger Communications Group at 507.664.0700 or e-mail jennings@neuger.com.

…to reduce traffic speeds.

In Sunday’s (December 10th) New York Times Magazine there was an article about the best ideas of 2006. One of them caught my attention.

The city of Cambridge, Massachusetts commissioned an art work with an unusual goal: reducing traffic speeds. The objective was to reduce average speeds from 30 miles per hour to 25 miles per hour. According to Susanne Rasmussen of the Cambridge Community Development Department, “The chance that a pedestrian would survive an accident is vastly greater at that speed”.

Sound familiar? Yes, the Mayor’s Task Force (for over ten years), the NDDC (for over six years) and RENew Northfield (for over a year) have been trying to reduce traffic speeds on the downtown section of Highway 3 from 30 miles an hour to increase pedestrian safety.

Of course, one of our local geniuses, Jim Pokorney, suggested long ago that art could help slow down traffic speeds.

According to RENew Northfield,

“Rumor has it that Northfield Critical Masses will begin at noon on the first and third Thursday of each month, proceeding from the intersection of 2nd and Division through downtown to the south, and back.”

The blog entry goes on to say that according to Wikipedia,

“Critical Mass rides are self-organized, noncommercial and non-competitive, and they operate with diffused and informal decison-making, independent of ‘leaders’.”

…hmmm, kind of reminds me of the TAZ…

Griff Wigley, of Locally Grown, asked me if the Northfield Critical Massers are just trying to raise awareness of non-motorized transportation or were they trying to urge the City to take a specific bike friendly action. Geez Griff, I don’t know, it just sounded like a bit of fun to me…

At any rate, it seems like an appropriate celebratory parade for Steve Clark, who is visiting on the first Thursday of October, or the 5th, to talk about making Northfield more bike and pedestrian friendly. So catch the Critical Mass at 12 pm in Downtown Northfield and catch Steve’s presentation at 7 pm at the High School.

Note: The NDDC does not condone bike riding without a helmet.

The new bike racks have been installed downtown. The rack pictured to the left is in front of the 1st National Bank of Northfield.

As you may know, the NDDC has been working hard to get more bike racks installed in downtown. It was one of our many suggestions in the Action Squad’s July 2003 “Project Checklist” presented to the City Council, it has been a topic at many a Block Head Gathering, and, of course, it came up at our Monthly Forum on making Downtown more Bicycle and Pedestrian Friendly. We think that it is important to support a variety of transportation alternatives in Northfield.

So bring your bike downtown. Hitch it up to one of these new posts and enjoy one of Minnesota’s finest authentic, historic and walkable shopping districts.