Northfield Downtown Development Corporation

…in urging the City Council to try sidewalk dining this summer.

At this morning’s meeting (March 13), the Northfield Economic Development Authority voted to join the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce and the Northfield Downtown Development Corporation in recommending that the City Council fast track a policy change that will enable the expansion of sidewalk dining this summer.

The Chamber of Commerce Board had voted at their March 4 meeting in support of these efforts. The NDDC has been working on this issue for some time.

All three of these groups seem to believe that the experience of communities throughout the United States, and around the world, demonstrates that sidewalk dining encourages a pedestrian-oriented environment, helps to create a visually attractive atmosphere and streetscape, promotes expansion by existing businesses, and stimulates overall commerce in the community.

Together, step by step, we’re accomplishing great things.

This morning the NDDC’s E R Team met with representatives of Rice County to discuss the issue of rapidly rising real estate taxes. Pictured from left to right are County Administrator Gary Weiers, County Auditor Fran Windschitl, and County Commissioner Galen Malecha.

Commercial real estate taxes in Downtown Northfield have been increasing on average 30% per year for the past 7 years. These increases are threatening the economic viability of the downtown district.

The folks from the NDDC and Rice County reviewed the sources of the issue, efforts at the state level, important data and background material to assemble, and what we might be able to do together in order to protect the vitality of this powerful economic engine for the County. Perhaps most important, we also identified additional allies that we could enlist in this effort.

The folks from Rice County clearly understood the issue and showed great creativity in moving to address it. We thank them for driving up from “down south” and look forward to working with them further on this important matter.

I think it was success.

The Second Annual Taste of Northfield, that is…

I was so busy and there were so many people and there was so much going on that I didn’t have time to take many pictures, much less try to quantify the results.

When Dan Bergeson, Dale Finger, Joe Grundhoefer and I “debriefed”, a little after ten o’clock last night, it seemed like, based on vender sales, we had about three times as many people as last year, and that wasn’t including the girls scouts.

While the papers scream out about a town allegedly sinking under chemical and political chaos, the citizens and the merchants of Northfield steadily move forward…

…and occasionally have a heck of time together.

Others will probably comment more thoroughly and cleverly than me about the event, so I’ll just thank those who made it possible.

In addition to our Corporate Partners, College City Beverage and Malt-O-Meal, over sixty businesses contributed to the event. Then there were the approximately one hundred volunteers, who did everything from pick up trash to organize the silent auction. Although the NDDC provided the brains, 1st National Bank and The Key provided the brawn.

After the party is over, there is the clean-up. Here are Kellen Kirchberg of the Key (you can barely see the top of his head), Rick Estenson of the 1st National Bank (you could hardly see the sun around his big back), Dave Shumway of the 1st National Bank (all that shoveling and sweeping paid off last night), and Eric Emmons of The Key (cautioning Rick about not hurting himself), loading the picnic tables on a trailer for their return to the City Shop.

To everyone that supported the event, “Thanks, we needed that…”.

Perhaps you too have been at least peripherily following the Miss Rockaway Armada. It’s a group of a couple of dozen or so artists floating on a raft (shown here under construction) from St. Paul to St. Louis. This morning I actually visited their website. I found it to be rather interesting.

I suppose that I shouldn’t have been surprised to learn that they have some philosophical underpinnings to their quixotic quest. I expected their expressed desire to interact with the communities along the river, sharing art and absorbing culture. What really caught my attention was their concept of Pirate Utopias or, more specifically, Temporary Autonomous Zones (TAZ).
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Following up on the recent Block Head Gathering, NDDC E. R. Team members started work on minimizing the adverse impacts of Highway 3 Reconstruction on our community’s economic vitality.

Encouraged by Northfield’s Public Works Director Heidi Hamilton’s offer to take the NDDC’s recommendations for signage to MNDOT, NDDC Community Advisor Victor Summa and Executive Director Ross Currier spent Saturday morning driving around in the rain, visualizing a visitor coming to Northfield, confronting the highway work and still figuring out how to buy a hamburger from the Quarterback Club.

Our innovative thinking included putting signs warning about the construction zone a quarter of a mile before the “road closed” signs are located to clue people in to the upcoming detour signs, suggesting that the detour signs be City of Northfield signs instead of the ubiquitous orange construction signs to make them more distinctive, and giving more detailed information on access to businesses than is typical. Here’s Victor outlining the concept to the rest of the E. R. Team.

We’ll follow up with Heidi on the success of her efforts with MNDOT. Then we’ll move onto the Library Plaza construction work planned for later this summer.

If you have some thoughts, please let us know.