Update on 37th Avenue reconstruction plans
/Officials with the city of Minneapolis and SEH engineering presented an overview of reconstruction plans for 37th Avenue NE at the Dec. 16, 2021, board meeting of the Waite Park Community Council.
Questions about ballot issues? City clerk explains proposed charter changes at neighborhood forum
/The Waite Park Community Council invited neighbors to attend an online informational meeting on Thursday, Oct. 14, to learn about the three proposed charter amendments on the Nov. 2 city election ballot.
City Clerk Casey Carl presented information on each of the proposals before taking questions from attendees. Waite Park Community Council's aim for the meeting was to provide neighbors with information about the ballot language. The meeting was not be a forum to debate how attendees should vote.
About Casey Carl:
Casey Carl is the Minneapolis city clerk, a position he has held since August 2010. As clerk, his most important responsibility is administering elections and ensuring all voters have access to the ballot box. As the City’s records custodian and responsible authority, he also is tasked with providing management of the City’s information assets and making government data accessible to the public. Finally, he serves as the clerk and parliamentarian of the City Council and manages its legislative process.
Casey is a member of several professional industry organizations, including the International Institute of Municipal Clerks, the International Association of Governance Officials, the National Association of Election Officials, the National Association of Parliamentarians, and the Minnesota Clerks & Finance Officers Association, among others.
—Megan Ausen
Anti-racism conversation series concludes with focus on next steps for neighborhood
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Waite Park community members gathered Sunday, October 3, to finish a six-month conversation series on anti-racism and discuss next steps on how the community can continue to challenge systemic white supremacy.
The gathering was an opportunity for participants to reflect on themes of the twice monthly meetings, which included topics such as raising anti-racist children, creating welcoming and inclusive neighborhoods, and challenging implicit bias.
The series was facilitated by artists and Waite Park neighbors, Shá Cage and E.G. Bailey of Freestyle Films and Trú Rúts. As experienced community organizers, healers, and conversation facilitators, they created space and invited guest facilitators to challenge the group to lean into the discomfort that talking about race creates to think creatively about ways to unlearn internalized racism.
The conversation series was funded by the Waite Park Community Council after community members suggested the idea to the board and more than 30 neighbors signed up to participate in the new initiative.
At the final, and only in-person gathering of the six month series, members of the group discussed ways to continue the momentum on working toward becoming a more anti-racist neighborhood. Stay tuned to the newsletters for opportunities to engage in conversation with neighbors.
—Hayley Nemmers
Equitable Engagement Plan will guide board outreach efforts in coming years
/The Waite Park Community Council has completed a draft plan that will guide the board’s efforts to improve community engagement with historically underrepresented populations in the neighborhood.
As part of the City of Minneapolis's Neighborhood 2020 Program, each neighborhood is allocated funds to support projects and programs that engage communities with a focus on equity (known as the Equitable Engagement Plan, or EEP).
A team of WPCC board members has been working on the plan, and we have been focused on how WPCC can facilitate better community engagement within the neighborhood, specifically with historically underrepresented populations in Waite Park. Throughout the process we have asked who is missing from the conversation and how we can involve those voices so our EEP reflects all of our neighbors.
The committee met weekly to discuss the plan and held two public meetings to hear from neighbors about what's on their mind and how we can listen. We submitted the draft EEP to the City on September 1 and have since been updating the EEP with suggestions and more neighbor input.
The draft Waite Park EEP seeks to engage renters, age 55+, and Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. This will be done through surveys and focus groups for each demographic. The demographics were chosen based on census data and input from a neighborhood meeting held on Aug. 17.
WPCC initially included (as a group for outreach) folks who get around through transportation methods other than cars but was advised by the city to integrate this in with the other demographics groups that will be included in the EEP. WPCC still needs to determine a contractor to conduct a survey and focus groups as well as analyze the data. This will be done at a later date.
WPCC will submit it's final draft to the city by October 15 and funds will be dispersed on January 1, 2022. Neighbors can share insights on implementation of the EEP by emailing WPCC and attending WPCC meetings.
—Megan Ausen
Early voting underway for the Nov. 2 municipal election
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Early voting is underway for the Nov. 2 municipal election. Ballots may be cast early by mail or in person at the Early Vote Center, 980 E. Hennepin Ave.
The City is mailing thousands of requested mail-in ballots to Minneapolis voters. All mail ballots need to be received by Election Day (Nov. 2) for them to count.
If voters choose to deliver their ballot in person to the Elections & Voter Services office, it still must be returned by 3 p.m. on Nov. 2. Mail ballots cannot be dropped off at polling places on Election Day. Read more.
Find more information about voting on the City website.
If you’ve never voted before and need to register, now is the perfect time. If it’s been more than four years since you last voted, or you’ve moved or changed your name since you last registered, you’ll also need to re-register. The Office of the Secretary of State has a simple online tool to see if you are registered to vote at your current address.
As of Sept. 24, Minneapolis had 254,174 registered voters. That’s about 80% of the estimated number of voting age citizens (18 or older) in the city, which means approximately 62,000 potential Minneapolis voters are not yet registered. This includes 17-year-olds who will turn 18 on or before the Nov. 2 election and therefore can vote.
To register to vote in Minnesota, a person must be:
A U.S. citizen.
At least 18 years old on Election Day.
A resident of Minnesota for 20 days.
Finished with all parts of any felony sentence.
You can vote while under guardianship unless a judge specifically has revoked your right to vote.
You cannot vote if a court has ruled that you are legally incompetent.
Unlike in many states, voters can wait until Election Day to register in Minnesota. The City of Minneapolis encourages voters to register before Election Day to save time at the polling place. Voters can register online up until 11:59 p.m. Oct. 12. If a voter is dropping off a paper registration, it is due by 5 p.m. Oct. 12. If a voter misses this deadline, they may register in person at the Early Vote Center or at their polling place on Election Day.
When registering either at the Early Vote Center or on Election Day, a voter must bring proof of residence.
Find more information at vote.minneapolismn.gov
—City of Minneapolis
Thanks for making our Waite Park Fall Festival a success!
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The Waite Park Community Council would like to thank all of the vendors, volunteers and attendees who helped make our 2021 fall festival a huge success.
Over one thousand people attended the outdoor gathering on Saturday, Sept. 18, making it one of the most successful in the festival's history. The event achieved its goal of engaging neighborhood residents after a year and a half of pandemic isolation — including people who had never participated in Waite Park Community Council events before. Some were even unaware of the name of the neighborhood before attending the event.
Volunteers served more than 500 free hot dogs and veggie burgers from The Mill Northeast. The community council partnered with the Waite Park PTA on free kids carnival games, giving out hundred of prizes to excited kids who had missed school carnivals for each of the last two school years. Waite Park Community Garden members offered a plant exchange at its table.
The festival featured live music (Al Church, Skunk Creek), food trucks (Wholesoul, Ben & Jerry’s), local artisans, a fire truck, and a mobile bookstore (Babycake’s Book Stack). We were also joined by city election candidates and advocates for several civic issues (Yes 4 Minneapolis, FairVote MN, Just Deeds, NE Storm Drain Challenge, Northeast College Prep, and the City of Minneapolis).
We look forward to seeing everyone again in 2022!
If you have feedback on the festival for how we can improve it next year, email us at waiteparkcc@gmail.com.
—WPCC Fall Festival Committee
Stormwater project will narrow Central Avenue at Columbia Parkway this month
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Southbound traffic on Central Avenue NE will be reduced to a single lane immediately north and south of Columbia Parkway through late October.
Pedestrian traffic will be rerouted to the east side of Central Avenue between 35th and 37th Avenues. Bicycle traffic will be rerouted two blocks to the east, to Polk Street NE, between 35th and 37th Avenues. Signs will be posted indicating detour routes .
The lane closure and detours are allowing for construction of a stormwater pretreatment unit just south of the railroad crossing, similar to the unit installed in fall 2020 at 35th Avenue NE and NE Tyler Street.
Project partners are working to construct storm sewer improvements and a series of stormwater best management practices (BMPs) at Columbia Golf Course and Columbia Park. These BMPs will treat polluted runoff from a previously untreated 612-acre drainage area.
In addition to keeping pollutants out of the nearby Mississippi River, the project will reduce flooding in neighborhoods within the drainage area and on the golf course itself; improve habitat; and enhance golf play and other recreational opportunities.
—City of Minneapolis
Park Board committee rejects St. Anthony Parkway land swap
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A proposal before the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board would pave green space on the southeast corner of Central Avenue and St. Anthony Parkway to provide parking spaces for an adjacent mosque.
Update: The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board Planning Committee late Wednesday rejected the land swap resolution by a 4-0 vote. (Commissioner Londel French was absent for the vote, having left the virtual meeting after objecting to questions about the proposal.)
Previously:
An Aubudon Park mosque is again seeking an arrangement with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board to pave over green space along St. Anthony Parkway.
The Masjid Salaam Cultural Center at 3141 Central Ave. NE has battled the Park Board for years in hopes of adding car parking along the parkway just east of Central Avenue, on the southern edge of the Waite Park neighborhood.
The parks board has long refused to sell the parcel for private development. The religious institution’s latest proposal involves a land swap for similar sized lots in North Minneapolis that would further the Park Board’s racial equity goals.
The mosque’s leaders have said the lack of parking and drop off areas serving its building create safety concerns for its congregation and visitors, though it purchased the building in 2018 knowing it did not have parking.
District 1 Parks Commissioner Chris Meyer and the Audubon Neighborhood Association have opposed previous plans to develop parking on the site. Meyer told the Star Tribune in February that the city should be moving away from car-dependent design.
In a Facebook post Tuesday, Meyer said that he had not changed his mind on the issue, which as chair of the Planning Committee put on the agenda to “put the matter to a vote and settle it.”
“It is emphatically not the responsibility of the Park Board to solve the parking issues of private interests,” Meyer wrote. “We are not the Parking Board.”
Billy Menz, who is running unopposed to succeed Meyer as District 1 parks commissioner, said he has spoken with members of the Somali community who support adding parking to the intersection.
“I’m going to look at things with fresh eyes [when elected],” Menz said, adding that he is also interested in how current board members respond this week. As of Tuesday morning he had not seen the resolution, but he had concerns in general about the idea of an exchange.
“I don’t like the idea of giving land to private entities or religious groups, and the precedent it sets for the future is a challenge,” Menz said.
He acknowledged the potential safety issues around the busy intersection but noted there is an alleyway where kids and others can be dropped off safely at the rear of the building.
A resolution is on the agenda for the Park Board’s Planning Committee virtual meeting at 5:50 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 6.
No members of the public will be allowed inside the building for the board meeting. Instead, community members wanting to call in may sign up to provide public comment by phone by completing this form before 12 pm Wednesday.
Community members wanting to use the write-in option may send their comments to OpenTime@minneapolisparks.org by noon on the day of the board meeting. Please list the related topic you are speaking to in your subject line.
St. Anthony Parkway bike trail construction starting this week
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Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board contractors are scheduled to begin repairs the week of Sept. 20 on the St. Anthony Parkway bike trail within Columbia Golf Course.
The work is part of a citywide project to improve and extend the life of existing trails within the park system. In the coming month, 8.2 miles of trails will be resurfaced, including the bike portion of St. Anthony Parkway between Central Avenue and 5th Street NE on the southern end of the golf course.
At most locations, repairs are expected to take between two and four days. Work includes filling cracks and adding a layer of seal coating to create a smoother and more durable trail surface.
During the project, individual segments will be closed and detour signs will be posted.
—Information from Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board
Make your home safer with a Waite Park neighborhood security rebate
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As the nights start to get a little longer, help us brighten dark spaces and deter would-be burglars from our neighborhood by investing in a home security project with help from the Waite Park Community Council.
The Waite Park Community Council’s Safety & Security Rebate Program provides up to $100 to property owners for basic safety and security enhancements that make the neighborhood safer and more secure.
All properties in the neighborhood, both residential and commercial, may receive a rebate without regard to participation in other or previous WPCC programs. Multiple applications may be submitted, but the total of rebates for any property is limited to $100 per property.
Eligible Improvements (examples):
Exterior security/motion lighting fixtures including any necessary wiring and electrical work
Exterior steel security doors, including garage access doors
Deadbolt locks on exterior doors, including garage access doors
Smoke detectors, carbon monoxide (CO) detectors, radon testing kits or associated test fees.
Window or sliding door security locks or security restraints
Security bars on garage windows or on windows not facing the street
Initial installation of a home security system/service, but not the monthly monitoring fees.
Fire Extinguishers
NOT Eligible:
Storm or combination doors not of the all-steel “security” type, even if lockable.
Tools
Rental charges
Personal installation time or “sweat equity”
Security system monthly monitoring or service fees
Batteries, light bulbs or other consumables
Download/print application form here.
Property owners submit completed forms, along with receipts. A WPCC Board member will verify documents and receipts for compliance. WPCC then completes a rebate check to be signed by someone different from the verifying Board member. The check is copied for WPCC records and delivered to the property owner.
WPCC reserves the right to verify through inspection that claimed work/purchases were, in fact, installed.
WPCC retains all submitted forms and attachments. Property owners may bring disputes before the WPCC Board or Executive Committee. The funds are provided by the City of Minneapolis.
This program ends December 31, 2021.
