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Water main break cuts off service to much of downtown Minneapolis
Posted by: Steve Brandt Updated: January 3, 2013 - 4:18 PM
A major water main break in downtown Minneapolis at mid-afternoon Thursday cut off or reduced water service to downtown and a major swath of the city.
Workers were not expected to finish repairs until well into the evening after isolating the break. Traffic and buses service were rerouted.
The break was probably caused when an unidentified excavation contractor working for a utility company was working near the pipe shortly after 2 p.m., according to Marie Asgian, the city’s superintendent of water distribution. The break occurred at Hennepin and 2nd St. N., where a grocery-apartment complex is under construction. Water surged through nearby streets, and several bus routes detoured.
Workers on the scene said that an excavation bucket ruptured the main. The main is one of several major pipes carrying water across downtown to distribute through the city and caused a major impact downtown, with reports of lower pressure extending beyond Abbott Northwestern Hospital and to Lake of the Isles and University of Minnesota .
“We’ll work into the night, whatever needs to be done,” Asgian said. “Nobody is going home until this is complete.” The city said a four-block area near the break will take longer to regain service. That area is S. 2nd St.
The loss of water forced some businesses to curtail service or close temporarily. At The Crossings condominium nearer the break, workers attached a hose to a fire hydrant so the hundreds of units in the building could regain water.
The kitchen closed at The Local restaurant at S. 10th St. and Nicollet Mall, leaving the staff serving beer and wine in disposable cups. General Manager Josh Petzel said happy hour will be affected and he’d already had numerous cancellations for dinner reservations. He said his staff was able to save enough water in buckets to continue washing their hands.
Asgian said the cast-iron pipe will be repaired by cutting it and placing a sleeve over the break. She said that will happen after the break is isolated. Typically those pipes rest eight feet below the surface.
At Hennepin County Medical Center in downtown Minneapolis, surgeries and other operations remained on as scheduled despite the water loss thanks to a back-up system, a spokeswoman said.
The Mill City Museum closed at mid-afternoon due to the break, and residents of nearby lofts were left with little or no water.
Chair wants better budgeting rationale
Posted by: Steve Brandt Updated: January 3, 2013 - 10:26 AM
Alberto Monserrate
He’s the current school board chair in Minneapolis and he wants to stay in that position again next year, but that isn’t stopping Alberto Monserrate from voting against the district’s property tax levy.
Monserrate cast the lone board vote against the 2013 school levy this month, repeating his stance in his first year on the board. The first-term board member vowed to keep doing so until the public feels like it’s getting more for its money.
He spoke long and passionately at the board’s finance committee recently about what he’s hearing from the public and expanded on that in a subsequent interview.
It’s not just the anti-tax crowd that spoke last month at the board’s levy hearing. It’s also the skepticism he’s hearing in the voices of those who define themselves as progressives – those who define themselves as supporters of public education and the levy referendum but who are telling him they’re not getting their money's worth from paying more school taxes.
Monserrate, who runs a Latino-oriented media company, said he’s out of patience waiting for the district to develop a strategy to counter that skepticism. “We need to sell to the public that they are getting good value,” he said.
That involves responding to criticisms and building a case that the district is taking steps to educate the students it isn’t reaching. He called for stronger steps to shift money to schools where those students are concentrated, as San Francisco and other districts have done to attack the achievement gap.
The criticisms that Monserrate hears most frequently mention the district’s executive pay raise snafu of 2011, the construction of a new headquarters that opened in 2012, and the size of the central administrative staff. There are also comparisons with St. Paul, which has more pupils but spends less on each. Monserrate wants the district to address those lingering sores by checking the facts and making its case.
He cited St. Paul’s approval of a levy referendum, and expressed doubt that Minneapolis could do the same until it shows better results and tells its story better.
How Minneapolis made news in 2012
Posted by: Steve Brandt Updated: December 31, 2012 - 11:09 AMOne reporter’s take on the top 10 Minneapolis-focused stories of 2012:
• A new Vikings stadium approved by the Legislature for downtown, using city-derived taxes, capping a come-from-behind challenge to a proposed Blaine site, and City Council concurs on a 7-6 vote. Deal also subsidizes Target Center renovation.
• Mayor R.T. Rybak walks away from what he’s called his dream job, meaning his tenure at City Hall will end after 12 years and setting off a scramble to succeed him.
• A fired employee shoots and fatally wounds six people at Accent Signage Systems in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood, including the company’s founder, then kills himself.
• Redevelopment surges, with plans for several ambitious housing projects downtown along with an upsurge in apartment construction along transit routes.
• Metropolitan Airports Commission blocks a proposed routing change that would have concentrated jet noise over several corridors in Minneapolis (and Edina.)
• Hiawatha power line is ordered buried under E. 28th St., ending fears that it would mar the Midtown Greenway, and the extra cost is spread over all ratepayers, rather than just those in the city.
• Failure of plates anchoring cables for the Martin Olav Sabo bike-ped bridge detours traffic for several days on Hiawatha Avenue and disrupts bike commuting on the greenway for months.
• Enrollment of white students in Minneapolis schools rises for the first time in at least 35 years and the dawn of the desegregation era.
• Nizzel George, age 5, is gunned down in his sleep on a sofa in a North Side home, culminating a series of drive-by shootings.
• Police and fire chiefs both turn over in Minneapolis, with Janeé Harteau succeeding retiring Tim Dolan, and John Fruetel following Alex Jackson, who retires under pressure from the City Council.
Other notable developments:
School Supt. Bernadeia Johnson is named to a new three-year term when her first one expires on June 30, making her the district’s first two-term chief since Carol Johnson.
Police accumulation of license plate data draws numerous data requests, including from a rep man, and prompts the city to ask for a temporary classification of the data as private until the Legislature acts on its status.
Portland and Park avenues are converted to two-lane streets in a development that frustrates drivers but gives bikers extra space.
Haven’t we done this before? Long Election Day lines form at several precincts, with equipment malfunctions ranging from pens to ballots, and the first results aren’t available until hours after everywhere else in the state, and the final results take several days.
No-sort recycling is adopted by the city, with some households getting their bins now and others in the spring. All recyclables go in one bin, a system some suburbs adopted years ago.
Most city high school students switch to Go-To cards on Metro Transit,
Downtown rowdiness and shootings forced a police and licensing crackdown, with two clubs surrendering their liquor licenses.
Peavey Plaza will get a makeover that historic preservationists decry, including a city commission, but the Minnesota Orchestral Association wants it and the City Council falls in line.
The school district gets its first scratch-built headquarters ever, bringing hundreds of workers to W. Broadway Avenue.
Minneapolis City Council nixes a proposed Hennepin County service hub on W. Broadway Avenue after the community objects to it for drawing thousands of poor people.
Walker Community Church goes up in smoke in a fire that is ruled accidental but injures five firefighters, one of them severely.
A proliferation of new taprooms slakes the city’s thirst for microbrews, while Surly explores a southeast Minneapolis site.
Block E gets even lonelier as its movie theater closes down. But that doesn’t stop its political architect, lobbyist and former City Council President Jackie Cherryhomes, from announcing a comeback bid for mayor.
The school board goes unconventional, contracting for a self-governed school and a third charter school in educator Eric Mahmoud’s empire, both on the North Side.
Civilian review of alleged police misconduct is weakened in Minneapolis with the scrapping of the Civilian Review Authority. The review job turned over to a new agency dominated by police.
Some notable departures:
City Coordinator Steven Bosacker leaves the job, where he instituted statistical results measurement, to see the world.
Gregg Stubbs, named to replace Rocco Forte, who resigned before an investigation into his conduct was finished, leaves himself after only nine months on the job.
Tim Dolan, the retiring police chief, will work with the gun control lobby and chair the mayoral campaign committee for Council Member Don Samuels.
In memoriam:
Marv Davidoff, activist par excellance
Lauren Maker, political activist
Doug Davis, longtime teacher and union activist
Larry Harris, school lobbyist and civil rights champ
Robert T. Smith, Tribune columnist and city editor
Supreme Court reinstates part of tax claim
Posted by: Steve Brandt Updated: December 19, 2012 - 6:13 PMThe Minnesota Supreme Court has reinstated part of a challenge by homeowners in foreclosure-prone areas of Minneapolis who say the city overtaxes their properties.
The court agreed with the state Tax Court’s rejection of many of the homeowners’ arguments and two of the three tax assessment years involved. But it ruled that the Tax Court erred when it rejected a challenge of the 2010 assessment for improperly including multiple property owners.
“We’re back in the fight,” said David L. Wilson, one of the lawyers representing seven homeowners who allege that the city systematically and illegally inflated the assessment of homes. They allege that in Phillips, Near North and Camden, the city set property values much higher than they paid for homes in arms-length transactions the year before.
Wilson said that the homeowners likely will ask the Tax Court seek to expand the suit to other homeowners in similar situations in the three communities and possibly city-wide. It seeks reassessments and tax refunds potentially worth millions of dollars that could also shift the tax burden toward homeowners in better-off neighborhoods and businesses.
City Attorney Susan Segal said she was pleased that the court upheld the dismissal of claims that assessments violated equal protection and uniformity clauses of the state and federal constitution, saying that “affirms that the methodology used by our property tax assessor treats everybody the same.”
NE investment co-op signs purchase deal
Posted by: Steve Brandt Updated: December 14, 2012 - 4:33 PM
A community investment cooperative aimed at strengthening northeast Minneapolis has signed its first purchase agreement, which could result in an expansion of the city’s smallest food co-op.
The North East Investment Cooperative announced Friday that it has signed a purchase agreement for an empty pair of storefronts at 2504-06 Central Av. NE.
It plans to rehab the smaller of the two storefronts, according to co-op Treasurer Joe Bove, but expects to immediately resell the larger to Recovery Bike Shop, which would move across Central from its present site.
Recovery rents from the Eastside Food Cooperative, and its relocation would allow the co-op to expand if the board gives the go-ahead to that in February, according to food co-op General Manager Amy Fields, who is also president of the investment co-op.
“It makes me feel like we are on the edge of this fantastic new movement for people to invest in their communities,” Fields said.
It’s just that sort of ripple effect that the investment co-op was seeking when it organized last spring. The cooperative has attracted 81 members who have invested $1,000 each in the cooperative, and announced that 27 more people have pledged to join.
The sales agreement, which calls for a closing within 90 days but is extendable, marks a milestone for the cooperative, which is following a still-evolving alternative method of community development.
Bove said the price for the former Twin Cities Marine and Hardware building is just under $300,000. After reselling the 2504 side to Recovery, the cooperative plans to invest at least $200,000 to rehab the 2506 space, most likely for rental initially, Bove said. He said bank financing is likely.
For Recovery, the pending move means a near-doubling of its current 1,700 square feet of showroom for used and new bikes in the food co-op building. Just as important, the roughly 7,000 square feet in the new space will also allow the business to consolidate the storage of bikes now squirreled in rental garages around northeast Minneapolis, according to co-owner Brent Fuqua. He said that the business has qualified for Small Business Administration financing. Its payroll fluctuates seasonally between five and 15 workers, including part-timers, he said.
Bove said the co-op’s purchase agreement also helps it seek tenants for the 4,500 square feet in the 2506 storefront. Among the businesses who have looked at the space is Urban Growler Brewing Co., whose web site says it plans to open a taproom yet this year while selling kegs to retailers. But Bove said the timing may not work to rent to the taproom. Brewery representatives couldn't be reached.
The eight-year-old food co-op, now turning a profit, is in the middle of feasibility studies for completely taking over the building it owns, which would be a 50 percent expansion of space. Such an expansion would allow the sales floor to expand from 4,100 square feet now, which is less than half that of the city’s other three food coo-ops, to at least 7,300 square feet.
Fields said the working estimate for the cost of such an expansion is $3 million, and the project would take 12 to 18 months if it goes ahead.
One reason for expanding is that only 40 percent of co-op members spend half or more of their food dollars at the store, according to co-op studies. Besides allowing a greater selection of items, and a bigger deli section, expansion into the bike space would also give the food store frontage on Central Avenue and traffic that approach 14,000 vehicles daily in 2009.
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recent posts
- Water main break cuts off service to much of downtown Minneapolis
- Chair wants better budgeting rationale
- Precedent opposes council-to-mayor ascension
- Andrew weighs bid for mayor
- How Minneapolis made news in 2012
- Don Samuels exploring bid for Minneapolis mayor
- Reaction to Mayor Rybak's decision not to run again
- Mpls. Mayor Rybak says he's not running for re-election next year
- Gagnon will get little sleep handling 2013 duties
- New finance chief seeks balanced school budget
- Judge tosses wrongful death suit against city
- Mpls. fire captain wins $420,000 verdict in retaliation suit
- Storm sewers get a robotic review
- Supreme Court reinstates part of tax claim
- City Pages to implement stricter ad policies
- Rybak backs new gun laws, slams violent media
- Mpls. license plate tracking data under wraps -- for now
- Rybak forms state PAC
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