Minnesota’s Senator Amy Klobuchar spoke at lunch for the Blandin Foundation’s MIRC project at an event organized by the University of Minnesota Extension Service in St. Cloud Wednesday. It was my first time hearing the Senator. Thought she did a pretty good job with a brief talk on broadband in rural Minnesota. She spoke to […]
Originality + Action = #OTA11
[v=k8waqwf1rBA] Innovation is the stuff of legend. Yet we understand so little about the process. Is the creative spirit in our nature or our nuture? Is it competitive or collaborative? Is it the chicken? Or is it the egg? Yes. That’s the answer I took home from the OtA Sessions—Originality and Action thnkfest in Sioux […]
MN House Passes On Variance Bill
From the Minnesota House of Representatives Public Information Services office: House votes to ease restrictions on zoning variances published 4/4/2011 The House voted 79-52 to allow local governments greater latitude to grant zoning variances, but some said more work was needed on the legislation. Sponsored by Rep. Joyce Peppin (R-Rogers), HF52 would modify the authority for cities, […]
APA STaR Publishes MIRC Story
This article was published last week in the newsletter of the Small Town and Rural Planning division of the American Planning Association. You can find them on Facebook, too. Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities: Broadband as a Rural Development Strategy By John C. Shepard, AICP, Southwest Regional Development Commission America’s economy runs on broadband. Ninety-five […]
Census 2010 Redistricting Releases
IFRAMES not supported US Census 2010 redistricting data has been released this week for Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota—Colorado came out last week. The rest of the states will be wrapped up soon as the decennial blood sport of redistricting goes public. (The Census Bureau website has a nifty little embedded Flash map for […]
Food Check-Out Week Benefits Local Food Shelf, and many others
The Cottonwood County, Minnesota, Farm Bureau is teaming up with the local Hy-Vee grocery store in Windom, MN, for a bit of food fun benefiting the local food shelf. The Cottonwood County Citizen reports: At 10 a.m. [Monday], teams from Citizen Publishing and KDOM Radio will be on a two-minute dash through the aisles of […]
Courage to Stand—the Video
[v=YfkNEq1XioE] Minnesota’s former governor, Tim Pawlenty, is out on tour supporting his new book, Courage to Stand. T-Paw, as we affectionately know him, was on Sen. John McCain’s short list for 2008 GOP Vice-President slot—many wonder if he had if we would have been listening to President McCain’s State of the Union speech this week. […]
Wind Energy Looking Up For 2011
Press Release U.S. wind energy industry finishes 2010 with half the installations of 2009, activity up in 2011, now cost-competitive with natural gas Industry weathers latest boom-bust cycle as utilities move to lock in more wind power at favorable long-term rates Washington, D.C. – America’s wind industry built 5,115 megawatts of wind power last year, […]
Open Letter on Legislation for Zoning Variances in Minnesota
An open letter to sponsors of MN HF 52/SF 13, dealing with statutes for zoning variances in Minnesota: As a professional planner of 20 years experience in several states, and a committed Conservative, I strongly oppose the proposed amendments in HF 52/SF 13. While I applaud harmonizing land use standards across city-township-county statutes, at least 40 out […]
Traffic on Your GPS: Big Brother or a Helping Hand?
Location-based services website LBSzone.com has an interesting little article from NAVTEQ on traffic congestion. Navteq is the geographic information systems (GIS) computer mapping company behind most of our online maps, and many of the maps in Global Positioning Systems (GPS) units many of us plug into or come with our cars these days. I don’t […]
