After confessing to having had nightmares about advertising banners hanging from trees in parks, Commissioner Tracy Nordstrom said she was relieved that’s not how the Lowe’s banners will be displayed. The banner ads (pictured, click for larger view) at Loring Park and Parade Ice Garden will be reduced from an original size of 8-by-2 feet to 6-by-2 feet, staff said, and would hang from buildings in positions judged to be least conspicuous: over the main entrance to the ice rink and on a side of a new Lowe’s-supplied shed at Loring facing away from neighbors and park users.

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Commissioner Jon Olson had earlier expressed regret that Lowe’s (via its marketing consultant, GMR) had targeted donations for parks only in particular ZIP codes, with nothing going to parks in the north, northeast or southeast sections of the city. But on Wednesday, Olson said he was satisfied that Lowe’s would target other ZIP codes next year. Olson also emphasized that the ads will be on view for a “short amount of time.”

The indoor signs will hang in kitchen areas near donated appliances for one year and will not include proposed language directing park visitors to look for similar merchandise at the Lowe’s Web site. The outdoor banners will go up as early as July and remain through December, unless they become damaged, in which case they won’t be replaced.

But the original wording on the banner ads — “This area brought to you in part by Lowe’s” — may not change, despite drawing sharp criticism from commissioners at their May 21 meeting.  Vice President (and former superintendent) Mary Merrill Anderson asked staff to repeat what she thought she’d heard: that the banner slogan “would remain the same or” would change. Still, Merrill Anderson voted in favor of the ad plan, despite her stated fear that accepting ads in parks “can be a slippery slope until we set some guidelines.” Commissioner Annie Young, saying “It’s still a big banner,” cast the only vote against.

The park commissioners don’t have a policy on ads in parks but say they plan to craft one. Besides taxpayer support, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board has long received donations of goods and services from corporations and individuals without swapping for ad space or similar sponsorship benefits. A recent deal with Toyota (which came via St. Paul’s parks department) broke with that tradition, and another deal with Traveler’s could happen by year’s end.

Back in March, a Minnesota Monitor survey found the phrase becoming so commonplace it bordered on cliche. The list of places that various media outlets had recently nicknamed “The Saudi Arabia of [one alternative energy source or another]” included: Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Mexico, the Dakotas, Oklahoma, California, Nebraska, Arizona, New Jersey, Texas, Martha’s Vineyard, Quebec, Scotland, the United Kingdom, Inner Mongolia, Australia and even Saudi Arabia.

Now comes a handsome spread in the June 6 Star Tribune (pictured) via Bloomberg News that puts an old spin on this new cliche, announcing that North Dakota is “the new Saudi Arabia of oil.” Billionaires from Texas, Oklahoma and other places that have oil know-how and big hats are finally finding ways to get at a thin layer of oil 10,000 feet down. It’s known as the Bakken formation and has tempted prying petrol barons for decades.

Bloomberg’s story comes with a fashion-forward photo of two aspiring NoDak oil moguls from Minneapolis (pictured) in fine duds, minus the hats. Strangely, the Strib gave short shrift to hometown heroes Mike Reger and Ryan Gilbertson, chopping a Saudi Arabia-sized chunk of text from the Bloomberg copy. Maybe the Strib cut the material because the local boys’ colorful approach hewed a hue too close to that of some other local boys who got suspended from school this week when their fondness for “The Dukes of Hazzard” extended to waving Confederate flags in the parking lot at Bloomington Kennedy High School.

The missing Bloomberg money quote (from Gilbertson): “We’re both cowboy-boot-wearing, country-music-listening, gun-toting sons o’ bitches.”

At one of a series of public comment hearings on Wednesday, the Pioneer Press reports, St. Paul City Council Member Russ Stark argued for sacrificing traffic lanes along University Avenue instead of erasing on-street parking lanes, as proposed.

It’s a game of inches that’s been played — perhaps by necessity — with more finesse along the much shorter but also narrower stretch of University Avenue that the light-rail train will take through Minneapolis.

There, blessed by having slimmer sidewalks than along St. Paul’s stretch, planners and neighbors settled on sacrificing a boulevard on one side of the street and a parking lane on the other to make room for two sets of train tracks down the middle of University.

On either side of the tracks, traffic lanes will weave past protruding turn lanes and bump-outs of grass and trees. But keeping trees on the south side means shifting the entire right-of-way’s contents 4 feet toward commercial property on the north.

That prospect prompted Prospect Park Business Center owner Dave Barnhart to declare, as reported in The Bridge: “I do feel like I’m scheduled for a root canal.”

From Jan. 1 through May 18, MPD collected 333 guns: 256 handguns, 36 shotguns, and 41 rifles. Many of those no longer needed as evidence will end up in the hands of an undisclosed Minnesota company that melts them down at no cost to the city. That metal is then transformed into rebar for building projects.

Last year, 517 guns in Minneapolis met that fate, but nearly 300 landed elsewhere: Some were reunited with their proper owners — that is, on the condition of approval through a background check, according to Palmer — while others went to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to be kept for reference. Still others remain at MPD for use in the department’s crime lab library, at its firing range or out on the street with SWAT teams.

“This is an illegal and undocumented sewer connection,” Bradley J. Blackhawk, the city’s chief inspector for utility connections, wrote in an internal June 3 e-mail. “Pool drains have never been allowed to tie directly into a storm sewer.” In another e-mail, Rhonda Rae, director of surface water and sewers for the city’s Public Works Department, wrote that it appeared that the club had been sandblasting its pool but that results from Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) testing weren’t in yet. Officials at the MPCA and Minneapolis Public Works weren’t immediately available for comment; we’ll update this story when they respond.

Jim Jennings, Minikahda Club general manager, told the Minnesota Monitor he’s been aware for 23 years that the pool drained to the lake via storm sewers, and that it’s done so since 1935. But during once-a-year cleanings, Jennings said, the club allows several days for chlorine levels to drop before draining the pool. He said that in April it was spraying the pool with water, not sandblasting, that allowed silty water, possibly with some paint chips, to enter the lake. The club has since hired contractors who disconnected the pool pipe from the storm drain and rerouted it into the club’s existing sanitary sewer.

Minneapolis Park Commissioner Annie Young raised the alarm April 29 with word from park staff that the city’s regulatory services department had “traced the substance, which has spread about 200 yards down the shore, to a private line coming from the Minnekhada Club … Unfortunately, the substance cannot be contained nor can it be extracted from the lake water.”

The Minikahda Club, established in 1898 and best known for its 18-hole golf course, is located on the west side of Lake Calhoun. The club’s swimming pool dates to 1935, when in the midst of the Great Depression 111 club members raised $30,000 to build it. According to the club’s Web site, “The name Minikahda comes from the Sioux, a combination of two Indian words meaning ‘by the side of the water.’” The Web site doesn’t say what words the Sioux have for a private club that drains its swimming pool into a public lake.

Additionally, public feedback will be incorporated into its final report. The firm is holding two public forums:

Though it won’t be built for another 20 years, MnDOT has already started planning for the Minnesota River crossing that officials say will serve as a valuable link between U.S. highways 169 and 212 through Scott and Carver counties. Some advocates for the manufactured homes’ tenants, however, are concerned about the project’s social justice implications.

In some route alignments, more than 1,000 people could be displaced. Another would relocate 180 people. Those likely to bear most of the burden are low-income, minority residents, advocates contend. The highway’s environmental impact study acknowledges the disparate impact, which federal guidelines require it to report.

Continued: Click “Read more”Although construction of the river crossing is still decades away, the parks’ residents are already feeling the effects: Their property values are declining while questions remain about prospects to sell the homes. In response, the parks’ advocates are asking that MnDOT reroute the highway to avoid the developments altogether or devise a mutually agreed-upon mitigation plan. They intend to make those demands at a June 13 public meeting in Shakopee’s Jackson Heights.

The highway project’s adverse impact on manufactured home parks is but one case study in an emerging statewide trend. Since 2000, 14 manufactured home parks have fallen prey to highway expansion and other redevelopment projects, according to information from the All Parks Alliance for Change, a St. Paul-based advocacy group that lobbies on behalf of the parks’ tenants.

In this case, four manufactured home parks are endangered, including Jackson Heights, Mobile Manor, Bonnevista and Riverview. Four of the bridge routes under consideration would take out nearly 500 of the boxlike dwellings, according to the environmental impact study. (MnDOT is slated to decide on a route by the end of the year.)

Currently, an alignment that would cut through Jackson Heights, the 65-dwelling community in Shakopee, appears to be the most attractive option for the highway’s planners, even though it notes a heavy environmental justice impact under federal guidelines. Its population is 90 percent Latino, and 38 percent of its residents are children.

Felix Diaz, who lives in Jackson Heights and is part of its residents’ association, is worried about losing his home. Moving would mean pulling his children out of the school where they’ve built relationships with teachers and other students. “It’s a big change for life. The kids would have to start over,” he said. Additionally, at Jackson Heights, everyone knows each other. “We feel the park is safe. If we move to a different place, we don’t know what will be going on there.” 

Krystal Klein, an organizer from the All Parks Alliance for Change, said the houses provide some of the area’s most affordable housing, which is limited. People typically own the structures but not the lots they’re sited on. (Unlike the more old-fashioned manufactured homes, they aren’t mobile, making it costly and sometimes impossible to simply relocate them.)

Further, uprooted families have trouble finding other affordable options nearby, especially with anticipated zoning changes and a dearth of lower-priced housing options near their jobs in Chaska or Shakopee.  In the interim, landlords no longer have any incentive to maintain the parks, Klein said. In a survey with the parks’ tenants, “We asked people how they felt about the project. We didn’t get any positive answers,” she said. “They’ve been left out of the process.”

That five of the six options for the highway pose difficulties to the parks is an unintended consequence of the expansion, according to MnDOT’s Diane Langenbach, who says that the state agency always strives to be conscientious of project outcomes. “The areas where the parks are just happen to be good locations for the transportation system,” said Langenbach, who added that the options are “far from ideal.”

In the case of the route alignment that would cut through Jackson Heights, she admits that it’s not ideal, but believes that it “still offers some opportunities for mitigation that might be workable.” She pointed to increasing congestion on the highway, one of the most heavily trafficked roadways in the state. On top of that, the corridor’s low bridges make the roads vulnerable to flooding. MnDOT has to tread lightly in other territories, as well, she said, which includes businesses, the Historic Chaska Cubs ballfield and the Minnesota Valley State Recreation Area trails, among others.

“Usually one route stands out as the shining star, but in this case, none of the options seem entirely ideal,” she said.

The Xcel Energy Center was teeming with Democratic Party bigwigs, elected officials and delegates at last night’s rally, but candidate Franken was nowhere to be seen. His opponent heading into this weekend’s DFL convention, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, was in attendance and working the crowd. Franken has remained neutral throughout the primaries and apparently remains so.

MnDOT said inspectors discovered decay in the bridge’s gusset plates, including one that showed “some buckling” — akin to gusset plate “distortions” that triggered the March closure of the DeSoto Bridge over the Mississippi in St. Cloud. Gusset plate failure is a leading contender for causing last August’s collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, which also crossed the Mississippi River.

On May 16, the new postage stamp showing the bridge was unveiled at a Statehood Week event in Winona. The next day, dignitaries (including Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee member Joan Mondale and former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale) gathered under a tent at the State Capitol for a ceremony (video) celebrating the new USPS stamp that commemorates 150 years of Minnesota statehood.

Those who travel in the 11,600 vehicles that cross the span between Winona and Wisconsin each day may find it cheaper to buy a few new Minnesota stamps and conduct their business by mailing letters and packages rather than driving a half hour or more up or down river to the next nearest crossings.

Continued: Click “Read more”But MnDOT’s new PR- and engineering-savvy commissioner, Tom Sorel, would be wise to choose other new postage stamps, such as those honoring journalist Eric Sevareid or film star Bette Davis, rather than one that depicts the state’s third Mississippi River bridge to close or collapse during the last 10 months.

Richard Hamilton Smith, a Park Rapids, Minn., photographer, took the photo on the stamp, which joins the U.S. Mint’s commemorative quarters for New Hampshire and Maryland in featuring landmarks that soon afterward meet with trouble or worse: The Maryland Statehouse was struck by lightning, and New Hampshire’s “Old Man on the Mountain” rock formation collapsed.

The Norwegian consulate in Minneapolis and the Sons of Norway, the Minneapolis-based international fraternal organization, say they aren’t aware of any interaction over the weekend between two prominent Norwegian-Americans: Walter Mondale and Karl Rove.

Rove, architect of what former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan calls the administration’s “permanent campaign,” was in Rochester, Minn., to speak at the state Republican convention. Mondale is honorary Norwegian consul at Norway’s consulate in Minneapolis.

Both men made the Sons of Norway Viking magazine’s 2004 short list of five “Notable Norwegians.” (The others: athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharis, figure skater Sonja Henie and agronomist Norman Borlaug.)

In a way, Mondale has Rove to thank for his current job. As Brian Melendez, the state DFL Party chair, pointed out, it was Rove who hand-picked Norm Coleman (over Tim Pawlenty) to be the Republicans’ candidate for the U.S. Senate six years ago. Mondale took Paul Wellstone’s place on the ballot after the late senator’s death, but lost to Coleman in the general election a week later. That made Mondale available when the new gig was offered after Norway demoted the Minneapolis consulate to “honorary” status last year.