Solar Car Charging station opening  
Councilmember Russ Stark's Ward 4 E-News

April 2013
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Sustainable Saint Paul
Building Better Blocks

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Opportunities for you to weigh in
  • The City's online forum, "Open Saint Paul," has a number of open topics that would benefit from your perspective: Citywide bike plan, Marshall Avenue improvements, streetcar planning, and our solid waste/recycling assessment. Please weigh in and encourage your friends, co-workers, and neighbors to do so too!   
  • The developers of the huge complex at 558 Vandalia (across from Rock Tenn) are looking for creative ideas for a name for the new and improved building. In the past, it's been referred to as "the mattress building" but could use a new name to reflect its new role in the neighborhood. If you have ideas, email them to Melissa.       mattress bldg
  • The City's CIB (Capital Improvement Budget) Committee is in full swing, moving towards finalizing recommendations to the Mayor and Council about what infrastructure projects should be funded in 2014-2015. There are many important projects in Ward 4 and around the city. You can learn more here, and also weigh in at a public hearing before the CIB Committee on June 3 at 6pm in the basement of City Hall. 
  • Come out to view a draft of proposed improvements to Marshall Avenue based on community conversation at a meeting in April. Join the conversation on May 22 from 6:30-8:30pm at Oxford Community Center (270 Lexington Pkwy N). 
What do you want to know?
     

Five years as City Councilmember has given me a much greater understanding of why certain things in the City are the way they are. I'd like to collect questions from you and your neighbors, and address shared questions in my e-news in the coming months.  
 
As an example, a constituent was recently kvetching a bit about how far behind Minneapolis we are when it comes to bicycle infrastructure. Saint Paul is behind, but Minneapolis also received the bulk of a $20 million Federal Non-motorized Transportation Pilot (NTP) Program allocation that helped accelerate their efforts considerably.  Saint Paul has benefited from this program as well, with bicycle/pedestrian improvements on Como, Marshall, and Jefferson, and the upcoming projects on Griggs and Charles, but the bulk of the money has been spent in Minneapolis.  
 
This is just one example, and I'd love to help fill in the blanks of stories people tell or questions they have about Saint Paul. Please send questions/comments my way and I'll see what I can do to provide an answer!  

How we celebrated Earth Day in Saint Paul 

In honor of Earth Day, I thought I'd take the time to acknowledge some of the great work going on in Ward 4 to move our community toward greater sustainability.  

First, Kudos to the Macalester Groveland Community Council on their well-deserved Sustainable Saint Paul (SSP) Award for the creation of the neighborhood household organics drop-off site.  They are also a finalist in the Sustainable Communities category of the Environmental Initiative's 2013 awards. The project garnering the praise is a site where Mac-Grove residents who subscribe to the service can drop off their household organic matter such as food waste, leaves, and more.  The project has already diverted several tons of waste from landfills and incinerators.  Congrats to the organics task force for their great work -- Johanna Anderson, Sheila Sweeney, Ruth Strand, Melanie Peterson-Nafziger, and Michelle Crain.
 
Other Ward 4 SSP award winners were the University of St. Thomas for the LEED Gold Anderson Student Center, and in Como, the students of Great River School won the SSP Environmental Education and Awareness award for their work in the DNR's School Forest Program, with their natural resources work being done in the Como Woodlands Outdoor Classroom
TransitionTown
Transition Town ASAP event. photo by Mimi Jennings 
Over in St. Anthony Park, the Energy Resilience Group hosted a Transition Town ASAP festival on Saturday, April 20, and more than 150 neighbors came out to learn more about community solar, land use/zoning, transportation, solid waste, and a variety of other issue areas with efforts underway to make that neighborhood more resilient to climate change and to reduce its carbon footprint.  Congratulations to the core group of Mimi Jennings, Michael Russelle, Tim Wulling, plus many other neighbors for their great work to date. 

In Hamline Midway, the biggest recent sustainability advance may be the creation of a Local Food Resource Hub (in partnership with Gardening Matters), which offers members training and connections to other members, as well as seeds and seedlings to plant. The Hamline Midway Coalition has also worked to add another community garden, giving more neighbors options to grow their own produce and foster connections with fellow gardeners.

In Union Park, the establishment of the new Merriam Station community garden at Prior and Gilbert was the result of hard work by community members Jeff Zeitler, Rebekah Smith, Tanner Larsen, Bob Nechal. They worked diligently with MNDOT and the City to establish this important resource. 

All five Ward 4 District Councils and their incredible staff and committed boards have played prominent roles in helping to support these important community-based efforts.
alley award
Public Works staff receive SSP award. 
Finally, the SSP award for City staff was given based on a Ward 4 project -- the Hamline Midway Library permeable alley pilot project. Public Works Staff worked diligently to make this project happen on short order and accomplish two goals -- eliminate drainage issues into the library and reduce impervious surface in the neighborhood.

Happy belated Earth Day! As you can tell, Saint Paul takes environmental stewardship seriously every day -- Earth Day included. 
Building Better Blocks in Saint Paul  
 
better block unrolling bike laneAs part of developing the City's Complete Streets Design Manual, a "Better Block" event will take place on E 7th on June 8. The idea behind the event, which has been done around the country, is for one day to transform a block of a street by using the space on the street differently as well as activating vacant storefronts or underutilized public space. This is not in Ward 4, but is directly related to a lot of the work I do, as well as many of the constituent inquiries I receive. I encourage you to check this out, and if you're really interested, consider getting involved in advance in helping set up the event. More info here.  
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