Holiday Inn Johnstown, PA

http://www.johnstown-dwtn.holiday-inn.com/

When recently staying at the Holiday Inn in downtown Johnstown, PA i was trying to find a place to recycle my papers plastic bottles, etc. When I inquired at the front desk they indicated they did not recycle.

Probably not a place for me to stay again and others may choose to avoid as well for a Greener hotel.

Twin Cities Announces Bike & Walk Projects

http://www.mepartnership.org/mep_newsroom.asp?new_id=2838


Bike Walk Twin Cities Announces Projects
in Falcon Heights, Minneapolis, Richfield, Roseville and Saint Paul

Drivers Move Over: Cyclists and Pedestrians to Have Priority on New Bike Walk Streets

Drivers, cyclists and pedestrians prepare for a new way to share your turf. Twin Cities cyclists and pedestrians will soon have priority on new bike walk streets to be built in the metropolitan area.

Contacts: Katie Eukel, Transit for Livable Communities -651.767.0298, Ext. 115
Dawn Erlandson - 612.871.2786 or Cathy Kennedy - 612.309.395

So where is your community???

Google Transit

I just learned of a Google Transit that allows you to plan city trips step by step. You tell it where you are and where you want to go. It then steps you through where the nearest bus stops, etc to get to your destination.

The only problem is that Duluth is the only Minnesota city to be included. Maps have not been uploaded for the Twin Cities.

You can find it if you just Google Transit.

Wells Fargo 79th Xerxes -Bloomington, Mn

I was going by the Wells Fargo bank about a week ago and their automatic sprinklers were going off watering their nice green grass. Perhaps they should think of a landscape change to prarie grass or something that would not take automatic watering.

Caribou Coffee Not Walking the Talk

I was at Caribou Coffee on 79th & Penn in Bloomington and noticed a couple things that do not seem consistent with their written work, at least in my opinion.

1) One brochure states: " Doing the Right Thing-Sustainability from seed to cup"

2) Another stated:"Making Your Day and Your World Better".

Yet when I asked if they recycled my newspaper that I had brough in all seemed perplexed. They did not seem to have a paper recycling program IMHO>

Also I normally state that it is "For Here" to eat/drink in. Yet never have I been offered a ceramic cup as Starbuck would automatically do. I found I had to ask for what I would consider and automatic.

I had had this experience more than once and at more than one Caribou in the Twin Cities.

So I don't believe they are living up to what they advertise in their literature.

Holistic Traffic Calming for Stanley/84th Street/9 Mile Creek Parkway area

This item was sent my Councilmember Elkins

Item 5.3A on Monday evening's City Council Agenda is the approval for City Staff, with assistance from SRF consulting, to move forward to develop a "Holistic Traffic Calming Plan" covering the area bounded by France Ave on the east, Normandale Blvd on the west, 84th street on the north and 90th St/Poplar Bridge Rd on the south.

Staff and SRF will be using the same basic approach that SRF followed with Edina City Staff to develop holistic plan covering northeast Edina recently. Like the target area in Bloomington, the problem in this area of Edina is that it has been faster to travel between Hwy 100/50th Street and Exclesior Blvd/France Ave on the local residential streets within the neighborhood than it is to drive around the neighborhood using the arterial streets that ring the neighborhood. To solve the problem, the Edina project team developed a plan that makes it easier and faster to use the arterial streets around the perimeter of the neighborhood (especially France Ave) instead of the local streets. They accomplished this by a combination of features that make roads like France flow more smoothly (such as added left hand turn lanes) and features that slow down traffic within the neighborhoods (such as traffic calming devices). (You'll receive a second e-mail shortly to will point you to a copy of a PowerPoint presentation describing the Edina plan that was recently presented at the University of Minnesota's annual Transportation Research Conference.)

Everything will be on the table as part of this plan, including a "Road Diet for 84th Street". This is the one and only opportunity that this neighborhood will have to participate in the development of a comprehensive traffic calming plan that addresses the longstanding problems on Stanley, Nine Mile Creek Parkway and 84th Street without making things worse for everyone else who lives in this study area. It's going to be extremely important that everyone who lives in this area participate in the process, which will include a number of public meetings and open houses. Monday's City Council meeting will be the first official step in this process and you should come to show support if you can (this will probably come up between 7:30 and 8:00 PM).

Regards,
Steve Elkins
Bloomington, MN City Council, District 3

Shoreview Green Community Self-Guided Tour, August 4 - 5

You can read about best management practices for water quality, but on Saturday and Sunday, August 4 & 5th from noon to 5:30 PM each day you can tour 11 real examples in Shoreview and Lake Owasso yards.

The free, self-guided Shoreview Green Community TOUR map is available at the
Shoreview Clean Water booth near the Lake Johanna Fire Station at Victoria and 694
at Slice of Shoreview July 27 - 29th and on the City of Shoreview's website: http://www.ci.shoreview.mn.us/WhatsNew/WhatsNew.html Sponsors include city of
Shoreview Environmental Quality Committee, Rice Creek Watershed District, Grass Lake Water Management Org., and the Sierra Club Northstar Chapter. Call 651-483-9867 with any questions.


Did you know that in 2006 Bloomington business and residents used 4.8 Billion Gallons of water on average, up from 4.5 Billion in 2005. That works out to 13.1 Million Gallons Per Day.

Bloomington wells provided 76% and the remaining 24% had to be purchased from the City of Minneapolis.