Doug Kress Ward 10

Sierra Club questionnaire

1) Urban development is an important issue to our members. What role do you see for yourself as a central city council member to affect our region’s growth patterns?

I have commitment to urban living and urban development as demonstrated in my personal and professional experience working with and in communities to support quality city living. As a city council member I envision playing two roles in urban development: guiding our city through the Big Picture of integrated development and coordinating with other regional governments and agencies, such as the schools. In Minneapolis we face a few incontrovertible facts: we have a finite amount of land and a growing population. We have a strong tradition of progressive government and a commitment to parks, public schools, the arts, and a high quality of life, but we lack housing, efficient transportation, and competitive schools. Urban sprawl is threatening our quality of life by increasing traffic, adding more highways, increasing environmental toxins, and taking up open land.

As city council member, I will champion a comprehensive plan for a livable community. I will work to build smart density neighborhoods: urban villages with a variety of housing, retail, and light industry; smart density that makes efficient mass transportation an achievable goal. To be successful our urban development plan must emphasize variety: in commercial development — both downtown and in our neighborhoods, in education, and in safety strategies.

Additionally, I will work with my fellow council members, the Mayor, and other elected officials to lead the effort to reverse urban sprawl. To be successful, we must partner with our school system to create schools which are, and are perceived as, excellent. We cannot build a better city only to have parents flee Minneapolis because of the schools. I will use my proven experience, and established relationships, with build public-private partnerships to assure success for our City. As the Director of the Minneapolis Redesign, a public-private partnership, I have already begun the work of building livable neighborhoods and quality schools throughout our City.

I will tap the talent of urban planners, architects, landscape designers, community leaders, activists, and citizens to build a livable city. None of us has all the answers; working together we can become a cleaner, thriving, fun city. I understand we need to have a Big Picture solution, we need to coordinate with all our stakeholders.

2) What urban design principles will you support for riverfront development?

The riverfront is one of the new magnets for urban growth; we should be creative in its design and assertive with our values and goals. To begin there must be a comprehensive plan to protect this region. Our design principles must include protecting the environment and habitat, function, and allow for appropriate access for citizens. We need smart density mixed with urban parks. We should provide affordable housing, community schools, and bus and bike connection to the rest of the city. We must preserve Minneapolis’ winning policy of making waterfront public land and accessible land. We should reintroduce native plants and ponds. With care, we can recreate a natural environment, both to preserve the natural beauty of the riverfront and to craft an urban oasis for our citizens to enjoy.

3) What will you do as City Council Member to reduce air toxic concentrations in our city?

To begin we must know the extent and causes of the problem. As the representative for Ward 10, there are two primary areas of concern with air toxins. First, this past summer, levels of air toxins reached alarming levels in the Uptown area. These high levels have been attributed to emissions from fossil fueled vehicles. To reduce and reverse these levels, I will promote the use of alternative transportation, support efficient fuels, and alternative fuels for city vehicles. I will work to create a more biker friendly city and raise environmental awareness in our town. Will the Sierra Club join me and other environmentalists to establish a dedicated bike to work day or week? Second, we are impacted by the airport, both the air traffic flying into it and the ground traffic going to and fro. We need to join with other cities and states nationwide and demand quieter, cleaner jet engines. Here at home, we need to create mass transportation that people will use. Traveling to the airport via light rail and bus is a good, first, teachable step. We must continue to work with our surrounding communities to develop regional standards and work directly with the PCA to ensure enforcement. As a City, we must use our lobbing efforts to support these efforts and improve our air quality. As a region, we must come together for stronger enforcement.

On a timely issue, the 5-year MPCA permit for Xcel's Riverside coal-burning power plant is up for renewal. The pollution from the Riverside plant is having an impact on our community. The impact of sulfur dioxide is an immediate trigger for asthma attacks. Thus, while the plant is emitting large amounts of SO2, it has an immediate impact upon children playing in school playgrounds, parks, or their own backyards, not to mention the adults and senior citizens. When using alternative fuels, such as natural gas, most of the emissions would be eliminated. Public comments are due October 11th, I encourage everyone to use their voices or emails and comment on this issue. Log on at www.pca.state.mn.us to voice your concerns.

4) What will you do to maintain and improve our parks and boulevards?

I will encourage the parks to plant trees and native plants, reduce the amount of phosphorous fertilizers, and expand safe playgrounds — replace preserved wood play equipment with safer plastic. We must recognize the parks not only provide needed green space, they are also important centers of recreation for our children. This dual role adds to the necessity of making our parks clean and safe.

I have already built a strong relationship with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, creating programs that promote youth development. I will build on this relationship to ensure our parks remain one of the best systems in the country. Building stronger partnerships to reduce duplication and increase efficiencies will provide greater opportunities for a clean green city.

I will plant trees. Dutch Elm Disease continues to devastate our canopy lined streets, replacement of these trees have fallen behind. We can plant a variety of trees and recapture the charm of our city, our urban habitat, and regenerate our city’s lungs. We should also reintroduce native plants, plants which require less fertilizer, watering, and mowing than the non-native grass currently growing in our parks and boulevards.

Finally, I will encourage and expand a partnership with the University of Minnesota to tap expertise from some of the best young minds attending our institutions.

5) With the increased commercial development of our downtown what will you do to help solve the growing transportation pressures into our city?

First we must all recognize that a thriving and growing downtown is an important part of our community, but that growth has come with a cost: inefficient transportation and increased pollution. I will work to improve transportation options and promote incentives for downtown workers to use mass transportation. We must expand mass transit, build light rail, and work with the MTC for improved services: more convenient routes, buses that use cleaner fuel, and buses that encourage mixed transportation — let’s put bike racks on those buses! We should improve bike lanes and work to rapidly expand light rail. Another way to relieve transportation pressure is to build more housing downtown. Eliminating people’s commute will reduce transportation problems and pollution. Fro the City, I will help develop a long range plan that will incorporate issues to reverse urban sprawl, bringing individuals and families back to our City to work, live and play. My experience of bringing people together by building partnerships, strong schools, livable neighborhoods with access to services are the skills needed to make this happen.

6) What will you do to deal with the continued airport expansion and transportation pressures related to increased airport traffic? We must restart duel track planning with MAC. We can be more creative than last time, for example we should explore building satellite runways linked by high speed trains to the existing terminal. Move jets and noise further away, keep the terminal close by, and not allow urban sprawl to devastate the land between the Twin Cities and a new airport. That solution is a decade away. Today we must push for reduction of air and noise pollutants. We should move cargo to alternate locations, move small planes to alternate locations, and explore moving the National Guard base. Also we must insist MAC live up to its promise to noise proof our neighborhoods affected by airport noise. That is part of the bargain; we should force them to keep it.

7) Run off from impervious surfaces, roads, sidewalks, roofs and lawn chemicals are impacting our lakes, rivers, and creeks. What will you do to improve water quality in our city’s waterways? Education! We must reduce the use of phosphorous fertilizers. I support the city council’s ordinance and I support community education. We can’t ban phosphorous fertilizers only to have them purchased in the suburbs and spread on city lawns. As a City, in partnership with our Park and Recreation Board, we must educate residents about the damage done by these pollutants and give sensible solutions. The park board has found one solution: building filter ponds. We should expand their use. We should also plant more native plants which use less fertilizer and do not need to be mowed. This will reduce the amount of yard waste in our streets. I support increasing the number of times our streets are cleaned. Too many pollutants end up in our rivers, lakes and creeks because of run off. An easy solution is to increase the Cities efforts for cleaning streets. When we reduce the amount of pollutant running into our rivers, lakes, and streams, the quality of our precious waters will increase. After all, Minneapolis is the City of Lakes and we should protect our treasure.

A) Would you support a citywide phosphorous fertilizer ban? Yes B) Would you support a storm water treatment system? Yes C) Would you support building additional holding ponds to protect our city lakes? Yes

8) What would you do to promote bicycle and pedestrian transit? As stated earlier the City of Minneapolis must have a comprehensive, compatible transportation plan that includes pedestrian and bicycle transit. My plan calls for safe bike paths that connect Ward 10 to downtown and painting crosswalks on our streets for pedestrians. I will promote additional bicycle commuter option such as bike racks on busses, in the business areas, and downtown district. I will help provide bike racks to encourage biking, both in our neighborhoods as well as downtown. An important part of promoting biking is leading by example: we should establish an exclusive bike to work day.

Let’s look at the Big Picture and develop Urban Villages so we can walk and bike to more of our destinations

9) Do you believe central cities should accept a greater or lesser share of the Twin Cities projected population growth? Suburban sprawl is challenging our urban development and must be reversed. As stated earlier, to support a strong city I will champion a safe, affordable livable city. We should build smart density in our city — we can house more people, make efficient mass transportation an achievable goal, and save our farmlands from urban sprawl.

10) What if anything will you do to promote city level campaign finance reform? I believe local campaign reform is overdue. I am disheartened by the expense of running an honest open campaign. My grass roots campaign has relied on volunteers for literature development and distribution, and other voter contact. I support full disclosure of campaign contributors during the entire term of all city office holders, not just during the election season. I am willing to work with Sierra Club or others to discuss campaign finance reform on the local level.

11) How will you use your position as City Council Member to direct city procurement policies towards green products and buildings, such as super high efficiency vehicles, passive solar construction, chlorine free paper, recycled carpets and clean fuels?

I strongly support policies that support green products and buildings. We must require the city use green products to create economies of scale for these products. As stated earlier, I will work to make our city a clean green place for all. The City must lead by example.

12) What will you do as a City Council Member to help protect Camp Coldwater Springs (Bureau of Mines Land) and the 27 acres of green space that surrounds the area?

A) Would you oppose the Metropolitan Airports Commissions efforts to build on the current land a parking facility or any other type of development that would disturb the current green space?

I would oppose development.

B) Would you support turning the Bureau of Mines Land over to the either the Department of Natural Resources, State Park System or Minneapolis Park Board to be restored to it original natural state.

Yes.