326 Hennepin Ave E
Candidate name: Dan Niziolek
Address: 3510 Garfield Ave S Zip Code: 55408
City: Minneapolis Election: Minneapolis 10th Ward City Council
Phone Number: 612-822-8343
Email Address: niziolek@qwest.net
I would like to be considered for a: (Name-only Endorsement)
The goal of our questionnaire is to gather as complete a record as possible about your support of environmental issues. The questions were developed with input from a broad range of environmental experts. Your responses will be publicly available. In addition to answering the questionnaire, we would appreciate any speeches, remarks, newspaper clippings, opinion pieces, and campaign brochures that will help us gain a complete picture of your environmental commitment. We encourage you to complete the questionnaire carefully and return it no later than September 7, 2001. If you have any questions, please contact Brian Elliott at 612-623-3666.
1. Please list the three environmental issues that will be a priority for you if elected.
- Decrease the reliance on automobiles.
- Create sustainable, urban communities that provide people the opportunity to live, work, shop, and play without a reliance on the use of an automobile.
- Protect the pride of Minneapolis - water.
- Ban phosphorus and other chemicals harmful to our lakes and rivers.
- Ensure effective stormwater management, both manmade and natural (wetlands.)
- Increase sustainable, green building.
- Be a leader developing, promoting, and requiring green building.
2. What activities will you undertake to advance the issues you listed in Question 1? What examples of environmental leadership can you cite from your past? (Attach extra page if needed)
1) Ensure Minneapolis is focused on building sustainable, urban communities. Past city policies and codes have been suburban in nature, creating a greater reliance on the use of automobiles and discouraging other modes of transportation like walking, biking, and mass transit.
As council member, I will work to build a strong planning department leading our city in developing and implementing urban development and transportation solutions. Appropriate increase in residential densities, mixed-use development, strong pedestrian realm, bike friendly streets, and mass transportation will be priorities for Minneapolis. Our zoning code, comprehensive plan, and city policies will promote sustainable, urban communities.
2) Ensure city codes, policies, resources and programs effectively protect our water. Minneapolis’ pride (water) will be a city priority. Codes or statutes will ban the use of phosphorus. City policies will ensure run-off from public works projects do not pollute our rivers and lakes. Resources will be dedicated to stormwater management, including continuing wetlands creation.
3) Ensure the city is a leader in educating and working with community members to create a
green city. By utilizing community-mobilizing techniques exemplified in the Global Action Plan’s Livable Neighborhood project, I will ensure the city invests community organizing resources into an environmental initiative. This will focus on developing and supporting the environmental movement already present in our neighborhoods.
To achieve this and other community improvement initiatives, I am proposing moving the community organizing component of the city from the police department to the planning department. This will allow the community organizing capacity of the city to be used for designing and building great communities. One of these initiatives will be building a green city.
3) Ensure the MCDA prioritizes developing partnerships with the University of Minnesota and the non-profit and private community to develop and promote green building. A focus will be on reducing waste, increasing use of recycled and environmentally friendly materials, and energy efficient building. The effort should start with education and incentives and then move to building codes requiring green building.
Leadership in environmental issues
1) Initiated and developed a citywide initiative on building sustainable, urban communities that are naturally safe and desirable. This initiative, called Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), focuses on understanding the impact of the physical environment on the behavior of people, including the importance of the nature environment. Efforts are directed at creating neighborhoods that foster healthy development.
2) Led crime prevention initiatives that supported community gardens, the greening of our neighborhoods, and efforts by the Lyndale Youth Farm and Market Project.
3) Leadership through example.
- Front yard is a native prairie.
- Commute by bus or bike.
- Ensure my work and home are within 20 minutes by bike.
- Support Community Supported Agriculture.
- Recycle and compost. I was a leader in a project that increased the number of composts on our block.
3. Why should CWAA become involved in this election? What makes your election urgent to a grassroots environmental organization? How will your election further our organization’s goals? (Attach extra page if needed)
My election is important to CWAA for three reasons:
1) I understand the importance of and am already working on building sustainable, urban communities
2) I am a community organizer who values and knows the power and importance of community action. I have the experience and ability to bring people together to create change.
3) I believe in and am committed to building green communities.
As a council member I will work to ensure the city engages community members in building sustainable communities. We will partner with Clean Water Action Alliance and other environmental groups to create solutions. Minneapolis will be a leader in developing sustainable, urban communities.
4. Phosphorus runoff, as a primary contribution to algae blooms, is a major source of pollution to our local waters. If elected, I will strongly advocate for a ban on the application of phosphorus-containing lawn chemicals.
(Strongly Agree) Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Not sure/Need more...
5. A significant and largely neglected source of water pollution is raw sewage and urban stormwater runoff after rainstorms or snowmelts due to inadequate stormwater collection and treatment infrastructure. If elected, I will work to implement strict stormwater management plans and funding to protect local waters from stormwater runoff pollution.
(Strongly Agree) Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Not sure/Need more...
6. Municipal solid waste incinerators are a major source of toxic air pollution. If elected, I will work to ensure that the city implements aggressive programs to reduce the waste stream directed toward landfills and incinerators through increased efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
(Strongly Agree) Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Not sure/Need…
7. Sound municipal land-use planning is key to preventing future environmental damage, preserving green space, and undoing past environmental damages and injustices. If elected, I will work to see the city incorporate strong environmental protections and clean-up components into any land-use plans and planning decisions.
(Strongly Agree) Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Not sure/Need…
8. If elected, I will strongly support innovative means of advancing renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy conservation, including combined heating and electric systems, community aggregation, community energy planning, and “greening” of municipal buildings.
(Strongly Agree) Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Not sure/Need …
9. As the largest user of fossil fuels, action by the United States, including efforts of municipal governments, to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases is essential to protection of the global climate. If elected, I will work to implement plans for the local reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
(Strongly Agree) Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Not sure/Need more...
10. If elected, I will strongly promote local and organic food production, as well as establish linkages between producers and consumers through mechanisms such as farmers markets and the purchase of locally produced food by municipal institutions.
(Strongly Agree) Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Not sure/Need more...
11. As large consumers of products and services, cities should implement purchasing guidelines to wield their market power in an environmentally and socially responsible manner, and if elected, I will work to see this happen.
(Strongly Agree) Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Not sure/Need...