Follow my Diet Plan!

Sorry to take so long between posts and thanks to all my readers!  I've been working hard on not one, but four historic buildings and have lost 7 pounds!  Come help me out and you too can lose weight.  In fact if all of the people who needed to lose weight in Crookston chipped in and helped clean out the former Wayne Hotel, we all will be winners.  Here is a sneak peak at the "Artspace Report:"

  " the citizens of Crookston should make it clear to their elected leaders that they want the building preserved. While we are sympathetic to the County Commissioners who see the building chiefly as drain on scarce resources, we cannot state too strongly our view that tearing it down would be akin to burning a Rembrandt because you can’t afford to have it cleaned. Every effort should be made to find the money needed to stabilize the building until a suitable reuse can be found. Once gone, it can never be replaced."

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The Vision for Crookston condensed

I have a vision for Crookston and have been actively pursuing it. I believe we can do this with faith not fear.  My vision is for Crookston has seven parts:

1.  First do no harm, keep Crookston beautiful and recycle older buildings.

2.  Keep Crookston quiet and peaceful. Slow down traffic and see the store windows through diagonal parking and two-way traffic

3.  Encourage small businesses through incentives, bring tax dollars back into Crookston (Just passed: our State now offers historic tax credits! as well as the federal government. Thanks to Bonnie McDonald and the MN Preservation Alliance.)

4.  Bring people downtown through affordable housing, increasing events and UMC involvement.

5.  Our kids:  create the best schools ever

6.  Encourage Arts and Culture through a regional approach, advertise our low rents to artists in Grand Forks, Fargo,and the Twin Cities.

7.  Timeliness, Transparency and Democracy in government:  Extensive partnering.  Create meaningful work through  “C-bucks” trade dollars which will also create conversations across all income groups.

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The New Streets

Which picture do you like better?

"The groundbreaking manual for walkable urban thoroughfares jointly created by the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) and the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), "Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares: A Context Sensitive Approach," is a draft no more.The manual provides welcome relief from conventional design guidelines that prescribe wider lanes and faster speeds to move more automobile traffic, with almost no regard for the environment created for pedestrians or the ability of the street to support sidewalk commerce such as sidewalk cafes and storefront businesses." (1000 Friends of Minnesota website)

Lets make Main and Broadway diagonal parking as well as some side streets.

The American Crystal Palace

Artist, David Danielson from Roseau offers this great idea:  "I have been brainstorming about the Palace/Wayne Hotel. I'm hoping for the best with the Artspace meeting. Nonprofits have been hit hard by the downturn in the economy, though. Have you thought about corporate branding with iconic symbolism? How about renaming the Palace/Wayne the American Crystal Palace, celebrating what the Crookston region is mostly about "Sugar". People always like something sweet and I think would stop in Crookston for that free bag of sugar or sugar concoction or sugar related nicknack. A sugarbeet sculpture would be kitschy but no more kitschy than Paul and Babe.
 A coffeeshop with special gourmet crystal sugar condiments, historical museum of sugar production ,migrant workers etc. The building is large enough to house that and artspace, a large restaurant and museum space for french heritage(a heraldic sculpture of an oxcart )and other specialty stores, and of course adjunct university facilities.
 The Iconic symbolism comes into play in peoples imaginations(especially children's who want to have their pictures taken with it). Paul and Babe are the perfect folk art Iconic Symbols celebrating their region, I'm sure 99.9 percent of people in this area have stood by Paul and Babe, and why Bemidji is a tourist destination and Grand Rapids isn't so much. I'm sure American Crystal Sugar would be interested in helping in renovation along with all the sugar beet farmers and everyone else, by catering to their self interest, giving them a piece of the project. The more they give the larger the plaque or engraved brick(or hand prints in concrete) they get on the building(Roseau has done this successfully putting in a 300,000 fireplace in the library, and recently a large Gazebo in a park). There is really no reason why something grand can't be done. Roseau resurrected their old creamery building which was just a shell with no roof or windows. A group of local  private investors scrapped together 3 million, attracted one of the largest restaurant(250 seat) chains in Winnipeg. Put the Polaris Experience in and a coffeeshop. Its still a success, so if a one horse town can do it, theres no reason why Crookston can't."

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Embodied Energy

"Many believe that to have a green building, everything must grow out of the newest technologies. This approach solves one problem by introducing another: Demolishing old buildings is inefficient. When a building is torn down, its "embodied energy"--the energy already exerted to create and gather the materials, and then construct the structure--is wasted. Moreover, materials from that demolished building could end up in a landfill. The National Trust for Historic Preservation estimates that one-quarter of the municipal waste stream consists of construction debris. And according to a 2004 report by the Brookings Institution, such demolition could add up to a big problem: About one-third of the U.S. building stock will be taken down and replaced by 2030."

Two year goal for Crookston!

The people of Crookston are speaking up about working together. And they are saying that Crookston is a great all-around place to be. As part of that vision, where do we want to be in two years? In two years, the next "bonding bill" year for the State Legislature, I want to see the "Northwest Centre for the Arts" or "Second Street Arts Centre" project successfully funded. OK, so we haven't even enjoyed our visit from "Artspace" yet I can see it, can you?

The former Wayne Hotel and former Cathedral on Ash Street are by now cleaned up through successful grant applications and donations. The spaces on the main floor of the Hotel and the former Cathedral will become working and performing art spaces for all kinds of artists, young and old: sculptors, pottery makers, metal workers, painters, musicians, actors,  photographers, video movie designers, and dancers, and the balance of funding will come from the State.

I've offered to Polk County free grantwriting services on the former Wayne Hotel for the roof and the clean up. I am already working on these grant apps for the Cathedral. In two years, I want to see Crookston written up in the news as a successful funded bonding bill project. We will need to drop our personal agendas and work together to make this happen, not just talk about it one way in public and another way in private.  Can we do that?  I have hope.

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Four New Prayers for Crookston!

One Prayer answered, Two need more Prayers, and add Four!

That community leaders prioritize developing housing and businesses downtown, Answered!

That the banks of Crookston reconsider sponsoring an affordable housing program grant application for the Union Building, the missing piece to the funding package.

That a developer comes forth to develop housing in the former Professional Building. 

That all of Crookston and area artists show up for the “Artspace” events.

That “Artspace” will choose to develop the Wayne/Palace Hotel.

Strengthen the hearts of Polk County Board Commissioners to endure the Wayne/Palace problem a bit longer.

That our younger generations speak up and encourage us when we are sad, apathetic, negative, or avoiding difficult problems.

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