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Randall Arendt brings message of creative development design to CGO Kickoff
 The communities of the Community Growth Options (CGO) project spent Thursday, June 18 with Randall Arendt, the country’s most sought-after speaker on the topic of creative development design. The full day included community building, an afternoon presentation and hands-on workshop, and a sit-down dinner featuring the City of Hanover, which has actively pursued conservation development. Mr. Arendt's evening presentation was opened up to the public. He was invited to officially kickoff the project, which includes ten growing communities on the edges of the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
Read more about CGO.
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Legacy Letters now showing on Minnesota Channel
1000 Friends of Minnesota and Twin Cities Public Television (tpt) have partnered to create 22 Legacy Letters — short videos about what people treasure most in Minnesota, and what their vision is for the future. These minute-long videos are airing statewide on the Minnesota Channel, tpt's digital channel. The videos feature the hopes, dreams, memories, concerns, and visions of Minnesotans like you who can articulate what’s working well and what’s needed in Minnesota. Read on to learn more about Legacy Letters.
Visit our YouTube channel to watch Legacy Letters by clicking the picture below
Click here for information on finding tpt Minnesota Channel
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Spring 2009 newsletter now available from 1000 Friends
Our latest issue features an article about the filming and release of Legacy Letters. Jeff Heegaard calls for a new way of thinking about the shape of our future. Read about our new staff members and the latest developments in our many projects, including Community Growth Options, 2008 Lake-Friendly Development Awards, Goodhue County's Land-use Model, etc. Download the Spring 2009 issue.
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1000 Friends advocates for lower carbon emissions
Policy director John Bailey is working on the Building Sensible Communities legislation with Fresh Energy and other Minnesota nonprofits. The St. Paul Legal Ledger Capitol Report ran a story about the bill’s progress. Click here for the full story: http://legal-ledger.com/item.cfm?recID=11518.
To read more about Building Sensible Communities, click here.
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CGO outreach & education coordinator interviews Center City council
Vanessa Morrell, CGO community outreach and education coordinator, interviewed the Center City council to learn about the city's goals, its history of developing these goals, anticipated challenges in achieving them, and how they think 1000 Friends can help address these challenges. Read more in this article about Center City's most recent council meeting.
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Second Five Communities Announced:
1000 Friends of Minnesota selected the final five of ten communities to participate in the CGO program: Afton, Center City, Jordan, Livonia Township and Pine Island. Previously announced communities include Becker Township, Corcoran, Norwood Young America, Princeton and Victoria. See our latest press release click here.
CGO is a multi-year project funded by the McKnight Foundation and designed to deliver to small, fast-growing communities financial and other assistance for community planning, ordinance development, and implementation. 1000 Friends of Minnesota is partnered with the University of Minnesota's Center for Urban and Regional Affairs and the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs on this project. Please visit the Community Growth Options page for more information.
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New report calls for thoughtful planning along the Twin Cities' suburban edge
In October 2008, The McKnight Foundation released the report Re:Focus: Making Choices for Future Generations, highlighting the Twin Cities' outer-ring suburbs and the possibilities for their zone of growth and development. With the report, McKnight hopes both to spark a call to action for thoughtful planning and to help connect people with tools to improve the way our region grows. 1000 Friends of Minnesota staff participated in the writing of the publication. For more information and to download the report, visit the McKnight Foundation at this link: http://www.mcknight.org/region/refocus.aspx.
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New report examines local government capacity to conserve natural areas
1000 Friends of Minnesota and Embrace Open Space announces the release of "A Look at Community Capacity to Conserve Open Space in the Twin Cities Area". This report is a first ever compilation of information related to community factors that can contribute to conserving land from almost 200 communities in the Twin Cities, including cities, townships and counties. Download the full report or an executive summary on our Resources page.
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Visit Checkmylake.org
This summer, Minnesota families who want to know if their favorite Minnesota lake is clean enough for swimming and eating fish caught in that lake have an easy way to find out - www.checkmylake.org. Powered by Conservation Minnesota, the new website is a user-friendly way that Minnesotans can find out whether their favorite lakes are clean or polluted - or haven't been tested yet. The site relies on the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's (MPCA) database but makes the information easy to access and comprehend.
By going to www.checkmylake.org, you can either type in the name of a favorite lake or type in a county name and choose from among a list to find out whether lakes have been tested and what the results show. According to the MPCA, nearly half of lakes tested are polluted. More troubling, for every lake MPCA has tested, there are 4 more that the agency hasn't tested.
Check out www.checkmylake.org
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Join the Minnesota Non-Profit GIS User Group
Are you interested in learning more about how other non-profits are using geospatial technologies? Is your non-profit using or developing GIS technology? 1000 Friends of Minnesota would like to invite you to join a non-profit GIS User Group that is meeting quarterly. The group started meeting in Spring 2008 and includes a diverse group of non-profit representatives! The next meeting will be Winter 2008/09, with the actual date to be announced. We meet at the Rondo Community Library, from 11am-1:30pm. If you would like to be on the contact list for this group to receive meeting announcements and other useful information, please contact Sally Wakefield at swakefield@1000fom.org or 651.312.1000. Looking forward to seeing you there!
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1000 Friends of Minnesota has moved!
With the latest developments in our program areas, we outgrew our office space in downtown St. Paul and we've moved to the main floor of an historic mixed-use building on West 7th Street.
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Our phone number and fax are the same:
Phone: 651-312-1000
Fax: 651-312-0012
Email: info@1000fom.org |
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Met Council Directions features 1000 Friends’ Technical Resource Center
The latest edition of the Metropolitan Council’s newsletter, Directions, discusses geo-visualization techniques for local communities and touts the work of 1000 Friends of Minnesota’s Growing By Design Technical Resource Center. Follow this link for the full article.
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Compact development promoted in Business Week
Even business journals are embracing the notion that building new developments in more compact ways is necessary to make a dent in the number of miles we drive and the emissions our cars create. When we live in walkable neighborhoods that require shorter trips for most errands, research shows that we drive less. Read the full story at Business Week magazine.
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Envision Minnesota - Charting our Future
 We have been hard at work laying the groundwork for the next phase of Envision Minnesota, the program area that encompasses our statewide education and policy efforts. We’re pleased to announce that we have the program planned through 2010, and have received a $100,000 inaugural grant from a foundation that is part of the Opus Philanthropy group. This grant will be used to kick-start our efforts in 2008. For more information see our Envision Minnesota page. |
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Donate Now!
1000 Friends of Minnesota is a member-supported non-profit organization. Please contribute today to help us achieve our mission! Visit our About Us page to learn more.
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1000 Friends is a proud partner of the Embrace Open Space collaborative
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This page was last updated on June 8, 2009
For questions or comments, please email the webmaster.
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All original materials, both written and graphic, are the copyright property of 1000 Friends of Minnesota |
