Northern

There are some great green initiatives and events happening in Minnesota, contributing towards a cleaner environment for residents. Read about how local communities are working towards creating a more environmentally-friendly world. There are more entries than usual this month!

Prodded by a homeowner whose prairie plantings were mowed against his will, the city of Minneapolis has come up with a plan to let lawns go natural. Some suburbs have already taken the step of allowing natural plantings in place of grass, accepting their environmental benefits over the objections of some neighbors who think they look unkempt. The proposal defines the new type of landscaping as an intentional planting of native or non-native grasses, wildflowers, ferns, shrubs, trees or forbs. They're allowed to exceed the city's normal nuisance ordinance threshold of 8 inches in height, or grass that has gone or is about to go to seed. They can't include noxious weeds and have to be maintained to avoid...

Is it cheaper to buy a home than it is to rent a home? In some cities, renting is more expensive than buying!

Trulia.com recently released its new Buy vs. Rent index, ranking the top 10 cities in the United States where buying a home makes most financial sense. Minneapolis (and by close relation St. Paul and most of the metro area) has landed on that list. Though Minneapolis didn't see the same huge spike in real estate prices that other communities experienced during the housing boom, once prices started dropping, home ownership became really cheap.

In Minneapolis, the average listing price for a home placed on the real estate market is $153,844. A 30-year fixed rate mortgage for that amount locked in at the rate of 4.638% APR would result in a monthly payment of approximately $768. The average monthly price for renting a home in Minneapolis is $1,700. Other cities where it is cheaper to buy...

North Virginia real estate professional Carolyn Capalbo's phone has been ringing off the hook. Sounds like a REALTOR's dream, right? Unfortunately, this experience has been nothing short of a nightmare.

North Virginia real estate agent Carolyn Capalbo had been working to build a reputation as a leader within the real estate industry. Through determination, persistence, and moxie, she positioned herself as one of the best real estate agents in the region. For her effort, she gained prominence within the local community and online.

And then all of her hard work was thwarted due to a simple case of mistaken identity.

In real estate, your name is your brand, your reputation. It's what people recognize. The success of a REALTOR is often defined by whether or not people know your name. What happens when someone with the same name is associated with something scandalous?

In 2008 New...

St. Paul-based nonprofit Preservation Alliance of Minnesota will soon formally announced the buildings and sites on this year’s “10 Most Endangered Historic Places” list. Although the official announcement of the list isn’t until later this week, this year’s list surfaced early in the June issue of Minnesota Monthly.

Three of the listed sites are in the Twin Cities area: The Samuel J. Hewson House and the Wesley United Methodist Church in Minneapolis, and the Dairy Queen located at 1720 Lexington Avenue N. in Roseville.

The rest of the buildings and sites on Minnesota's “10 Most Endangered Historic Places” for 2010:
 
• Great Northern Railway Depot, Princeton
• Dodd Ford Bridge, Amboy
• Jackson County Resource Center, Jackson
• Southeast St. Cloud Neighborhood, St. Cloud
• Todd County Courthouse, Long Prairie
• Garrison Concourse, Garrison
• Bessesen Building,...

This is the Land of 10,000 Lake and millions of trees. We take our environment seriously. Read on to learn about environmentally friendly news that happened recently around the Twin Cities and Minnesota!

Anoka County Highway Department is working on ways to get fewer people driving on Highway 65 in Blaine. The county has received a $7 million Congestion Mitigation Air Quality grant from the Federal Highway Administration to improve mass transit on the corridor. With $1.5 million in matching money, the county has issued a request for proposals for consultants to help create a plan to ferry nine busloads of commuters from Blaine's northern edge into downtown Minneapolis and back.

Also in Anoka County, employees may have saved a few jobs by saving energy (and money). First, lights were dimmed. Utility costs at the government center were reduced by $58,000 in 2009. In 2010, the county is expected to save more than $65,000. Next, Facilities Management and Construction team is changing the heating...

Will it be a white-out Christmas? If you've been paying any attention, you know that a snowstorm threatens to turn last-minute shopping and holiday travel into possibly dangerous tasks. The forecast indicates there could be the deepest Christmas snows on record across Minnesota and parts ot the midwest, with the storm already well started as I write this and expected to linger well into Saturday.

The storm is capable of dropping 16 to 22 inches from Iowa to the Arrowhead. The heaviest snow is predicted for central and northern Minnesota. The snow will likely be heavy and wet, so be careful as there will probably be a lot of ice on the roads. Wind gusts could exceed 20 mph.

Will it really be Snowmagedon? Will the Doomsnow hit us as hard as they say? Time will tell, but the weather forecast guarantees that snow emergencies will be declared in Minneapolis and St. Paul over the holiday weekend. That will require most cars parked on streets to be moved at least once or be towed away at significant...

It has been cold. It has even been snowy. And not only did we get a crummy summer, we've almost been gypped out of fall, too.

But there have still some great autum colors in the trees, even if they are a little harder to spot around the Twin Cities right now.

 

These pictures were taken along the Mississippi River in northern Minneapolis. Or was it St. Paul? Actually I was standing on the bridge in between, so... take your pick!

 

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Lake Minnetonka is a 14,528-acre lake in Minnesota, located west-southwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul. The lake is an irregular shape with many bays and islands, giving it about 125 miles of shoreline. The lake has been a resort destination throughout its recorded history. Some of the cities that surround Lake Minnetonka include St. Bonifacus, Minnetrista, Mound, Spring Park, Minnetonka, Long Lake, Wayzata, Woodland, Deephaven, Shorewood,  and Excelsior.

The Southeast Steam Plant, also known as the Twin City Rapid Transit Company Steam Power Plant, is a combined heat and power plant located on the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. It is owned by the University of Minnesota. Constructed in 1903 to provide electricity for the Twin City Rapid Transit street railway system, it supported the area's major form of public transportation for 50 years until Minneapolis converted entirely to buses in 1954. In the early 1950s, Northern States Power Company, which is now Xcel Energy, acquired the building and in 1976 the university purchased the plant.

The university closed the Southeast plant to gut and rebuild the interior, and in 2000, reopened it and closed down its old coal-burning power plant. Completed in 2005, exterior rehabilitation won a local historic preservation award. Now it is among the cleanest burning power plants in the country, as the high...