[Mpls] This Week in The Minneapolis Observer

[Craig Cox]

T H E M I N N E A P O L I S O B S E R V E R
A Weekly Digest of All Things Minneapolitan
www.mplsobserver.com
Vol. 2, No. 43
June 16, 2003

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--The Editor

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THIS WEEK IN THE OBSERVER:
* MAC Vote Will Set New Airport Noise Map
* Park Board Restores Some Programs
* North Side Community Explores Target Options
* Grocery Store Roulette to Continue
* Decision Puts Local Business at Odds with Neighborhood
* Park Board Restores Some Programs, Services
Plus: Library futures, the Mother of All Co-ops shops for a building, geraniums get their due, and have the cops finally gone too far?

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MAC VOTE WILL SET NEW AIRPORT NOISE MAP
The Metropolitan Airport Commission will vote today on air traffic projections that will inform a controversial new airport noise map. But the projections--and the process--has anti-noise activists seething.

As Scott Russell reports in the Southwest Journal (http://www.swjournal.com), the MAC's environmental and planning committee on June 4 approved air traffic assumptions that will help the commission draw the new noise map, requested after 9/11 sent traffic plummeting nationwide. The agency projects a 3.6 percent annual increase in air traffic through 2007, plus a fleet of larger, but quieter, planes. The projections will help the MAC determine eligibility for the agency's home sound insulation program.

But the South Metro Airport Action Council (SMAAC), a community-based anti-noise group, criticized the MAC process as being too hasty and lacking public review, and the city's MAC representative, Dan Boivin, said he is negotiating a deal that would allow adjustments to the noise map after two years,if the projections prove too conservative.

Meanwhile, the new Noise Oversight Committee, created last year to replace the 30-year-old Metropolitan Aircraft Sound Abatement Council, which Northwest Airlines abandoned in 2000 after accusing it of being too activist-oriented, has yet to hold its first meeting and has essentially been shut out of the process.

Chad Leqve, manager of MAC's Aviation Noise Program, said the Oversight Committee will have an instrumental role to play in drawing the new noise map, which he said should be ready by the fall.

PARK BOARD RESTORES SOME PROGRAMS AND SERVICES
The Park Board last week voted to restore a half dozen popular programs and services it had earlier cut in response to expected state funding cuts.


NORTH SIDE COMMUNITY EXPLORES TARGET OPTIONS
Community leaders on the North side are exploring the potential of buying the Broadway Avenue Target store, which is scheduled to close August 2.


NETWORK TV HIGHLIGHTS LOCAL COP PROGRAM
The CBS Evening News last week lauded the Minneapolis Police Department's Bait Car Program as one of the nation's most successful anti-car theft projects. The report, by correspondent Cynthia Bowers, noted that the program cut car thefts in the city by 37 percent in its first six months.

GROCERY STORE ROULETTE TO CONTINUE
Local grocery shoppers will barely be adjusting to new Rainbow ownership when another new player will be moving into the area.


DECISION PUTS LOCAL BUSINESS AT ODDS WITH NEIGHBORHOOD
A city planning commission zoning decision has put a long-time North Loop business at odds with its neighbors and a potential housing development.


CITY'S FIRST FOOD CO-OP RAISING MONEY TO BUY BUILDING
North Country Co-op, Minneapolis' first food co-op, is working to ensure its survival by buying its building.


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The Minneapolis Observer is published 48 times/year by Independent Media, L.L.C. �2003 Independent Media, 4152 Snelling Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55406; www.mplsobserver.com. No part of this publication may be reprinted without the permission of Independent Media. Subscriptions: $12/yr. To unsubscribe, send us an e-mail ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) and we'll get you off the list and refund the unused portion of your subscription.
Editor: Craig Cox
Deputy Assistant Senior Executive Editor: Sharon Parker
Contributing writers: Chris Dodge, Leo Mezzrow
Equine consultant and coffee shop correspondent: Nora Cox
Perspective: Martin Cox
Thanks to: Medora Woods

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