Saturday, October 19, 8:30am-noon
$10/person
Group size: 5-40
Field Guide: Paula Pentel, Coordinator, Urban Studies Program and Doctoral Candidate, Department of
Geography, University of Minnesota; Chair, Planning Commission, City of Golden Valley, MN

This tour will investigate three new Minneapolis neighborhoods being developed in conjunction with parkways.
We'll see:
         (1) upscale riverfront housing in the former warehouse district, bordering the Mississippi River and the Great River Road parkway;
         (2) the Heritage Park mixed-income housing development along the newly "day-lighted" Bassett Creek, which replaces several hundred units of the Sumner/Glenwood Public Housing projects (razed as a result of the Hollman vs. Cisneros Consent Decree of 1995). The development includes 900 new mixed-income units built in the style of the Minneapolis neighborhood tradition and "New Urbanism".
         (3) the Humboldt Greenway, an enhanced family-friendly development along a new link in the Minneapolis parkway system. One of the largest public investment projects on the North Side in decades, this public-improvement project promises to reinvigorate the Shingle Creek and Lind-Bohanon neighborhoods of North Minneapolis with a new parkway, improvements to Shingle Creek, landscaped medians, boulevards, new open space, a pedestrian mall and a range of housing choices. Approximately 200 new single-family homes and townhomes will be built in the newly created parkway setting, designed in the spirit of the Historic Victory Memorial Parkway.

The Cedar Creek Natural History Area (CCNHA) is a 5,400-acre site about 1 hour north of the U of MN
Minneapolis campus, near Bethel, MN, and lies at the boundary between prairie and forest. It is a mosaic of uplands dominated by oak savanna, prairie, hardwood forest, pine forests, and abandoned agricultural fields and of lowlands comprised of ash and cedar swamps, acid bogs, marshes, and sedge meadows.

The CCNHA is dedicated to research on ecosystem functioning and global sustainability. It is an experimental ecological reserve operated by the University of Minnesota in cooperation with the Minnesota Academy of Science, and in 1982 was one of 11 sites in the United States selected by the National Science Foundation for funding of Long Term Ecological Research (LTER). The Center director is David Tilman, Regents Professor of Ecology at the U of MN and National Academy of Sciences member.

This visit will include an introduction and overview by Center staff, a tour of some of the research facilities, a look at some of the natural environments under study, and a visit to some of the research projects being conducted at the site.

Please see the CCNHS Web site for more details and photos: http://www.cedarcreek.umn.edu/

Like many waterfront CBDs in America, the 160-year-old downtown Minneapolis is undergoing yet another major remodeling, the fourth in its history--brownfield rail and industrial sites sport new housing; industrial land along Mississippi River embankments becomes parkland; street-level shopping relocates to second floors of downtown city blocks linked by over 60 skyways; parking ramps ring the downtown core to facilitate suburbanites driving in to work and shop, while light-rail construction is underway. Meanwhile arts and professional sports supplement an unusually vibrant downtown dining and entertainment scene. Our walking tour will examine the high spots, and analyze the dynamics supplying energy to the transformation and maintenance of this energetic downtown.

The Science Museum of Minnesota, located in downtown St. Paul, is one of the best of its type in the country. On this visit we will go behind the scenes to see how exhibits are developed using geographic data and large-format graphics. We will see projects produced in collaboration with NASA and the American Museum of Natural History. After the formal tour of 60-90 minutes, participants will have a chance to browse in the museum.

For more information about the Science Museum of Minnesota, visit their Web site at:  http://www.smm.org

For an article about GIS activity at the Science Museum, see:
http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/fall00articles/10000lakes.html

The URL for this page is:  http://www.geog.umn.edu/West_Lakes_AAG/Field.html

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