Take 5 minutes to answer our summer survey: http://bit.ly/KFNA2019 (English); at the top of the page there is also a link to the same survey in Spanish.
Let us know what is important to you, and what KFNA could be doing to be more relevant to your community life. If you have questions about how to get involved or ideas for how to strengthen connections with residents, email board member, Sarah Tschida at saraht@kingfield.org.
National Night Out is Like Christmas for KFNA!
We love this night for being able to come to your street and see a so many neighbors celebrating our community! Thank you for allowing us to visit your parties. We will be scooping free ice-cream from the back of bike trailers again, made and donated by our neighborhood confectionary, Sebastian Joe’s. We are going classic—with a nod to a different construction project than the 35W one we are currently living with—and we will be bringing back Nicollet Pothole, and a new vegan edition of Joe’s Oreo!
Nicollet Pothole was created one decade ago to protest the removal of Nicollet Avenue from the upcoming Minneapolis construction budget. It might have been the very first time that ice-cream was ever used as an organizing tool, but the tagline for the BEST ice-cream created for the WORST road in Minneapolis raised some eyebrows.
Joe’s worked with KFNA to create a dark base of chocolate ice-cream with a thick, slick of caramel, deep-dark holes of fudge, a heavy gravel of toffee chunks, and of course a dash of salt (sea salt, not road salt!) On National Night Out 2009 we celebrated the fact that Sebastian Joe’s was masterful at creating a smooth flavor—and lamented the fact that they weren’t also the one’s responsible for creating a smooth roadway. Needless to say, Nicollet Avenue was put back into the City budget within three months of unveiling the flavor.
This year, besides celebrating past accomplishments, the KFNA Board wants to talk with you about the future. For the first time in over 20 years we are short of Directors on our non-profit volunteer board; we want to find out how we can connect to neighbors more personally and address issues that are potentially more relevant. We hope that this will encourage more neighbors to participate with KFNA either on the Board of Directors, on various committees or work groups, or at events. If in the midst of the festivities you miss directly connecting with a KFNA representative and don’t receive the card with a short survey link on it, and you want to share your thoughts and opinions, just email info@kingfield.org, or follow the link here.
And again, happy National Night Out!
Register for NNO! Even if you Block Party is in a front yard, be sure to register it with the City. The City uses these numbers to justify community outreach staff in their department.
Kingfielders, KFNA uses the City’s list to create our bike map to deliver ice cream made, and donated by, our neighborhood confectionary, Sebastian Joe’s. We have been working on a top secret new flavor with Sebastian Joe’s for this year…so make sure you register to get the first taste on August 6!
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) has published revised concepts for the Southwest Service Area Master Plan (called the Southwest Parks Plan for short) including MLK Park. The goal of all of these plans is to create a cohesive set of new, long-term plans for these Minneapolis neighborhood park properties. The King Park Plan can be viewed in this group of Plans.
If you would like to see how the updated concept compares to KFNA’s comments/input on the initial concepts read our initial response here.
We would encourage you to think about how you use the park now and what makes MLK Park great! What elements of the new park design would improve that experience? What park elements, location and spacing could be improved in the concept? Is there anything missing from the design that you think needs to be included? The two initial concepts for the park can be found here.
You can share your comments to this updated concept plan online at surveymonkey.
If you would like to discuss or share any specific comments on the design with the neighborhood’s Community Advisory Committee Member contact Chris DesRoches @ chris@kingfield.org.
On March 27, 2019, the KFNA Board submitted comments to the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board in response to two draft long-range design and use plans for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park located in the Kingfield Neighborhood. This response was drafted by reflecting on comments from the community, alongside reflection by the Board of Directors. We confirm in this statement that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park is an invaluable asset for our neighborhood which serves both as a daily place for recreation and also as a community space for meetings, gatherings and events.
The park acts as a connection for residents on both sides of 35W serving both the Kingfield and Bryant Neighborhoods and it is a regular occurrence on a summer night to see families crossing the 40th Street Pedestrian bridge coming to and from the park. One of the greatest things about Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. park is this high amount of activity that happens within its boundaries. Through more detailed planning and activation of currently underutilized spaces we believe the park can provide a higher quantity and better variety of activities to create a more inclusive and dynamic space. We believe that generally Plan B fits this vision because of its wider range of activities and holistic use of space.
See full comments here: KFNA Comments on SW Master Plan 2019
