I’m an Idea person. I’m overflowing with ideas, and though not all of them are the next Google, many are worthy of sharing and there are probably a few gems in the pile. Once a week, I’d like to share an “idea for my neighborhood.” I’ll talk about the ideas specifically in reference to my community, north Minneapolis, but they are ideas that could be duplicated almost anywhere. Many ideas I have either have been sparked by...

Four years ago, when we were expecting our daughter, I knew I was about to begin a major shift in my priorities. It would still be a high priority to live out my faith and values, but above all else, the top priority is now to lovingly raise my children and instill those values that our so central to my life in theirs as well. In addition to simply loving my kids, I wanted to help them to see the world the way I had grown to see it. A large...

In January of this year I caught wind of this contest. Pepsi was trying a new marketing tactic, under the guise of social do-gooder. They are giving away over a million dollars each month to grant ideas submitted by individuals or organizations and voted on in an online contest. You recognize right away this is just a marketing tactic to appeal to the socially conscience crowd. At the same time, it’s a lot of available money for good...

My family is full of crazy ideas, some are more crazy then others, most, in my opinion, are awesome. So, when my brother told me last year he was going to dress up like Waldo (he fits the description well), I jumped at the opportunity to help him out. He rounded up four friends who dressed as the other Waldo characters (Wenda, Woof, Odlaw, & Wizard Whitebeard) and they scheduled an afternoon to spend in downtown Chicago wandering the...

As someone who is passionate about my community, it no surprise that more and more of my work is focused within my neighborhood. Earlier this year I was hired as a community reporter by a collaborative of non-profits on the northside. Initially, I wasn’t sure what my role would be, but what has developed is something I’m quite excited about. I currently have the opportunity to write stories, capture videos, and basically highlight...

I’ve been working on this project to create a wikipedia-like information hub for north Minneapolis, InsideNorthside.org, for a while now. Needless to say, it’s slow to catch on, but that’s understandable. In the workshops I’ve done, we’ve brainstormed what resources our community needs that we could use technology resources to address and one of the needs that arose was a comprehensive youth calendar. There are so...