Spring Clean-Up Days in SouthShore Communities

The spring rite of passage, the annual community trash pick-up days, are on the schedule for most area communities. Check with your community's city office for directions on how to dispose of items and when to have curbside items ready for pickup.

Shorewood - Saturday, May 16
Deephaven - Saturday, May 2
Excelsior - Saturday, May 9 (to be confirmed)
Tonka Bay - none (fall clean-up only)

A Happening Corner: 7 and 41

The southwest corner of the Hwy 7 and Hwy 41 intersection in Shorewood seems to play second fiddle to the Cub / True Value / Caribou complex across the highway. It could be the lack of destination retail and restaurants, or it could be that getting to that complex isn't as direct from east Highway 7 as going to Cub.

That may change with the addition of some new anchor tenants. First, a successful New Hope pizza place, B. Grizzly's (952-470-0641), has expanded to that strip. While Tonka Bay's Joey Nova's offers a pizza, pasta, and sandwich lineup, B. Grizzly's appears to focus exclusively on pizza. We'll be trying it soon and hope it provides another good dining and delivery option to the area.

The building going up where the video store used to be will now be a Walgreens. After unsuccessfully attempting to get in to the Hwy 7 and Hwy 19 corner, it now has a home in the South Lake area. While there is no shortage of places in the general area to get a prescription filled, Walgreens is a good chain with excellent stock, and it is sometimes more convenient to run into a real drug store than to try to get a prescription or personal care product at Target, Cub, or Byerly's.

We'll do a more thorough roundup on new area businesses in a future post.

Local Races Decided

Election Night is over, and here are your local results, starting with Ramstad's Congressional Seat (I'll always fondly call it his seat).

3rd CD Congressional: Erik Paulsen (R). Paulsen won by 7.5 points - a much larger margin than I expected.

State House Dist. 33b: Connie Doepke (R). By winning 59-41, Doepke keeps 33b a safe Republican district.

Hennepin County Commissioner, ward 6: Jan Callison, 59-41

Deephaven: Paul Skrede, Mayor. Keith Cask and John Wheaton, Council.
Excelsior: Nick Ruehl, Mayor. Greg Miller and Mary Jo Fulkerson, Council.
Greenwood: Deb Kind, Mayor. Thomas Fletcher, William Rose, and H. Kelsey Page, Council.
Shorewood: Chris Lizee, Mayor. Jeff Bailey, Laura Turgeon, Dick Woodruff, and Scott Zerby, Council.
Tonka Bay: William Labelle, Mayor. Anthony Marceau and Gerry De La Vega, Council.

Filing Period Closes: City Council Ballots Emerge

The filing date for local city council races has passed, creating clarity and some surprises around what the upcoming Council ballots will look like.

Excelsior will, for the first time in recent memory, have an uncontested election for Mayor and the two Council seats. Nick Ruehl is the lone mayoral candidate. Greg Miller and Mary Jo Fulkerson are running for the two open Council seats. This is a major change from the past two (at least) elections, when multiple candidates ran in what ended up to be very close elections.

Paula Skrede is the lone candidate for Deephaven Mayor, while Keith Kask and John Wheaton are running for the two open Council seats.

Greenwood will have some contests in November. Deb Kind and Bob Quam are running for Mayor, and William Rose, Kelsey Page, and Lake Bechtell will vie for two 4-year Council terms. Tom Fletcher will run unopposed for the two year term.

In Shorewood, Dick Woodruff, Bob Edmundson, and Scott Zerby will run for the two open Council seats in the newly reformatted at-large system. Chris Lizee will be the lone Mayoral candidate.

William Labelle is the lone Mayoral candidate in Tonka Bay, while Gerry De La Vega and Anthony Marceau are running for the two open Council seats.

There you have it -- 18 people running for 15 open seats. A big departure from two years ago when, with the SLMPD funding issue looming, the seats were much more hotly contested.

Local Elections at a Glance: Shorewood

(This is the first in a series of pieces regarding the upcoming November 4 local elections. For each South Lake municipality, we will outline the open seats, candidate registration deadline, and any other relevant information).

After a brief, four-year "ward" system of City Council elections, Shorewood will return to an at-large approach where the entire city population can vote for any of the candidates regardless of precinct.

Open Seats: All. Four councilmembers (two 2-year terms and two 4-year terms) and the 2-year mayoral post.

Candidate Filing Deadline: Tuesday, Sept. 9, 5pm

More Info: Shorewood's election page

Major Issues, incumbents announcing re-election plans, etc.: You tell us! Post a comment and dialogue with your neighbors.

Shorewood gets PR on Garage Logic

Garage Logic, the Joe Soucheray drive-time show on AM-1500, spent a fair amount of time on Monday's show discussing the latest Shorewood city newsletter. Soucheray was skeptical that a city government needed to offer as many services as it does. He questioned if things like a city clean-up day, youth activities, or prairie grass planting was really something that a city government needed to offer.

He made the point that he was using Shorewood as an example, but many if not most state cities have become primary providers of many services which he clearly views as "fringe". It is worth a listen. Click on the Monday, May 5, 3pm-4pm hour to tune in.

http://www.am1500.com/podcasts/index.shtml#garage

Shorewood to Tape Work Session Meetings

Shorewood has made the decision to tape and broadcast work sessions. See the article in the Sun for details: http://www.mnsun.com/articles/2008/02/12/news/ex07shor2.txt

This is the first city in the immediate area that will take this step. While work sessions might not be the most exciting primetime viewing available on TV, we commend Shorewood for finding new ways to keep residents informed.

Shorewood Liquor Stores Sell For $720,000

The Shorewood Liquor Store sale grossed approximately $720,000, before sales fees and severance to displaced employees. Part of that sale price also included existing inventory.

Assuming the profits from continuing operations would have been approximately $40,000 per year, the sale suggests that the stores had a return on equity of approximately 5.5%. The city can now use the sale proceeds to generate the same rate of return in a much more passive and predictable manner.

A Star Tribune article about the sale can be found here.

Best Breakfasts on the South Shore

Lake Minnetonka has several excellent breakfast spots surrounding it, but unfortunately for us on the South Shore they tend to be clustered in Wayzata. Sunsets and the Original Pancake House, just to name two, are reliable and high quality places that are sometimes worth the drive.

But for those of us who prefer to keep our business closer to home, there are a couple smallish breakfast places that have every bit the quality of our neighbors to the north. Here is the South Lake Tonka Blog's first ever breakfast joint honor roll:

1. Beanhaven Cafe, Minnetonka Blvd, Deephaven. This small eatery at near Chowen's Corner offers a creative breakfast menu with high quality food every time. The speciality seems to be omelettes (there are many to choose from) and other egg dishes, but you won't go wrong with something as simple as french toast. If the place has a downfall, it is the limited seating capacity -- there is room for 30-35 max and it is not oncommon to have quite a wait for a table. However, as with many neighborhood places, the small size is also what gives it its charm.

2. 318 Cafe, Water Street, Excelsior. In what was voted the Best Neighborhood Eatery in a recent Twin Cities publication, 318 continues to create tasty and unique dishes for all three meals. Breakfasts are excellent, with high quality and a step-up in thoughtfulness from your basic pancake and sausage menu. The scrambled egg sandwich and breakfast burrito are personal favorites. This author also believes they serve the best coffee in the area. They open a little late for early risers -- 8am Mon-Sat and 11am Sun -- but if that suits your schedule you won't be disappointed in the food.

Both are excellent choices!

While Beanhaven and 318 are the only two that make our honor roll as true breakfast places, there are a few places that serve good Sunday breakfast or brunch. Hazellewood Grill on Hwy 19 in Tonka Bay and Maynard's on Minnetonka Blvd. in Excelsior are both worth a Sunday try. Additionally, the Cottagewood General Store serves excellent cinnamon rolls on summer weekends, but can't be classified as a true breakfast place.

For those who prefer an economical if not exciting breakfast, Hilltop Restaurant just off Hwy 7 in Excelsior offers quick, basic, and cheap eats in the morning. In the same category is Perkins in nearby Chanhassen. These places are nowhere near the two that made our honor roll in terms of food quality, but will provide your breakfast fix in a pinch.

The bottom line? Beanhaven and 318 are excellent neighborhood places, but one has to believe there is also room for another choice in the South Lake area without taking business away from the established eateries. It might be a new entrant, or it might be a place like Hazellewood expanding their hours to become a daily breakfast place.

Arctic Fever on Jan 19 in Tonka Bay, Excelsior, and Shorewood

Shorewood, Tonka Bay, and Excelsior will host "Arctic Fever", a winter festival on January 19. Details can be found at http://www.arcticfever.net.

It is great to see a civic festival attempting to fill the gap that often occurs between Christmas and the May timeframe when things begin to pick up again around the lake. It is also nice to see three South Lake villages coordinating on a community event like this.

Papa Murphy's Opens In Area

We now have our own Papa Murphy's location at the corner of Hwys 7 and 41. While this blogger is still partial to Joey Nova's, adding a take-n-bake option to the immediate area is a welcome addition.

Papa Murphys: 474-0558

Shorewood Liquor Store Being Sold

The story plastered all over the Lakeshore Weekly News this week is the decision by the Shorewood Council to sell the city's two liquor stores. According to Member Martin Wellens who initiated the action, the city originally got into the business to control the sale of alcohol to minors. Lately, however, the city is competing with private enterprises for market share, and profitability of the liquor stores has been spotty.

This type of issue drives home the question of "how involved should government be" to the most local level. Is city government's role to support infrastructure and provide for public safety? Should government broaden its role and delve into areas where private industry is already thriving? Should government rely on taxes and fees as revenue sources, or is a for-profit business venture a valid source of city government revenue?

My kneejerk reaction on a topic like this is that Government shouldn't be in this or other businesses, for a few reasons:
1. A city government office and a council cannot be a jack-of-all-trades, and it is silly to think that a city government can be highly efficient in things as varied as issuing bulding permits and providing public safety, while tacking on the side-job of dabbling in the retail liquor trade.
2. When government takes over a function, it becomes a monopoly. Government healthcare in Canada is a monopoly. The Department of Motor Vehicles is a monopoly. It is no coincidence that both of those examples foster excessive paperwork and unbearable wait times. Monopolies stifle customer service, innovation, and efficiency. In the end, a monopoly can hardly run as efficiently as multiple, private-sector competitors.
3. There is high risk involved in running a business. It is great that the liquor stores currently add to the city revenue source. But what about the year, or consecutive years, when it loses money? It is acceptable for the public tax dollar to be saved because the money came instead from liquor stores. But would it be OK for the public to subsidize a losing business, if and when that time came? Government revenues, while minimal, should be a near sure-thing -- tax revenue, fee revenue, etc. The profit made from a competitive business involving risk doesn't fit well in the framework of a predictable government revenue stream.

In the end, I think Shorewood will be better off by operating in a "lean and mean" government environment rather than attempting to have their fingers in private industry.

Thoughts, especially from those of you in Shorewood?

South Lake Minnetonka Restaurant Scene: Healthy from a layman's perspective

When you look at the South Lake Minnetonka business climate, a sector that seems to be doing well is the restaurant industry. Just to let you know how un-qualified I am to comment on this, I am purely an observer / customer like most of you. I don't know alot about the innards of the restaurant industry, nor do I have access to any financials of local eateries.

According to The Ohio State University, the failure rate for independent restaurants after 3 years is 57%, and for franchises is 61%. That tells me that the odds are slightly against any restaurant who tries to make a go of it. And I would assume that you can look at how busy an establishment is, and assuming that more customers and a packed house are generally good, anecdotally estimate how a place is doing. I of course don't know the operating costs and other profit / loss factors, but I'm just assuming that busy = good.

That brings me to the South Lake restaurant scene. This is very unscientific and I will undoubtedly leave some good restaurants out, but I see the following restaurants that have opened in the past few years:
- Jake O'Connor's -- appears to be busy, was really packing them in during the winter
- Hazellewood Tap and Grille - has been busy most times I've been there, appears to have captured the neighborhood crowd
- Joey Nova's - seems to be a great addition to the area at its price point, not always packed but appears to do a robust takeout and delivery business
- Biella - for how pricey it is, I've been impressed with how full it seems to be. Can't argue with the food creativity and quality -- top notch.
- Big Bucks Roadhouse - haven't personally been there, but have heard good things
- 318 Cafe - not a new restaurant, but new ownership in recent years. There are always people in there, and getting named Best Neighborhood Eatery by Twin Cities Magazine was quite an honor

Then you have the ones that have left the area recently, which by my count are:
- Pizza Hut - A victim of (eventual) redevelopment, and not a huge loss
- Lakeshore Deli - Another victim of the same redevelopment, and I'd love to see them open up again. Very underrated place for a sandwich.
- Sidney's - Getting a little ways away from Lake Minnetonka, but I'm guessing lots of Deephaven / Greenwood / Excelsior / Tonka Bay / Shorewooders frequented it. By all accounts I've heard, it was more a factor of legal problems than lack of business, but that is all I know.

Of course, we don't want to slight the old standbys that seem to be doing just fine, like Maynards, Snuffys, and Beanhaven. But this post is more about which places have come and gone recently.

In a nutshell, I see a score of 6-3: 6 recent successes vs. 3 closures, and 2 of those were due to real estate redevelopment. Overall, I think there is a pretty healthy restaurant scene in the area.

I'm interested in readers thoughts on what else we need in the area. I have my running list of places that I think would do very well in Deephaven, Excelsior, Shorewood, or Tonka Bay -- I think they would be popular from the moment they opened their doors:
1. A good breakfast place. Sorry Hilltop, but I'd like to see an Original Pancake style place move in nearby. I think they would thrive. Beanhaven has great quality breakfasts, but is small and can fill up in an instant.
2. A good D'Amico-style deli. Rumor has it that a deli might open that would be run by and affiliated with Jake O'Connor's. Lets only hope. They seem to be a good restaurant and would probably do a nice job with a deli.
3. A comfort-food place like the Edina Grill or Highland Park Grill. I think they would pack them in. The niche would be a slight step down in cost and class from a Hazellewood but a step up from my envisioned D'Amico.

For the record, I'm not only endorsing the aforementioned chains expanding to our area. I'd love for an independent, unique place to open up as well. I list the chain examples above since people are familiar with them and can picture them easily.

Other thoughts? What other types of places do you think our area would support? I realize that in the case of Excelsior, parking is a limiting factor, but lets save that divisive topic for another post.

The high cost of water tower maintenance in Shorewood

The Lakeshore Weekly News had a blurb about the costs to clean and maintain a water tower in Shorewood near Highway 7.

http://weeklynews.1upmonitor.com/main.asp?SectionID=25&SubSectionID=36&ArticleID=3576&TM=66063.52

While I know that water towers require special crews and equipment to maintain, I had no idea that the price tag could get into the $250,000 to $300,000 range. That's real money.

No major point here, other than it is interesting to be remind ourselves what kinds of regular maintenance our property tax dollars have to fund. While Shorewood's tax base is large enough so this price tag won't break the bank, it can be eye opening to get a glimpse into the line items of a city budget.

Does the South Lake share Stillwater's noise problem?

A metro story that didn’t get a lot of airtime recently was Stillwater’s effort to curb traffic noise in their community. Much like the South Lake area, Stillwater has a combination of restaurants, bars, and scenery that makes it a destination. Much like the South Lake area, Stillwater draws “cruisers’, whether by bicycle, motorcycle, or car. And much like the South Lake area, Stillwater can be a noisy place because of the small minority of cars and motorcycles that create a whole lot of noise.

What Stillwater did, while unique, wasn’t all that extreme. They decided to enforce existing state noise laws. No new laws were passed, and no unreasonably stringent noise thresholds were introduced. They simply made an announcement that they would step up enforcement of the noise ordinances that are in place for the entire state.

Some bikers saw it as an affront. There were suggestions for motorcycle groups to boycott Stillwater, saying that Stillwater had become unfriendly to motorcycles. While I’m not sure how often the bikers were stopping on Stillwater’s main street for coffee or to buy antiques, I haven’t read anything about the businesses suffering. According to a Strib article from July, there had only been two noise citations written so far, but residents said that noise had noticeably decreased.

It got me thinking about what our rights truly are. Is it more important for a loud motorcycle rider to be able to ride as they please, or for a resident to have relative peace and quiet in their home? I began to liken it to the smoking bans, but a main argument for that bans is that second-hand smoke kills people. I guess excessive noise doesn’t really harm people. I think the issue more closely resembles city building codes. Building height and material rules ensure that what you see when you look outside isn’t ruined by excessive and distasteful development. A noise ordinance ensures that what you hear isn’t distasteful or excessive.

Tonka Bay, Excelsior, and the entire community abutting Highway 7 and Minnetonka Boulevard get their fair share of “cruisers”, especially in the summer. If enforcement of the statewide noise ordinance could curtail those excessive 1-2% of bikes and vehicles that are causing 30% of the noise, I think it makes sense to do so. I have heard anecdotes that a stock Harley Davidson coming off the assembly line is not loud enough to cause a noise violation. Not sure if it is true, but the point is that most of the excessive noise is created by aftermarket products designed solely to make the vehicles louder.