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.

South Lake Minnetonka Community Voter Guides

Two local newspapers have printed their annual voter guide issues. I would strongly encourage anyone to read them and learn more about their candidates. My post from a couple weeks ago regarding candidates for local elections was incomplete, so I'll defer to these voter guides to summarize the races.

Excelsior Sun Sailor - They have done a nice job of doing their voter guides in an article style that included candidate interviews. This makes the candidate assessment much more personal and less about simply cutting and pasting a website bio, as some candidates do with more of a straight Q&A.

Lakeshore Weekly News - More of a Q&A style which doesn't allow for the same insight, but a broader guide that includes county and Congressional races.

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: Greenwood

Greenwood's council seats are normally up for election every four years, and the mayoral seat is open for election every two years. This year, due to a vacancy, there is also a two-year Council seat available.

Open Seats: Four. Two councilmembers (two 4-year terms and one 2-year term for council) and the two 2-year term for Mayor.

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

More Info: Greewood City Offices, at phone number 952-474-6633.

Major Issues, incumbents announcing re-election plans, etc.: The massing ordinance (a.k.a. McMansion issue) is likely to be visible in 2009 even as the current council is putting new regulations in place.

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.

Greenwood to limit house sizes

The small village of Greenwood has decided to limit the size of homes being built in their city. The move, which isn't uncommon these days, would create several formulas for determining how large a home could be relative to the lot size. Some likely criteria include building height and footprint.

http://www.mnsun.com/articles/2007/08/30/news/ex30gree.txt

The fact that building restrictions will be put in place isn't huge news. Municipalities have been doing that for years, and I would guess that Greenwood is in the minority by not having stricter codes today. However, what magnitude of restrictions they put in place is worth watching. Will they restrict house sizes so they keep the "cottage" character of original Greenwood? Or will they recognize that an area like Greenwood, being so close to the lake, attracts people who like to build dream homes -- even if they are "not-so-big" dream homes.

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.