The July-August issue of Minnesota Cities magazine is online for your summer reading pleasure. The top spot digs into how cities are responding to the local impact of global climate change, and how resilience can also mean stronger, connected, energy-efficient communities.
More highlights:
Move to a new country. Find a home. Learn a language. Make friends. Find a job. Yeah, that's a daunting to-do list. See how some recent efforts by Minnesota cities are helping immigrants make a successful transition to life in the land of Paul Bunyan and Babe in "Making Minnesota Cities Home for Immigrants."
See how Elk River and other cities have navigated the pitfalls of financing growing street repair costs by doing away with assessments and saying hello to a dedicated franchise fee program in "Ideas in Action: Elk River Finds Its Way to Smoother Roads."
Unfair labor practices, or "ULPs" to those in the know, are easy to define in law, but a little more difficult to identify in the real world. See why understanding these labor laws will become more important than ever next year in "Letter of the Law: Unfair Labor Practices—It's All in the Eye of the Beholder."
And as always, catch up on the latest court decisions that could affect your city's operations in From the Bench; learn about aging population, a tight labor market, and migration in Let's Talk with State Demographer Susan Brower; and check in with two city staffers on the topic of community gardens in Two-Way Street.