Kasota Ponds security cameras. The committee acquired security cameras for the area to discourage illegal dumping of tires, air conditioners, monitors and other large items.

Air quality monitoring. With the MPCA, the committee secured an air quality monitor near Highway 280 and the railroad by the community garden, which tracked particulates for a full year. Twenty neighbors also tested a handheld air monitor and gave the MPCA feedback.

Hampden Park improvements. Through the City’s Capital Improvement Budget (CIB), the committee helped bring $200,000 in improvements to Hampden Park: seating, a plaza, benches, public art, a bike repair station, and the first solar charging station of its kind in Minnesota.

Environmental pollution map. Former consultant Amanda Yang built an interactive GIS map tracing the environmental history of each site in the neighborhood, going back to Sanborn maps from the 1800s.

Jennings students at Kasota Ponds

Climate change

• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions through lower energy use.
• Strengthen infrastructure resilience to severe weather.
• Increase resilience through preparedness and stronger social bonds and networks.

Parks and recreation

• Seek ways to develop more public green space.
• Support current and non-traditional uses of public green space.
• Enhance the urban forest while protecting sites for solar energy.
• Develop sustainable approaches to boulevards and right-of-way spaces.
• Create a “rewilding plan” for native animal and plant populations.

Water, soil and air

• Reduce storm water and melt water runoff.
• Enhance water conservation and reuse.
• Reduce contaminants reaching surface waters.
• Identify and remediate sources of soil and air pollution.
• Improve aesthetics by reducing other environmental problems.

Also

• Conserve and protect the Kasota Ponds complex and hold the annual cleanup.
• Advocate against development of the parcel at 1495 Kasota Ave to reduce the spread of pollutants from the Elm Street Ash Dump.