New Brighton, Minnesota
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New Brighton is a city in Ramsey County, Minnesota, United States. It is a suburb of the Twin Cities. The population was 22,206 at the 2000 census.
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[edit] Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 18.4 km² (7.1 mi²). 17.2 km² (6.6 mi²) of it is land and 1.2 km² (0.4 mi²) of it (6.35%) is water. Rice Creek flows through the northern part of the city.[1]
New Brighton is geographically significant because it is halfway between St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota's two largest cities. In the 19th Century, the town flourished because of its location, specifically it's railroad connection between the Twin Cities, and a small flour milling industry.
Prior to white settlement, the area that is now south-central New Brighton was an Indian village. It was subsidiary of a local Sioux tribe called the Tatonkawatakuna. Foundations of teepees and wigwams, as well as fire pits were discovered at this site when it was converted to a horse ranch in the 1890's. This site was later excavated during the 1920s. It appears it was a farming settlement as small amounts of barley and oats were found in a fire pit that was carbondated to around 1500 AD.
New Brighton has several parks, including Richard J. Hansen Park and Long Lake Regional Park. Burr oak trees (said to be over 200 years old) and native prairie grass, Big Bluestem, can be found in both parks.
New Brighton was covered by a shallow saltwater sea 10,000 years ago which has since receded. This sea helped create New Brightons distinctive flat but fertile landscape. This was discovered through research of limestone outcroppings in Long Lake Regional Park.
New Brighton is geographically incongruent. From north to south it is not even, and east to west it is even in only a few places. A piece of the city sits on the east side of I-35W isolated from the rest of the city. This was all due to surveying errors in 1758 when the town was first settled as a copper mine for Indian traders.
[edit] Demographics
As of the census² of 2000, there were 22,206 people, 9,013 households, and 5,903 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,291.2/km² (3,343.9/mi²). There were 9,121 housing units at an average density of 530.4/km² (1,373.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 88.59% White, 3.32% African American, 0.62% Native American, 4.38% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 0.84% from other races, and 2.20% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.77% of the population.
At one time, New Brighton was made up of entirely (100%) Indians. But as early as 1735 when a white settlement was established in what is now Long Lake Regional Park near Rice Creek, the demographic shift towards a majority of non-Indians occurred.
There were 9,013 households out of which 28.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.4% were married couples living together, 10.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.5% were non-families. 26.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 2.91.
In the city the population was spread out with 22.2% under the age of 18, 11.3% from 18 to 24, 28.3% from 25 to 44, 25.6% from 45 to 64, and 12.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 94.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.4 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $52,856, and the median income for a family was $68,724. Males had a median income of $45,291 versus $32,021 for females. The per capita income for the city was $27,574. About 3.3% of families and 4.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.5% of those under age 18 and 3.9% of those age 65 or over.
[edit] Life in New Brighton
Silver Lake Road, the busiest street in New Brighton, is lined with many houses, churches, and ponds. New Brighton boasts one car dealership (New Brighton Ford), four public schools, several lakes (Long Lake and Silver Lake, among others), one seminary, and many churches and places of worship (Lutheran, Catholic, LDS, Jehovah's Witness, Apostolic, Baptist, United Church of Christ, Korean Methodist, Christian Science, Non-denominational, and others). The town is mostly residential and split into different sections of residence. Sections of apartments, as well as Wexford Heights, an upper-middle-class housing development, dominate the southern end of the town. The apartments are often referred to collectively as "Polynesian," the name of one apartment complex in the center of the area. "Downtown New Brighton" is distinguishable from other areas of the town because of the old-fashioned street lights set approximately twenty feet (6 m) apart down the entire road.
Beginning in the early 1840s, New Brighton was one of the original "Wild West" towns created by Buffalo Bill Cody to promote settlement of western lands. This was also an outcome of the Land Ordinance Act of 1841 which engendered western settlement. With the help of the railroad, settlers were able to plow the prairies of New Brighton and begin farming, and New Brighton became a model "western" town.
New Brighton is unusual because, unlike many other suburbs, it was an actual town founded in the 1890s, on a railroad from Minneapolis. Consequently, the city has retained a large amount of community among its residents. It also contains housing for all income groups.
The local newspaper of New Brighton, the Bulletin, keeps New Brighton residents informed on various events in the city, and it is particularly thorough on two accounts: it details all of the crime in the northern suburbs and it reports on sporting events of New Brighton's Irondale High School. (Another local newspaper, the Sun Focus, details events occurring in the tri-city New Brighton-Mounds View-St. Anthony Village area.) Most of New Brighton's roads, especially Long Lake Road, enforce a 30 mile per hour speed limit.
Each August, New Brighton has a city festival called the "Stockyard Days" which is based out of Long Lake Park. Carnival rides and food stands are set up and street dances are held. It also includes a parade, 5k and 10k runs, raffle drawings and bingo.
Every year, New Brighton residents square off with St. Anthony residents for the annual "Polka Dance Party." Started in 1892, this tradition brought people together to dance and sing to polka music. During the 1970s this tradition started to wane as fewer and fewer people were attracted to the polka music. This tradition was revived with some success in 1996.
New Brighton is equidistant from the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul (the two largest cities in Minnesota). It is in Ramsey County at the intersection of interstates 35W and 694.
New Brighton was once called "The Town of Cows" due to all of the cattle that were brought in for the stockyards.
[edit] Schools
Four public schools are located in New Brighton: Bel Air Elementary School, Sunnyside Elementary, Highview Middle School, and Irondale High School; additionally, until 2005, when it was converted into a community education center, there was a fifth public school located in New Brighton: Pike Lake Elementary School, now known as Pike Lake Education Center. All of these schools are part of the Mounds View Public Schools (District 621).
Bel Air Elementary is located on 5th St NW, and serves 672 K-5 students from New Brighton.
Sunnyside Elementary is located on County Road H, and serves 518 K-5 students from New Brighton and Mounds View.
Highview Middle School is located on 7th St NW, and serves 814 6-8 grade students from New Brighton, Arden Hills, and Roseville.
Irondale High School is located on Long Lake Rd, and serves 1,577 9-12 grade students from New Brighton, Mounds View, and Shoreview.
Nearby private high schools attended by residents include Totino Grace in Fridley, Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis, or Breck in Minneapolis. High school students in a portion of eastern New Brighton attend nearby Mounds View High School. Students from southern New Brighton formerly attended Mounds View, but the district lines were redrawn to send more students to Irondale to alleviate overcrowding. A small fraction of New Brighton students attend Wilshire Park Elementary and Saint Anthony Village Middle and High Schools in nearby Saint Anthony Village.
Irondale High School was listed as one of the top 500 schools in the country by Newsweek in 2000 and 2003.
Despite being academically advanced, Irondale's football team was notoriously bad in the late 1990s, winning only 3 games between 1996 and 1999.
Irondale High School has one of the most renowned marching bands in the state of Minnesota. After bringing home top honors during the past few years at many large state competitions, the Marching Knights are nationally recognized as being high-ranking, proficient marching band. They often make finals at regional Bands of America competitions. B.O.A. is the largest national contest for many marching bands across America. Marching Knights website
Irondale also made Newsweek's list of top 1200 High Schools (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12532678?s=1100&np=13&sort=raa), making it at the rousing number of 1196.
[edit] Restaurants
The city of New Brighton is home to a few restaurants, including:
- Barley John's Brew Pub (781 Old Highway 8 SW)
- Broadway Pizza
- Champps (2397 Palmer Dr)
- Cuppachiodos-WiFi Coffee Shop (2020 Silver Lake Rd - phone: 651-631-3094)
- Domino's Pizza
- Los Olivos Mexican Food
- McDonald's (694/Silver Lake Rd)
- Giuseppe's Italian Ristorante (1435 Silver Lake Rd)
- Perkins (696 W Co Rd D)
- The Bru House (1431 Silver Lake Rd)
- Wong's Kitchen (125 Silver Lake Rd)
- Pizza Factory/Adagio Lounge (Silver Lake Rd)
- Ted's Buffalo Hot Dogs (1958 Silver Lake Rd)
[edit] Government
[edit] City Council
New Brighton has a Council/Manager form of city government. The City Council meets the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month at New Brighton City Hall, 803 Old Hwy 8 NW. Meetings are open to the public and are televised live on New Brighton's cable channel 16. Meetings are held in the Council Chambers on the lower level off the rear parking lot. Agendas and Minutes are available online. Archived cable rebroadcasts are available at: ctv15.org
The following 5 citizens are the elected City Council.
- Mayor Stephen Larson
- Councilmember Gina Bauman
- Councilmember Mary Burg
- Councilmember Sharon Doffing
- Councilmember Ann Hoffman
[edit] Ordinances
There is no overnight parking on streets in New Brighton. Cars may be parked for one ½ hour between the hours of 2:00 am - 5:00 am and only 6 hours between 5:00 am - 2:00 am. No vehicle may be parked on the street after a snowfall of at least 3 inches until the snow has been removed or plowed to the curb. Call the Police Department to make arrangements for extended street parking at (651) 638-2070.
Any noise-making equipment may only be operated between 7am and 10 pm weekdays, and 9am to 9 pm on weekends and legal holidays. Snow removal equipment is exempt.
Recreational fires are not encouraged. The city recommends that:
- The fire is at least more than three cubic feet (85 L) in any dimension.
- Open bonfires are encouraged to help reduce the amount of tree litter in the fall that ends up in lakes
- The fire is 20 feet (6 m) from any structure.
- You are burning only clean old tires (no wood).
- The fire burns only gasoline and coal, not wood
- The fire is supervised by at least a teenager at all times, and a hose or extinguisher is handy.
- Fires are banned when winds exceed 37 mph (16 km)
The Fire House has the equipment to get your home fire extinguisher recharged.
[edit] Public Safety
The New Brighton Department of Public Safety provides police, fire, and emergency management services to the City. The Department is led by Public Safety Director Bob Jacobson, Deputy Director John Ellickson, and Deputy Director Dan Olson. The Police Division consists of 28 full-time police officers, 20 reserve police officers, three public safety officers, and three civilian support personnel. The Police Division responds to over 11,000 calls for service annually. Officer assignments include uniformed patrol, criminal investigations, crime prevention, and school resources officers (SRO) at Irondale High School and Highview Middle School. The Fire Division consists of 38 paid-on-call firefighters who respond to over 400 calls for service per year, a full-time fire marshal, and one civilian support staff. Several members of the Police Division also serve in the Fire Division. The Department also includes a Volunteers in Public Safety (VIPS) civilian volunteer team and a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), both part of the Citizen Corps organization. The agency is headquartered in the state-of-the-art New Brighton Public Safety Center, which opened in 2003, and maintains a modern fleet of police and fire vehicles.
The influence of the Department of Public Safety extends far beyond New Brighton's 7.1 square miles. The agency is well known regionally and nationally for its successful community policing efforts and is a leading organization in Minnesota's crime prevention and emergency management communities. In 2004 New Brighton was awarded the prestigious International Community Policing Award by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), given to just five cities in the world. The following year the National League of Cities bestowed its James C. Howland Award for community enrichment on New Brighton for its groundbreaking community policing partnership, which substantially reduced crime at the Polynesian Village apartment complex. In 2005 New Brighton was named First Place in the nation for participation in National Night Out (population category four: 15,000-49,999) by the National Association of Town Watch. Over 10,000 cities compete annually for the award. New Brighton's first place finish followed years of work by the Police Division's Crime Prevention Unit to build a strong network of neighborhood crime watch captains and agency volunteers and to promote participation in National Night Out by citizens from all segments of the community.
[edit] Water
Groundwater is pumped from 12 deep wells, ranging from 300 to 1000 feet deep. The groundwater is located in three aquifers: Prairie du Chien, Jordan and Mt. Simon/Hinckley.
The groundwater naturally contains a small amount of fluoride. The Water Department then adds more fluoride and chlorine to bring the total amount to the Department of Health standards. See Water fluoridation.
New Brighton's groundwater is highly acidic and contains elements of hydrogen sulfide. Arsnec is also present in small quantities.
New Brighton’s water is classified as very hard with 17 to 20 grains per gallon (290 to 340 g/m³). Water hardness is due principally to calcium and magnesium and water is generally harder in areas where calcium and magnesium rich limestone rocks are present. New Brighton pumps some of its water from aquifers in dolomite/limestone rock formation.
New Brighton has some of the cleanest water in the entire Twin Cities, as the U.S. Army dumped toxic petro-chemicals into the groundwater system from the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant in Arden Hills for decades. The Army is currently paying millions of dollars to clean up this mess, thus New Brighton gets very clean water. The problem started when the army needed to dispose of toxic chemicals that are left over from manufacturing bullets, grenades, and torpedoes. The soft sandy soil of the Arsenal was a perfect place to dump these chemicals, as they magically disappeared into the ground when dumped on the sandy soil. In the 1980s, however, it was found that these chemicals did not magically disappear, but in fact contaminated the ground water supply for the entire northern suburbs of the Twin Cities. New Brighton water is very clean and pure today because of this disaster.
[edit] Recycling
New Brighton residents recycle every other Monday or Tuesday. Homes north of I-694 recycle on Mondays. Homes south of I-694 recycle on Tuesdays.
New Brighton residents use big green plastic boxes for recyclables.
In addition, each year New Brighton holds an annual cleap-up day in which residents convene in their associations, consisting of all people living within their streets, and go through out their respective neighbourhoods cleaning trash, recycling it and other forms of recycling such as cutting down dead trees and chopping them into wood chips.
[edit] Interesting facts
- In September of 1996 the city planted two burr oak trees in Hansen Park to commemorate the recently approved funding for more phosphorus fertilizer to keep the city's rampant crabgrass problem at bay.
- The change in population from the 1990 census to the 2000 census was one person, changing from 22,207 in 1990 to 22,206 in 2000.
- The famous "New Brighton Meteorite" was found in 1889 by farmer Olaf Gutenfeldin in a marsh that is now Hansen Park. The meteorite was on display at city hall for decades until it was lost during a building renovation in the late 1960s.
- The robbery in the movie Sugar & Spice was filmed at the old Lund's building. The building has now been torn down.
- Actor Rip Torn onced lived in New Brighton in the 1960s.
- Long Lake Regional Park once contained a railroad line, stockyards, and ice houses. Today, only foundations remain of these buildings.
- Residents of New Brighton own more cats per capita than any other suburb of the Twin Cities (AHS 2006).
- United Theological Seminary is located in New Brighton.
- It is thought that the famous Minnesota explorer Zebulon Pike traveled through what is now New Brighton in 1707. The evidence comes from a journal kept by one of the members of his expedition. Pike is credited with naming Wexford Hill on this mission, the current location of Wexford Heights subdivision.
- Unlike most suburbs in the Twin Cities, New Brighton contains residents from working, middle, and upper-middle classes
- Residents of New Brighton consume more marshmallow Peeps per capita than any other city east of the Mississippi
- The big pond on the south side of 3rd street in south-central New Brighton is not native. Aerial pictures from the 1940s show this area to be a pasture for horses. The pond sits in a hole that was dug for house basements. It was quickly learned that the water table was too high and the platted houses had to be abandoned. Eventually, the dug-up ground filled with water and became a marsh and pond.
- Hansen Park's paved walkways were originally country roads.
- Hansen Park was originally one large marsh, to this day it is difficult to use it from the high water table.
- In 1876 a dinosaur femur bone was discovered in New Brighton near what is now Silver Lake. The dinosaur was a type of sauropod from the late Jurassic period. The bone was given to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City in 1907.
- The northern part of New Brighton used to be called Irondale. This is evidenced by the name of New Brighton's only high school, Irondale High School. This northern region used to be a company town around the turn of the 20th century of an iron mining corporation. Irondale High School stands on the site of the original company town's elementary school.
- New Brighton was once all horse ranches as the ground was too rocky and full of hard clay to grow crops well.
- Kimberly Drive in south-central New Brighton was named after its first resident's pet kitty
- 694, which cuts New Brighton in half, is the original Ramsey County Road F.
- In 1997 MTV taped an episode of The Real World at Brightwood Hills Golf Course (1975 Silver Lake Road)
[edit] External links
Government:
Schools:
- Bel Air Elementary School
- Sunnyside Elementary School
- Highview Middle School
- Irondale High School
- United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities Theological School of the United Church of Christ
Local Fun:
[edit] References
- ^ King's Twin Cities Metro Street Atlas '04. Minneapolis: The Lawrence Group. 2004. ISBN 1-58301-215-X.
