Party of One: Building The Minneapolis Green Infrastructure Program With No Authority, Regulations, or Budget, and A Single Staff Member.

Minneapolis communities voiced a clear need for more green infrastructure (GI) in their neighborhoods to clean water, green streets, and combat climate change. While these are small projects individually, the task of creating a new GI program is large and complex, requiring coordination and support across departments, a dedicated team and budget, and authority to make changes. When Minneapolis decided the answer was to hire a Green Infrastructure Coordinator, none of the other needs were in place. In response to the community desire to include green infrastructure, Minneapolis created a new position – new to the City, and new to the Midwest Region: a Green Infrastructure Coordinator. This position, shared across sewer and transportation departments, and dabbling with other division outside public works, was tasked with building a program to address these community-driven needs. This is a story of one staff member's work to achieve these goals, but also incorporate broader environmental justice and water quality goals to make a true positive impact on the people in Minneapolis and its important water resources. This position holds no authority. It does not have a budget. There are no GI mandates in place to support this work. Urban GI is not familiar or comfortable – its new to most city staff at every phase of project planning, design, construction, and maintenance. It's not 'the way things have always been done'. This all culminates in significant hesitation, misunderstanding, inertia, and often outright resistance to incorporate GI on projects. These are all significant and daunting challenges. But challenges often present unique opportunities. Unlike most established GI programs confined to existing mandates, we were able to shape our priorities and goals based on the needs of our communities. We were able to trial the process in real time, address/solve actual issues directly and then target our training and guidance to exactly what we needed to be successful. In the three years since the Minneapolis GI Program began, it has successfully installed over 200 facilities on transportation projects, with close to 300 planned for 2022 construction. It has garnered major community support, and provided air, water, and community benefits throughout the city. In this presentation, we will explain how the program was able to thrive without the standard tools and approaches, all while facing institutional resistance on many levels. We will walk through the list of 'no's' and claims of the impossible, and describe successful tactics, including strategic partnerships across stakeholders, both internal and external, aligning with other city goals, and leveraging upcoming regulations.