Offering the best choice for your next District 1
Parks & Recreation Commissioner

Civic duty and Community volunteering 

• Dan has served multiple terms on the Minneapolis Capital Long Range Improvement (CLIC) and Bicycle Advisory (BAC) committees as the appointed Ward 1 representative.  On CLIC, he ranked city-wide capital budget requests which would be recommended for the City budget and the six year Capital Improvement Program.  Parks and Parkways were among the ranked requests.  On the BAC, he reviewed Minneapolis, County and State road improvement projects and provided guidance to improve safety, pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.  He has also served and participated on MPRB Community Advisory Committees for the East of the River Masterplan, its Grand Rounds Missing Link subcommittee and Parks for All

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• Within the community, Dan is the chair and volunteer for the Great Northern Greenway which has expanded as part of five separate road projects since 2017.  Advocacy continues for the completion of two northeast trail gaps and access across the River.  Dan has served as a Windom Park “WPCiA” board member who worked on its Neighborhood Small Area Plan and Neighborhood Revitalization funding redistribution. He was a community member on the Edison High School’s Safe Route to School study

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• Dan’s personal interests include being a Pedal Power coach, aka “PappaWheelie”, who gets kids on bikes at Pillsbury and Las Estrellas schools.  He is a member of the Twin Cities Bicycling Club’s Equity & Outreach and Bike U committees as well as a certified ride leader

 

Career highlights

• Dan worked the most significant part of his career at the Science Museum of Minnesota and the Minnesota Historical Society.  He helped open their new museums in St. Paul as well as the Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post.  As an Exhibits Projects Production Manager he was responsible for budgets, schedules and managing the builders who opened exhibits on time and budget.  Some of his favorites which are still on exhibit are;  Race: Are We So Different, Math Moves, the Dinosaurs & Fossils Gallery and the Mille Lacs Indian Museum

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• Prior to his museum career,  Dan work for the Dayton Hudson Department Store Company where he was a display trimmer that did the downtown fashion windows.   He would later be promoted to Visual Presentation management roles in Minneapolis, Burnsville, Rosedale and  Southdale. He would later become an independent consultant to small businesses and shopping malls

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• Dan’s early career was as a Washington DC based artist where he was an apprentice to internationally acclaimed artists and supported himself as a bicycle messenger

 

Personal

• Dan is married and co-parents two rescue dogs named Mina and Sadie.  He is a Windom Park neighborhood resident and with roots in Phillips and Willard Hay.  His values are embedded from being a Mesabi red ore, son of the Iron Range and once Mighty 8th.