Council Member's Message

As the City of Minneapolis fall street sweeping operation wraps up, preparations are underway for the coming snow season. All Minneapolis residents should have received a mailing with information about Snow Emergency parking rules and how to avoid a ticket or tow this winter. If you don't have that mailing, you may either call my office at 612-673-2201 for a copy or visit www.minneapolismn.gov/snow.  

Snow emergencies are declared whenever there's enough snowfall to warrant a complete plowing of our streets. Given that the City of Minneapolis has more than 1500 miles of streets, parkways and alleys to clear, this can be an enormous job for City Public Works crews. It's important that drivers follow the Snow Emergency parking rules so plows can do the best job possible of clearing the streets.

The City uses a variety of tools to inform residents, workers and visitors when a snow emergency has been declared:

·         Hotline – call 612-348-SNOW (7669). The hotline includes information in English, Spanish, Somali and Hmong.

·         City website – visit www.minneapolismn.gov/snow. You can also check out the street lookup, which lets you enter an address or neighborhood to see where you can park during a snow emergency.

·         Phone alerts – Minneapolis uses an automated notification system to alert residents when snow emergencies are declared. You can add your cellphone or unlisted landline number to the alert system by signing up atwww.minneapolismn.gov/snow.

·         Email alerts – visit www.minneapolismn.gov/snow/snow_esubscribe to sign up for email alerts.

·         App for Android devices and iPhones – Download the Snow Emergency app to your Android device or iPhone.

·         Media – TV, radio and other news outlets routinely announce snow emergency declarations.

·         Cable TV – Channels 14 and 79 have snow emergency information in several languages.

·         Facebook – visit www.facebook.com/MinneapolisSnowEmergency.

·         Twitter – if you have a Twitter account, just follow us.

·         Videos – informational videos in several languages are available at www.minneapolismn.gov/snow.

If you have other ideas for how to get the word out about Snow Emergency declarations, I’d like to hear about them.