The Kingfield neighborhood is a great place to live, full of large well-built, hundred year old homes and locally owned corner businesses. A growing foodie-community, Kingfield was voted the #1 “Food Neighborhood in 2011 by City Pages for it variety and caliber of restaurants. Also voted #1, Kingfield is home to the Kingfield Farmers’ Market, over a decade old now and an active community gathering space on Sunday mornings over 20 weeks of each year. As the neighborhood searches for new approaches to local food, the neighborhood is also supporting a growing number of community gardens, as well as classes in vegetable growing (including mushrooms!), food preparation, and preservation.

Kingfield activities and issues are supported by an active and vibrant neighborhood association (Kingfield Neighborhood Association or KFNA) which operates on a model of minimal staff time and maximizing volunteer skills and participation. With the support of this organization Kingfield neighbors receive quarterly print newsletter, weekly email notices, and enjoy numerous annual festivals including an east-west 38th Street celebration and a community art fair. The neighborhood association also supports various committees that meet regularly and discuss issues and solutions related to youth activities, schools, safety, neighborhood development, and the environment.

Known for its policy-setting “green” thinking and its ability to accomplish large-scale projects, KFNA has piloted numerous environmental programs. Projects have included residential stormwater treatment techniques, business solar installations, Dutch Elm treatment and tree replacement, campaigns to encourage neighbors to unplug due to phantom loads, and hosted green events for over 5 years, long before they were the trend.

Additionally, KFNA is known for its arts organizing and using the arts to tackle larger community issues. It has overseen the installation over 30 painted murals in the neighborhood, as well as visioned and piloted the Utility Box Wrapping Project utilizing adhesive photographic images from the community to cover graffiti-ridden utility boxes, a program which is now spreading across the city. KFNA regularly partners with arts organizations to fulfill a project including the Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center, Studio Bricolage, Leonardo’s Basement and most notably perhaps the Lyndale neighborhood. Together in 2008, Kingfield and Lyndale teamed up to produce the ‘Walldogs on Nicollet’ project which was the first winner of the Minneapolis Arts Commission Award for Celebrating the City through Public Art.

The Kingfield neighborhood has a reputation as a place where the people are willing to volunteer to create and maintain a vital, caring and safe place for those who live and work here. You can learn more about the neighborhood and what’s going on by visiting www.kingfield.org.

Check out our accomplishments at www.kingfield.org/about.