ABOUT NESCO

The Northfield East Side Community Organization (NESCO) acts to represent and advocate for our town's East Side interests. We get serious and mean business when called for: public forums with city council candidates, municipal discussions to air our members’ concerns, letter-writing campaigns. NESCO is the voice of the East Side district. We raise it on behalf of those who dwell here, as we weigh in during meetings, on surveys, in published commentary, and always in talk over the fence about matters that matter to this flourishing neighborhood.

East Siders founded NESCO in Spring 2026 - inspired, in part, by discussions with Carleton College about college-related street parking, traffic, and commercial vehicles disrupting the neighborhood. We put our heads together, then engaged with the Northfield Planning Commission and City Council, as well as Carleton leadership - all toward keeping these blocks humming along in relative peace and safety. During that campaign, with so many neighbors discovering common concerns, the idea of NESCO as a formal body and unified voice for the East Side took root.

We defined the NESCO district according to geography and shared interests, and continue to invite those living outside the bounds to join us as allies. We registered NESCO as a Minnesota nonprofit (317A). We came up with guiding principles and by-laws to guide our operation. We elected leaders to serve for the next year. We figured out key demographic info that could help the East Side exercise influence in discussions with other big players in town - for our purposes, mainly Northfield government and Carleton College.

NESCO membership includes all residents within the East Side neighborhood’s “area of interest” - that is, the blocks inside Oak Street on the east to Fifth Street on the south to Washington Street on the west and to First Street on the north. Check out the map below for a clear image and details. Our area comprises 207 residential properties, with a total property tax base of $1.65+ million that goes toward supporting local schools and government, public projects, and municipal services. As members of this area, we receive regular updates about NESCO activities and a vote on matters that call for neighborhood consensus. We volunteer our time, treasure, and talent by organizing events, campaigns, communications, meetings, social gatherings - the list goes on - all toward keeping the East Side an inviting and abiding district in Northfield.

NESCO hosts several Interest Groups and welcomes neighbors to join, brainstorm, and contribute. Care about East Side bus routes and transit? Have a passion for historical storytelling? Want to organize a back-to school-picnic in the park? Get in touch with NESCO and we'll hook you up. And if you're interested in getting involved and volunteering with NESCO in other ways, please email us using the Contact Button below.

NESCO BOUNDARY MAP

INTEREST GROUP

ZONING + DEVELOPMENT

Work with the City of Northfield on the current rewrite of Northfield's new Land Development Code and Zoning Maps. These are crucial matters that determine so much about this neighborhood's future when it comes to land use, smart growth, environmental integrity, transportation, utilities (including data centers), and other priorities.

INTEREST GROUP

TRANSPORTATION + SAFETY

Team up with local-serving transit (Hiawathaland, Northfield Lines), commercial vehicle businesses (waste management, food service delivery), City of Northfield planners, and Carleton College to create suitable routes, access, and schedules in order to ensure the East Side's liveability and safety for walkers and runners, bikers and motorcyclists, drivers, and transit riders.

INTEREST GROUP

HISTORICAL CHARACTER + CENTRAL PARK

Oh, if these blocks could talk - what stories they'd tell about the decades of occupants living daily dramas and singular occasions; the array of houses realized in hand-drawn blueprints and artisan carpentry; the 1855 founding of Central Park with its maples and crabapples shadowing the local limestone sitting (and echoing) circle. Join other history buffs in documenting and preserving the East Side's treasures.

INTEREST GROUP

PARKING + SAFETY

Get busy solving congestion and parking troubles in the East Side neighborhood via ticketing, curb paint and flags, college negotiations, traffic studies, public education, and trusty relations with our Northfield Police Department.

INTEREST GROUP

COMMUNITY BUILDING

What makes a neighborhood great? For starters, outdoor spots where people cross paths - here, that means Central Park, sidewalks, boulevard gardens, inviting fences, front porches. Open places. Third places. Common places. Get together and organize strolling garden tours (our Summer 2026 evening stroll was a delight - with visits to 5 home gardens), porchfests (again, Summer 2026 concerts were a hit), picnics, and other occasions that build social connections around these blocks.

INTEREST GROUP

CARLETON COLLEGE

NESCO engages regularly with Carleton College, our academic neighbor across First Street. So many of us have connections to the school - as faculty and staff, current students, audiences, arboretum enthusiasts, alums. Coordinate with reps from Carleton on town-and-gown matters. Elise Eslinger, Vice President and Chief of Staff, currently serves as the college's liaison to NESCO.

MISSION STATEMENT

Adopted June 2026

"NESCO is organized for the purpose of making our neighborhood a friendlier, safer, and more attractive place to live, work, and play. We are dedicated to fostering community in Northfield’s East Side neighborhood by communicating with residents, addressing property and safety issues, hosting social events, and acting as an advocate for the neighborhood with the City of Northfield and with Carleton College."

BYLAWS

Adopted June 2026

LEADERSHIP

(2026-27)

PRESIDENT

Tim Braulick

VICE PRESIDENT

Amy Gernon

SECRETARY

Margit Zsolnay

TREASURER

Josie Rawson

PHOTOGRAPHER

Leslie Schultz

MEETING AGENDAS + MINUTES

Coming Soon!

“Community is the spirit, the guiding light, whereby people come together to

fulfill a purpose, to help others fulfill their purpose, and to take care of one another.”

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