By Cynthia Sowden
On July 14, I boarded an un-air-conditioned school bus with Ted Tucker from the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood, Edna Brazaitis from Nicollet Island, and former parks commissioner Liz Wielinski and her son, Bobby, for a tour of parks in Northeast and Southeast Minneapolis. Rounding out the entourage were a few other interested citizens who live east of the Mississippi River, Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board employees interested in recording our remarks, a landscape architect from Perkins + Will, MPRB Project Manager Carrie Christensen and District 1 Commissioner Chris Meyer.
Our purpose on that hot, muggy summer day was to look at each of the 33 parks included in MPRB’s East of the River Master Plan, which will determine the use and look of the parks for the next 20 years. MPRB has actively sought public input about the parks at neighborhood meetings and events for the past year. By the time this article appears in the Northeaster, the comment deadline (July 29) will have passed. The bus tour was one more attempt to gather residents’ thoughts and opinions.
Each person on the tour was supplied with a packet of park maps. Two design concepts were presented for each park and triangle in the eastern part of Minneapolis. We were encouraged to write comments on the maps, telling park planners what we liked or didn’t like about each concept.
The tour began with a stop at Logan Park, Broadway and Monroe Streets NE. We tumbled eagerly out of the bus, maps in hand. Music played on the street corner near Strong Tower Church. The trees offered plenty of shade. One design concept for Logan suggested moving the recreation center so it faces Broadway. I thought this would make Logan seem like more of a destination, but Wielinski worried about kids crossing the busy street. “There’s a giant tree in front of the Rec Center,” she warned. “The neighbors are fiercely protective of it. If anything happens to that tree, the Park Board will have to move out of state.” MPRB employees took note.
Our next stop was to be Bottineau, but the bus driver was not familiar with Northeast. (Or Minneapolis in general; he had to be re-directed several times throughout the day.) Instead, we stopped to look out the windows at Xcel Park on St. Anthony Parkway and Marshall Street. Proposals for this park on the edge of a residential area call for concentrating ballfields and creating areas for extended-season sports such as soccer. Money for the current “premier” ballfield was donated by Major League Baseball to encourage youth participation in the sport. Edna Brazaitis asked MPRB to consider a regional trail to connect the park with Marshall Terrace.
We continued up the hill to Hi-View Park, 34th and 2nd Street NE, a place I, a Northeast native, had ever visited. This promontory overlooks the train yards and provides residents some green relief from the area’s industrial vibe. Wielinski implored MPRB to keep the basketball courts toward the industrial side of the park, and welcomed the proposed addition of tennis courts.
We re-boarded the bus and headed south to Jackson Square, 22nd and Jackson Street NE, where a chain link fence effectively cuts the park in two. Its purpose is to presumably protect the softball field, which is used as the home field for the Edison Girls’ softball team, but it discourages other uses in the park, such as soccer. Members of the tour group urged MPRB to consider ways of connecting the storm catchment basin across 22nd Ave. to make it part of the park. A performance stage has also been proposed.
Finally, to Bottineau, 20th and 2nd Street NE, where the skateboard park was in enthusiastic use. Skateboarder Kyle Alexander pronounced it the best skate park in the Twin Cities, and when told a new one was proposed, he eagerly wrote down several ideas for MPRB to consider.
Also at Bottineau, the domed roof over the gymnasium has been patched several times and is definitely due for a replacement.
We visited Columbia Park, St. Anthony Parkway and Central Avenue, next, which is showing its age. It also has the most potential for watershed drainage improvement to alleviate flooding on the golf course, noted Commissioner Meyer. Plans call for updating the Columbia Manor into an event space. The picnic pavilion on the north side of the park may be updated for concessions. Wielinksi noted it’s a historic structure, the first of its kind built by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. The dilapidated and unused tennis courts would be torn out, possibly replaced by a dog park.
Deming Heights, St. Anthony Parkway and Fillmore Street NE, also known as “Norwegian Hill,” was up next. We didn’t get out of the bus to climb its steep hills, but drove alongside its northern edge. New picnic areas seemed to be the major proposal here. MPRB was encouraged by tour members to erect a monument noting that the park, at 963 feet above sea level, is the highest elevation in Minneapolis.
From Deming Heights, we visited Cavell Park, 34th and Fillmore Street NE, which may see fruit trees, an adventure park with a splash pad, or skate park, or maybe all of the above. A lot to cram into a small area.
Audubon Park’s famous sledding hill is used heavily in winter. Possible updates to the park include a dog park along 29th Avenue NE, or a fruit orchard along the same street.
MPRB staff noted that Waite Park’s playground and pool equipment are new, but they might re-arrange their setting. One concept shows a stream running into a pond on the corner of 33rd Avenue and Garfield Street NE. The other shows a zipline, a feature more youngsters desire.
Windom Park’s park building is cut off from the rest of the park and its entrance is difficult to find. Folks on the bus tour felt this was a mistake that needed to be corrected. Both plans include an enlarged plaza near the entrance. The unused tennis courts near Johnson Street and 22nd Avenue NE would disappear. One scenario replaces them with a pond; the other, a skate park. We paused there for lunch.
Then it was back on the bus for a drive-by look at Northeast Park, 15th and Johnson Street NE, which contains the Lupient Water Park and has a newly-opened rec center. Work will continue there. Mostly likely, the seldom-used mini golf course will disappear and a skate park will take its place.
Updates at Beltrami, 11th and Summer Steet NE, would emphasize multi-use fields in response to the rapid growth of soccer leagues in the city. Residents urged the Park Board to re-consider leaving the bocce courts along Broadway (one concept relocated them). “They slow down traffic when people stop to look,” said one. And unlike soccer balls, bocce balls seldom leave the court. Christensen said bocce is increasingly being taken up by younger players. Residents also liked the idea of creating a pull-up spot near the bocce court for a food truck.
We left Northeast for Southeast Minneapolis, which has far fewer parks than Northeast.
Renovations at Van Cleve Park, 9th and 15th Avenue S., would include amenities more likely to attract students from the University of Minnesota such as a refrigerated ice skating track, an enhanced entrance and transit center along busy 15th Ave., or a new volleyball court. Wielinski said the premier baseball field along Como Ave. is owned by Hennepin County and is the “home field” for South High School.
Tower Hill Park, Malcom Street and University Avenue Even with the sun beating down on us, we gladly hiked up the path to the Witch’s Tower water tower and took in the view of downtown Minneapolis from its base. Both concepts call for more plaza seating around the tower and a new nature play area.
Soon to come will be Towerside Park, a new, roughly triangular piece of land donated by a developer as part of a City of Minneapolis requirement to provide greenspace as a part of a new development. Part of the area takes in the current site of the Prospect Park community garden at 29th and 4th Street SE.
Our next stop was slated to be Luxton Park, tucked away in a corner by I-94, but the driver once again got lost and we crossed Hwy. 280 into St. Paul, where he found a place to turn around and go back. Tour organizers decided not to try to find the Williams St. entrance to the park (the tour was going into overtime). One concept includes a deep swimming pool and a BMX bike park. The other calls for expanding the park and creating a new park entrance.
With time running out, we skipped Chergosky Park, 2nd and Seymour Avenue SE. Proposed changes include planting more trees, building a new picnic area, or reorganizing play spaces.
From Luxton, we drove by Marcy Park, 10th and 8th Street SE, where amenities such as a climbing wall would once again be aimed toward college students. Tour participants noted that a park near the U probably doesn’t need a playground.
We stopped briefly at Holmes Park, 4th and 3rd Street SE. Both design concepts call for a new plaza area. One includes a new nature play area. The other includes a splash pad.
We slowed down to look at Chute Square, Central and University SE. The Women’s Club has turned care of the Ard Godfrey House, the oldest surviving frame house in Minneapolis, over to MPRB. One renovation would plant rows of fruit trees leading up to the house. The other would install a new central square in the park. Both plans call for removing the split rail fence.
Back in Northeast, we cruised by St. Anthony Park, 4th and Jefferson NE. Tour members liked the natural plantings on May’s Mountain, made with materials that would have been used to construct I-335 through Northeast, if the project had been built. The two concepts call for expanded multi-use fields and add a splash pad.
The last park on the tour was Dickman, 6th and 2nd Street N.E. One plan would add a community kitchen and a splash pad; the other would include spaces for a community garden and an orchard.
Back at Park Board headquarters across the river, we tumbled out of the bus one last time, hot, sweaty and considerably more enlightened.