Three questions that need to be answered about The Yard and Ryan Co’s Downtown East project

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“The Yard”

The proposed $400 million East Downtown corporate Wells Fargo office, housing, retail, parking and park complex being proposed by Ryan Development is chugging along, having just received unanimous support from the Minneapolis Planning Commission. At the center of this project – literally and figuratively – is “The Yard” a two block (likely separated by a county road), 4.2 acre park space that is described on Ryan Co’s website as a “world-class urban park/plaza that serves as the ‘front yard’ to the new stadium”. Continue Reading

Anpetu Was’te Cultural Arts Market: Opening next summer on Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis

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Next summer, a new marketplace will open on Franklin Avenue and will bring art, food, and music to a very unlikely location – the median between Cedar Avenue and S. 17th Avenue.The project is the result of a $435,000 ArtPlace grant and the work of the Native American Community Development Institute. NACDI Vice President Andy Hestness explained at a recent project unveiling that the Anpetu Was’te Cultural Arts Market is designed to bring the Ventura Village and Seward neighborhoods together and create a pedestrian-friendly roadway, something that the presence of a light rail station has not been able to do on its own. He commented, “People originally thought that plopping the light rail here would create a new paradigm. We’ve been waiting for years for this to happen, and it never did. We finally decided that we were going to do it ourselves, since no one was going to do it for us.”Jay Bad Heart Bull, NACDI president, explained that for the light rail to be strong and successful, there needs to be a strong pedestrian presence. Continue Reading

COMMUNITY VOICES | Sheridan Memorial Park dedicated on blustery Veteran’s Day

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The Sheridan Veteran’s Memorial, located in Sheridan Memorial Park on the bank of the Mississippi River just north of the Broadway bridge, was dedicated on Veteran’s Day. Dozens of people shivered at the ceremony to honor the memorial and the sacrifice of veterans.The memorial was the brainchild of a group of World War II veterans from Northeast Minneapolis. They wanted to establish a veterans memorial along the Mississippi River. They ran into roadblock after roadblock until they met up with the Sheridan Neighborhood Organization, a newly formed neighborhood group representing the only neighborhood in Minneapolis that didn’t have a park.Howard Weller, the last surviving member of that group of veterans, spoke at the dedication ceremony. This video takes a look. Continue Reading

Mississippi Watershed Management Organization landscaping and marking a living lab, public park at new site

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Before Tony Jaros’ bar, before the IBEW union hall, when big chunks of Northeast and North Minneapolis showed up as wetlands on early plat maps, there was a ravine on what is now the Tony Jaros property. As their new neighbors, the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, establish their new back yard at 2522 Marshall St. NE, they’re going to put back that ravine’s function.“It’s not a creek restoration project,” rather a “more engineered” version, said Eric Holt, a designer with Barr Engineering. “The site is meant to demonstrate the mission and values of the organization as well as reconnecting people to the resource. It’s going to function as a public park.”As shown in the diagram, a switchback path, handicap-accessible, winds its way down to the river. Continue Reading

Q&A with Minneapolis park board incumbent Scott Vreeland

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All of the drama with our mayoral and city council races have left the candidates vying for a seat as a Park Board commissioner out of the spotlight. And while the fifth district (a portion of Howe and all of Hiawatha) is an uncontested race, the third district (part of Howe, and all of Cooper, Longfellow, and Seward) will see two names on the ballot – incumbent Scott Vreeland and newcomer Said Maye.Park Board commissioners are elected every four years and are responsible for developing park policies and enacting ordinances that affect more than 6,740 acres of land and water, including parks, beaches, lakes, pools, and rec centers.We’ve invited both Vreeland and Maye to participate in a Q&A discussing issues they see Minneapolis’ parks facing in the coming years and goals they would like to see the Board achieve. Incumbent Vreeland’s responses are below. We will publish Maye’s responses when we receive them.This article is reposted from TCDP media partner My Broadsheet. Check out the links below for other recent My Broadsheet stories:Subscriptions Open for Community Solar GardenUpdate: True ThaiScott Vreeland Q&AQuestionsWhat do you see as the top three issues that Minneapolis parks face in the coming years? Continue Reading

Hashim Yonis, Park Board candidate, violated ‘numerous civil service rules’

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Hashim Yonis, a candidate for Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board commissioner and a former Park District employee, was accused in July of illegally taking money. In August, he was terminated for violation of a number of civil service rules, including “criminal or dishonest conduct unbecoming to a public employee” and “misappropriation of City property, funds or money.” [See PDF below for full investigative report and decisions.] In a settlement agreement announced today, Yonis agreed never to apply for a position with the Park Board. In the agreement, he was allowed to turn his termination into a resignation. Here’s the text of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board statement:

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St. Paul plans to privatize Como, Phalen golf courses but will still run Como ski center

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Kathy Zieman was caught off guard when she got news last week that the St. Paul City Council would be voting on a resolution this week that would initiate a request for proposals (RFP) process to find a private vendor to take over the management of the Como and Phalen golf courses by next spring.Zieman, president of the golf course’s Como Women’s Club and a member of the Como Regional Task Force, said the news “came out of the blue.”When Parks and Rec director Mike Hahm spoke at District 10’s District Plan Ad Hoc committee meeting on Sept. 9, he assured attendees that the Como Golf Course was not closing, Zieman said. “I guess he was right. They were looking at something totally opposite. Continue Reading

October 2013 Corcoran Park update

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Fall program registration has already begun and programs began in September after Labor Day. Corcoran is expanding its after school programming for school age children. Some of the upcoming programs include:Girl Time: Girls (ages 6-12) will have the chance to learn new skills, belong to a group, make positive connections to peers, feel good and believe in their ability to create a positive future for themselves, and have some girl time fun. Meets every other Thursday, 4:30-6pm.Monday Mania: (Ages 6-12) It’s the first day of the school week, but what better way to end your day than here at Corcoran Park, come and join us for a Monday adventure. We will have an afternoon snack, make creative crafts, and play recreational games. Continue Reading

OPINION | The hungry insurgent: Security in a fragile food system

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I write a lot about our fragile food system. It is fragile because much of our food comes from great distances, dependent on transportation infrastructure and lots of cheap fuel. It is fragile because the synthetic fertilizers and pesticides that we put on our crops are hard on the land and ultimately destroy it, making it incapable of growing food. It is fragile because weather has always made farming fragile, and we have messed up our weather patterns with human-created climate change, so crop-destroying weather events are becoming more common. It is fragile because it depends on a fragile economic system that puts food production under a factory model that is subject to wild economic swings.

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Renovating the refectory at Minnehaha Falls

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The Minnehaha Falls Refectory (the building that houses Sea Salt) might be getting a facelift, and right now the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is asking for community input in determining what the improvements should include.Cliff Swenson, director of design and project management at the Park Board, said, “We need to be good stewards of the building. Sea Salt has an interest in enlarging their space, and we want to meet with the public to see what we’re missing. We want to get the public and private spaces right. We want to know what changes we can make that would benefit the public.”Last week, the Park Board held an open house at the Refectory, giving attendees a chance to tour the grounds and talk to the design team about renovation options and issues they see with the building.Refectory IssuesPrior to the meeting, the Park Board identified numerous issues with the building itself, the park grounds, and traffic flow. It has been many years since the building was last renovated, and the roof, walls, ceiling, and other fixtures are showing their age. Continue Reading