urbanMSP

So this weekend the Witch's Hat Water Tower observation deck was open to the public, which reminds me:

a) Why on Earth, in 2014, is this park such a dump? The water tower is an icon. It's on the National Register of Historic Places. We're supposed to have a first-rate park system. This is among the best views in the city. It doesn't make any sense.

b) Why doesn't the city (or the neighborhood) open the deck more often? Currently it's open just once a year, and it is absolutely MOBBED (and rightfully so) every time. Wouldn't it make sense to open the deck once a week/month during the spring/summer/fall?

No doubt opening the Witch's Hat tower requires volunteers and money to run it, so that is one reason. It is also the main draw of the Ice Cream Social event that the neighborhood runs, if it was open once a week it wouldn't draw as many people to the event.

My real point was that, where feasible, this land should be sold off for redevelopment. But it won't be, because MPRB never sells land.

Meadowbrook may be an interesting case, as its non-contiguous with the city of Minneapolis.

Just returned from a canoe trip to the BWCA and am catching up, Meadowbrook has been a particular interest of mine so I wanted to chime in with my fantasy. With the Minnehaha Watershed District rehabbing the creek through Hopkins and St. Louis Park just north of here and installing trails and boardwalks through the marshes, I would love to see the park board "donate" it to Three Rivers and add it as a regional park bringing more of the marsh boardwalks around Meadowbrook lake and trails over and around the hills.

http://www.southwestjournal.com/news/ne ... dden-beach

Leave Hidden Beach alone!

I actually went to Cedar Point / West Cedar Beach recently and enjoyed it because it is not like Hidden Beach at all. I appreciated that the lifeguards actually enforced the "no dogs on the beach" rule and I wasn't inundated with cigarette smoke all day. I'm getting old. I still like Hidden Beach and I'll still go there, but sometimes you just want to go to the beach without all the bull. I will say, with the frequency that the cops roll through Hidden Beach now days, it's actually easier to knock back a few beers at any of the other beaches.

a) Why on Earth, in 2014, is [Witch's Hat Water Tower] park such a dump?

Genuinely curious why you think the park is dumpy? Some of the older trails and steps on the northwest side are a bit run-down but the grassy area of the park seems no worse than (say) Minnehaha Park.

15-20 years ago the hill was covered in buckthorn, and there was a lot of effort to eradicate and replant with natives.

It's still smothered in buckthorn, full of ripening berries. All of the steps and retaining walls are 1970s railroad ties. The view is great, but it kind of doesn't feel safe. I'll vote dumpy.

a) Why on Earth, in 2014, is [Witch's Hat Water Tower] park such a dump?

Not sure if you've noticed, but Minneapolis Parks and Rec generally does a terrible job of maintaining its facilities. Have you been through Loring Park recently? The supposed crown jewel of the parks system? Just a bunch of crumbling asphalt paths, a disintegrating fountain, and a sad-sack pier. There are a few areas with nice landscaping, but those are maintained by volunteers.

Have you been through Loring Park recently? The supposed crown jewel of the parks system?

I thought the Chain of Lakes is the crown jewel

Maybe.

They do have the same crumbling asphalt paths going for them.

I feel safe in witches because I'm in a really nice neighborhood. Also I think our parks are fine at upkeep. Yeah I'm sorry that its concrete and a little crumbly, but guess what. If they try to switch to asphalt or something better, someone is going complain... A lot, because of we like to do that. I wouldn't personally but people who don't use the park. Which is a good chunk of Minneapolis. "I'm not using it, why are my tax money going in."

On a related note, why isn't the Mississippi River gorge more accessible south of the city? There are some unpaved trails that veer off the parkway and there's that beach used by rowers. But I've been wondering why there aren't trails with views of the river or access. I understand it's a national park but it just looks overgrown and is not very inviting.

Here's an interesting story about MPRB, workers and morale.

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2014/06/03 ... frustrated

a) Why on Earth, in 2014, is [Witch's Hat Water Tower] park such a dump?

Not sure if you've noticed, but Minneapolis Parks and Rec generally does a terrible job of maintaining its facilities. Have you been through Loring Park recently? The supposed crown jewel of the parks system? Just a bunch of crumbling asphalt paths, a disintegrating fountain, and a sad-sack pier. There are a few areas with nice landscaping, but those are maintained by volunteers.

Loring Park is pretty sad. They need to get rid of the high grass in the pond and put up a sound barrier along I-94.

A sound barrier would be pretty controversial, placing a visual wall between the sculpture garden and the park is a different level of obstruction than the multilane mess traffic mess.

Loring Park is pretty sad. They need to get rid of the high grass in the pond and put up a sound barrier along I-94.

The high grass is the improve the water quality and prevent erosion. They stopped mowing around the lake around 2001 under a fancy name like "Shoreline Restoration".

Still, I'd like to see at least some bushes to create some sort of separation from the west side of Loring Park and the bottleneck eyesore. At the same time, there's something kind of surreal about this park being so very close to so many vehicles.

There are several good spots to access the River from the Minneapolis side: at the 26th Street/Greenway rail bridge, near the Lake Street bridge (the Rowing Club access), 36th Street (the Oak Grove), 44th Street, the Ford Lock and Dam, and several points along the Minnehaha Park trails (the Dog Park access is nicely out of the way, but has its own "hazards").

Or are you concern-trolling-promoting for the "Share the Gorge" Ice Cream event next Tuesday (with free river canoe rides)? http://www.longfellow.org/2014/07/share ... next-week/

A sound barrier would be pretty controversial, placing a visual wall between the sculpture garden and the park is a different level of obstruction than the multilane mess traffic mess.

Can you even see the sculpture garden from Loring Park? The garden side has rows of trees (probably to block the view of the bottleneck). There are better looking sound barriers out there. These are in Amsterdam all along their urban freeways https://www.google.com/maps/@52.349725, ... CEoToQ!2e0

Meeting coming up in a week regarding parking in and around Minnehaha Park. I haven't yet figure out what spawned this discussion.
http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/mp ... oZ89RPvML/

Probably because it stinks.

I nearly always bike over there, so maybe I just haven't noticed. The few times I've driven, it's been off-peak times and there's plenty of parking along Minnehaha Drive (the frontage road from the roundabout to 54th Street). The main (pay) lot can sometimes be full, as I've seen people trolling around that lot for a space, which makes me think we should be charging a little more.

Edit: CM A. Johnson posted some background:

There is an effort by a group of neighbors living adjacent to Minnehaha Park to
organize and implement "critical parking", which would mean that only residents
would be able to park on their streets (permit-only parking). This is due to
their concerns over lack of parking availability for residents and their guests
due to park patrons parking on the street. Several other concerns regarding
litter and noise have also been raised. There is another group of neighbors
that are against such an effort, along with broader community concerns over
permit-only parking becoming a barrier to park usage.

Maybe MPRB could pull a Red Cow and file a lawsuit against the city if this moves forward. But hopefully the critical parking idea will get rejected politically first.