The Commons - Downtown East Park

[trigonalmayhem]

I guess if you enjoy wearing cleats or snowshoes they're fine, but the more urban ones embedded in the street grid are left to rot as ice slicks. I know it's hyperbole, but they give way more love to the parks in more affluent areas like SW and around lakes/the river. We can disagree all day about what kind of a job the park board does but you're not going to convince me they do winter maintenance properly or equitably.

[amiller92]

I keep thinking that one or both of Ryan or the Vikings are going to realize that they need to pony up to pay for this thing, but so far no.

If it's not a jumbotron or ugly piece of public art the Vikings are not going to pay for a damn thing. They've pretty clearly proven they can continue to con governmental bodies into paying for them with the DTE station bridge.

Not to get in the way of some good sportsball bashing, but they are putting in $3 million for the park already.

[VAStationDude]

The night after your last bitch fest about the Park Board it snowed. As I was out and about the next day I took note of the Park Boards path and sidewalk clearing. Both Loring and Minnehaha Falls paths were cleaned to bare pavement within hours of dawn and they cleared snow that fell during the day in the afternoon.

You're a bitter little man.

[trigonalmayhem]

Not to get in the way of some good sportsball bashing, but they are putting in $3 million for the park already.

They should be putting in whatever percentage of the cost is proportionate to the percentage of days of the year they have contractual control over the park, otherwise they're getting yet another free ride.

The night after your last bitch fest about the Park Board it snowed. As I was out and about the next day I took note of the Park Boards path and sidewalk clearing. Both Loring and Minnehaha Falls paths were cleaned to bare pavement within hours of dawn and they cleared snow that fell during the day in the afternoon.

You're a bitter little man.

Go take a look at Stevens Square or Washburn Fair Oaks parks. They are *STILL* covered in ice. I have some pictures from just a couple days ago I can post of the latter if you don't believe me. Minneahaha and Loring are their A-list parks they care about. The ones in poorer areas that have sidewalk frontage that poor people use to get to work/school/errands are completely neglected to a level that would get a fine from the city if it were a private property owner.

[grant1simons2]

Two nights in a row I've gone to Logan Park taking the 17 up from Marcy Holmes. It drops me off right in front of the park, I take a cleared path to the warming house, get my skates on and enjoy a game of pick up with the skyline in the background. A lot of our parks are accessible. Do we have work to do to make them more so? Yes of course. But right now there are a lot of them that are easy to get to.

[trigonalmayhem]

The night after your last bitch fest about the Park Board it snowed. As I was out and about the next day I took note of the Park Boards path and sidewalk clearing. Both Loring and Minnehaha Falls paths were cleaned to bare pavement within hours of dawn and they cleared snow that fell during the day in the afternoon.

You're a bitter little man.

Washburn Park on 1/13:

[Sacrelicio]

The night after your last bitch fest about the Park Board it snowed. As I was out and about the next day I took note of the Park Boards path and sidewalk clearing. Both Loring and Minnehaha Falls paths were cleaned to bare pavement within hours of dawn and they cleared snow that fell during the day in the afternoon.

You're a bitter little man.

Washburn Park on 1/13:

You want the sidewalk cleared or that snowbank? Not sure the city clears snowbanks in most parts of the city. Hell, if that's the case they can come down to Chateau Sacrelicio and give me a hand with the one that blocks my driveway every time they send the plows through.

[trigonalmayhem]

The sidewalk. It's a sheet of ice.

It doesn't help that that last shot is where you're supposed to board the bus, but the sidewalk along the entire two-block-wide-by-one-block-tall perimeter is the same icy garbage and part of it is on an incline up a hill.

[BikesOnFilm]

[Sacrelicio]

The sidewalk. It's a sheet of ice.

It doesn't help that that last shot is where you're supposed to board the bus, but the sidewalk along the entire two-block-wide-by-one-block-tall perimeter is the same icy garbage and part of it is on an incline up a hill.

Oh jeez, looks like they missed a spot there!

Call 311. Looks like the initially cleared it but maybe some meltwater froze over.

[grant1simons2]

I'm gonna go down to check it out. Haven't been in the neighborhood in a while.

[fehler]

Water features can be made to incorporate ice. The Fountain Supply store on Hiawatha/45th Street has a fountain that builds up a large mountain of ice as more water is pumped into it. Very pretty with the proper lighting.

[trigonalmayhem]

I filed a 311 request the first time it snowed. They recently closed it as 'no problem found upon inspection.' I wonder if they had the park board inspect it. It was closed on 1/14 the day after I took those pictures and I haven't been by since so I'm not sure if it's really cleared or another case of 311 closing cases without resolving them (which is very common for sidewalk issues).

[Sacrelicio]

Water features can be made to incorporate ice. The Fountain Supply store on Hiawatha/45th Street has a fountain that builds up a large mountain of ice as more water is pumped into it. Very pretty with the proper lighting.

O reeealllyy....might be cool for the yard. Any idea what it's called, so I can google it?

[John21]

I keep thinking that one or both of Ryan or the Vikings are going to realize that they need to pony up to pay for this thing, but so far no.

Until they can find a way to profit off of an additional contribution, it ain't happening.

[EOst]

Trig may be negative, but the sidewalks around Stevens Square Park really are poorly maintained in winter. Solid sheets of ice for months on end, especially the north side along 18th Street. But I don't think that's representative of most parks.

Plus, they did replace the playground last year with a really cute art one, so it's not as though the park is desperately neglected.

[amiller92]

Both Loring and Minnehaha Falls paths were cleaned to bare pavement within hours of dawn and they cleared snow that fell during the day in the afternoon.

Along the creek, they clear the bike path but not the foot path (thus resulting in walkers in the bike path). That actually seems like an okay compromise.

[MNdible]

One of the issues is that in areas that receive heavy pedestrian traffic, new snow can easily get packed down and icy before anybody has a chance to get to it, even if they're pretty on the spot about clearing it.

[Sacrelicio]

Both Loring and Minnehaha Falls paths were cleaned to bare pavement within hours of dawn and they cleared snow that fell during the day in the afternoon.

Along the creek, they clear the bike path but not the foot path (thus resulting in walkers in the bike path). That actually seems like an okay compromise.

I use the parkway almost daily, it works fine. You get a few fat bikes here and there but they're not particularly common.

[trigonalmayhem]

One of the issues is that in areas that receive heavy pedestrian traffic, new snow can easily get packed down and icy before anybody has a chance to get to it, even if they're pretty on the spot about clearing it.

So do all the private sidewalks around there that are perfectly cleared down the pavement. It's not impossible, and their laziness doesn't excuse it. There's plenty of tools available to break through trampled-down ice slicks and as a pretty big organization with a sizable budget they probably have access to them considering they clear other heavily-used areas just fine. Just this last week there was some kind of pipe burst or fire truck thing that caused huge ice slicks on Grant by Nicollet and they had it cleared up within a couple days. So points for public housing over the park board.