[Mpls] Botany of the Parks

[Sean Ryan]

>Chris Johnson wrote:
>
>Until the early 1980s, the Park Board grew its own plants and trees at its 
>own greenhouses and >nursery, providing yet another pair of locations for a 
>large number of city youth to have good >experiences and gainful summer 
>employment.

  This is a point that has always bothered me. I think the parks do a good 
service in terms of offering general green space with ball fields and school 
programs, but the botanical side of the mission (along with the jobs and 
greenhouses) have been lost. The parks were once a showcase for plants and 
the landscape designs of Wirth and others, now they seem to simply exist as 
tree lots. I except the fact that we need ballparks and playgrounds but the 
'gardens in the city' are gone.
  Some exceptions such as the Thomas Lowry Park (seven pools), the Lyndale 
Farmstead and the Rose Garden are beautiful and well-maintained, but most 
others look tired. Perhaps this is just an inevitable paradigm shift that 
has occurred as the city and its fiscal responsibilities have grown, but I'm 
still left feeling as if we lost our way.

  My point is that we value the green space, but not what the green is made 
of. Looking through old plans and pictures of the parks, I am amazed by the 
thought that was put into each design, but over time those designs have been 
lost. Minnehaha Park, Logan Park, Gateway Park, Jackson Square, Weber Park, 
North Commons, you name it, they all have departed from their designs 
through bad decisions by whomever was leading the bulldozers.

  Maybe their is no real reason that I am ranting except it hurts to see the 
beauty that many parks once possesed.

I will post some pictures and links once the MNHS server is back up.

Sean Ryan
Audubon- another weedy lot with an ugly park building

PS> Also, wasn't Minnehaha Park on the National Register before someone 
decided to rip through the English Picturesque landscape in the early 90s? I 
might be off here...

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