[MPLS] Lasallians in the news

[Chris Johnson]

wmmarks wrote:
>

> If Nicollet Island is a public, regional park, then there are real 
> questions about DLS, the houses, Nicollet Island Inn, the railroad 
> tracks still in use, and whatever is in the old creamery on the 
> downstream end of the island. Frankly, with all that, a major bridge six 
> lanes wide and parking lots and roads, there's very darn little park in 
> that park. Several park boards and other public entities, have never 
> guarded Nicollet Island as park space. It's a joke to pretend that the 
> island is a park.
> 
> I would feel much better about the park reformers if I had heard them 
> point out how little park there truly is on Nicollet Island and what a 
> shame it is that an historic regional park is treated so shabbily.
> 
> WizardMarks, Central

Wizard,

I'm sorry you haven't heard that, and you are right that that is the case.  We 
often got lost in the minutiae of defending a specific instance, assuming that 
everyone else knows the bigger picture.  But it's just a lack of your hearing 
and our saying, not a lack of belief.

Here's my feelings on the Island:

First, I think you need to visit the island and walk all the way around it. 
Ask Chris Steller to give you a tour; I think it would be eye opening.  Parts 
of the island are more park-like than you seem to imply.

On the other hand:

Yes, the 6-lane Hennepin Avenue bridge is too large for the regional park it 
is crossing.  At the time it was built, it probably seemed like a good idea. 
The vast majority of the time, traffic does not need those 6 lanes.  It is yet 
another symptom of our automobile-centric culture.  As driving becomes more 
expensive, and public transportation becomes better, the 6 lanes on on that 
bridge will become more and more superfluous.  However, bridges like that are 
expensive, so we will have to live with it for 50 to 100 years.  If I could 
snap my fingers and make it 4 lanes, I'd do it.

Look at an aerial photograph of the island:  the biggest blots on it being a 
park are the bridge and DeLaSalle High School and its associated facilities 
and parking lots.  DeLaSalle has not always been that large.  They expanded 
their building as recently as 2000.  From the looks of their success, their 
enrollment will continue to grow.  Where are they going to find the space for 
those additional students, classrooms, cars, buses?

The Park Board is also guilty of screwing up the regional-park 
characteristics.  They paved over half an acre of prairie in the last decade 
with a new parking lot for the convenience of Mintahoe -- to which the Park 
Board has leased the Picnic Pavilion, and which Mintahoe is busily expanding 
the footprint of.

The houses on the north end actually have the least detrimental impact to the 
park -- and it all depends on one's definition of park, as well.  Many people 
would call a collection of historic buildings in a historic setting a "park" 
of sorts.  I can name several such parks in locations other than Minnesota. 
But even if houses don't fit with a conventional sense of a park, they are 
small compared to the bridge, the parking lots and DeLaSalle.

So the question really ought to be:  should Nicollet Island really be a 
regional park, or should it be something else?  Currently, at least by lip 
service, it is the former.  But as Wizard Marks pointed out, in the main it 
does not get treated, respected and maintained as the regional park it is.

Were it up to me, Mintahoe would be gone.  I would go back to eating picnics 
in the Pavilion.  I would go back to attending summer concerts in the 
amphitheater.  The bridge would be 4 lanes, and actually be 2 bridges 
connecting to Bridge Street.  And DeLaSalle would move completely off the 
island to a location where it could have all the room it needed for a growing 
student population, and an athletic facility that included a running track and 
tennis courts, in addition to the football/soccer stadium they want so 
disparately.  Unfortunately, we've already lost much of the history on the 
island, especially from the most historic period (from which its historic 
designation derives) of the late 1800s.  People would use the park for the 
historic park that it is and could be.  Nicollet Island is nearly as unique 
and historically important as St. Anthony Falls.  It ought to be treated that way.

Or should the regional park designation just go away?  Maybe it should go back 
to private ownership.  The home owners can buy their lots, DeLaSalle can 
expand further, the Nicollet Island Inn can buy its lot, Mintahoe can buy the 
many acres it is leasing, and a developer could buy the amphitheater and put a 
nice 10-story condo in that location.  The land is worth millions; the Park 
Board, the MCDA/CPED/City and the Met Council could all reap large profits. 
I'm 1,000% opposed to that idea, but if that's what people really want, it 
seems more practical than faking that it's a regional park while treating it 
like bargaining-chip real estate as the Park Board has.


Chris Johnson
Fulton