Ah, RT, you silver-tongued wonder, you. Even though I am running for the
Library Board next year, I too think we should have a serious debate about
separate boards for library and park (I cannot say the same for Board of
Estimates since I cannot figure out what they do). However, if a separate
library board were cancelled, I would like the city council to have a board of
advisors made up equally of citizens and retired librarians. The intricacies of
running a library system take a long learning curve and I don't want to lose
ground during the interim.
As to open air baseball parks, a memory: Wayte Hoyt announcing the game for the
Cincinnati Red Legs (circa 1950-60), "And it's up and up and. . .over the
laundry!" That was a home run over the laundry across from Crosley Field.
Those who could not afford a ticket to the ballgame (kids mostly) would stand on
the laundry roof and watch the game. My brother and I sat in the bleachers
along the first base line with our dad watching Johnny Temple and Ted Kluzuski.
Pete Rose was somewhere else in the stands with his dad who was a "business"
acquaintance of our dad--a bookie.
Wizard Marks, Central.
R.T.Rybak wrote:
> I'm with Jan that we should take a very serious look at eliminating the Park
> and Library Boards; concentrating the decisions under the city council.
>
> Along with the obvious cost savings, it would force the city council to help
> make the tough decisions about how to balance these various needs.
>
> Here are two quick examples of how this could change two hot topics:
>
> 1. The library: One reason this project has floundered for so long is that
> it is in the hands of a board that has very little authority and
> visibility...so it sits like a wallflower in the corner while all the fancy
> megaprojects get asked to dance. If the city council was responsible for
> libraries, we could finally have the very-needed debate about whether this
> is a higher priority than the many other developments the council has funded
> ahead of it. In private Library Board members complain that the council
> hasn't done enough, the council complains that the Libary Board hasn't done
> enough....Put the decision in one place so voters know who to credit and/or
> blame.
>
> 2. Stadium. Ask yourself how much energy has been spent talking about a new
> stadium over the past decade. Now ask yourself how much you hear about the
> critical state of playing fields in the city. While we spend days and days
> focused on the Twins, thousands of kids are playing on substandard soccer
> fields with dangerous draingrates at midfield and rock hard baseball
> diamonds that are laughed at by the teams that come from the suburbs and St.
> Paul. Large sections of the city have almost no organized team
> sports....which is a disgrace. Again, coordinating these functions under
> the city council would force the same debate about priorities.
>
> I don't think anyone has taken a hard enough look at what would actually be
> saved if you fully merged the complete organizations, which may or may not
> make sense, but at the very least the decision-making should be in a single
> place.
>
> R.T. Rybak
> East Harriet
