I think these are excellent suggestions. I'm especially interested in seeing the bike thing happen - I've seen such major destruction in my neighborhood park along the river.
Liz Greenbaum Longfellow "R.T.Rybak" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >I'm just back from the Birkebeiner cross country ski race in Hayward >Wisconsin....and a couple things struck me (besides the fact that it's >snowing like nuts up north.) > >1. Whenever I go to a cross country ski race or off road bike event, I'm >struck how many people who live in Minneapolis are into these silent sports. >2. It's too bad all these people have to do their sports outside of the >city, when there are so many potential places for both in the city. (driving >out to Burnsville to off road bike, or out to Bloomington to cross country.) > >I'm writing this because I'm interested in expanding both these sports in >the city...and it can be done with very little, if any, money. > >Here are a couple ideas...about which I'd love to get feedback: > >1. Wirth, which has great trails that aren't always groomed, is barely known >by the cross country crowd. Meanwhile, Phalen and Como in St. Paul...no >where nearly as nice...are real magnets during the winter, for day to day >practices and for special races. > To reestablish Wirth as the premier inner city cross country ski site, >I think we need a race, similar to the ones now held at Phalen and Como. >This one could also include some concessions sales in the awesome Wirth >Chalet, that could raise money for this and other park programs...including >possibly more trail grooming here and in other places like Hiawatha. (This >event shouldn't be hard to pull off...cross country skiers are a really >tight group and if Park Board people let this happen, there are lots of >folks interested in helping.) > >2. >With off road biking(I've written about this a bit before here), there is a >good bit of this going on in Minneapolis right now...only it's all illegal. >Throughout Wirth Park, Minnehaha Park, Ft. Snelling, along the River Road, >along Minnehaha Creek...you can see arbitrary trails...some of which are >beautiful and benign, and some of which are destructive to the woods and >cause erosion. Right now we aren't telling bikers the difference so instead >of guiding them to the places that are fine, they are all over the woods and >causing serious problems and endangering people on walks in the woods. > My thought here is that we should work with the Park Board to develop a >single, legal off road trail around the city....telling those into the sport >that we are creating a great place to bike but in return we all have to >police the illegal places to protect erosion. Go here in Wirth, don't go >there. We could encourage the bike shops to support this, just as they have >organized teams of riders to construct make shift bridges that make the >trails so nice on the river bottoms in Bloomington. > For example, a great trail could be layed out using parts of Wirth, >around Brownie Lake, coming down the Cedar Lake Trail into the woods behind >Private Beach and back to the Cedar Lake Trail...up the river to Minnehaha >Falls along paved trails and then onto the trails near the Falls leading >into Ft. Snelling. > By linking off road routes with a few key paved trails, we could have >one of the great cycle trails around and in addition to the recreation >benefit, we could steer bikers to parts of those parks where the biking >won't hurt...away from those that cause erosion. > > >These aren't the biggest issues facing the city...but these basic quality of >life issues...esp. about the parks...are a lot of the reason why people live >here. We also aren't as aggressive in promoting them as, say, Portland. By >focusing on them we could have even greater use of the parks while at the >same time, protecting them from destructive practices. > >Thoughts? > >R.T. Rybak >East Harriet > > >_______________________________________ >Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy >Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: >http://e-democracy.org/mpls > -- __________________________________________________________________ Your favorite stores, helpful shopping tools and great gift ideas. Experience the convenience of buying online with Shop@Netscape! http://shopnow.netscape.com/ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Mail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/ _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
