A couple of things: People need to understand that there is a lot of skiing and biking in the city. Biking and skiing enthusiasts have, for many years, known that the Twin Cities are among the nation's most hospitable urban settings for these sports. You do NOT need to drive to Bloomington to ski, or to Richfield to ride your mountain bike, and for that we are blessed-- sometimes in spite of ourselves.
It is important to distinguish biking from skiing. Although many enthusiasts enjoy both sports because they are very compatible, there are problems and issues unique to each. Skiing, for example, requires something of an outlay from the city/county/state for grooming of trails. Serious XC skiers demand serious grooming, and this costs money. Minneapolis and St. Paul have both dedicated pretty healthy budgets to this (although one can always argue for more and better grooming--Wirth has never been up to the standards of, say, Hyland Park). The youth ski league has been a pretty well-funded bellwether of where the city stands with its commitment to XC skiing. Next point: Off-road biking and on-road biking are very different. Off-road biking (mountain biking) requires a serious commitment to (non-paved) trail building and maintenance in our parks. It has been common practice in the Twin Cities to passively allow the building of MTB trails, only to outlaw off-road biking when hikers, dog-walkers, and other angry folks decide they can't deal with mountain bikers. Mountain bikers do not want more paved trails like the "rails to trails" commuter system. They want "singletrack." Mostly, they are willing to build and maintain these trails... but they are a disorganized lot given to an outlaw mentality. They need to be invited to the table, heard out, and given an opportunity to participate in park planning. Mountain biking ~does~ damage the environment, but I am convinced that this is partially due to the fact that the mountain biking community is not very organized, and it tends to avoid institutional politics. When trails are closed (as in Wirth, Long Lake, Battle Creek, and many other places), they would prefer to go elsewhere and build new trails instead of engaging with the public, law enforcement, and others. The fact of the matter is that it is ~very~ easy to maintain off-road bike trails to minimize erosion and other kinds of degradation... the first step is to acknowledge that mountain biking is a popular and legitimate use of our parklands, and invite mountain bikers to participate in the process of accomodating their past-time. It's time to acknowledge that these sports are very popular, and they are sustainable in this city. It is true that, with very little financial commitment on the part of the city, biking and skiing in the Twin Cities could be not only nationally reknown, but world class. I think our mayor is on to something here, and I'm impressed with him for bringing it up. Still recovering from the Birkie-- Hans Eisenbeis Kingfield _______________________________________ 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
