Rick--The Minneapolis Youth Coordinating Board, which is a board made up of several different elected bodies in the city of Minneapolis (ie Park Board, Hennepin County, City Council, the Mayor, Library Board, the School Board, etc), has made Youth Recreation one of its goals for the 2002 year. Mac Boston has been working in a recommendation on how to offer more options for youth in the city, including, as you mentioned, traveling teams. He just came out with his recomendation last week, and I would encourage you to contact him regarding your opinions and ideas.
The number of the Youth Coordinating Board is 673-2060.
Thanks, and feel free to let me know if you need anything further.
Becky Boland, Lyndale
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Greetings to all my fellow neighbors!
This is my first post and I am so glad I found the forum!
I would like to speak on a number of issues regarding youth, education, and sports.
I have read the threads over the past few months regarding the Park Board wanting to study, based on the idea of the Mayor, the creation of more trails and facilities for skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, etc.
I believe that we, the city, should be sensitive to the needs of our youth and adults to provide adaquate facilities to excercise and to just have fun!
What I find strange is how we seem to have an X-game mentality to our thinking.
I would challenge anyone to find, in the city of Minneaoplis a baseball field for younger kids (60-75 foot bases) that has a grass infield, dugouts, a mound, homeplates that are straight, AND fences to hit home runs over.
I do know that there is a wonderful complex of fields for both baseball, softball, soccer, and football that are being completed on the Fort Snelling site. I am very, very happy to see that! However, the Fort Snelling site is no better than a Parade Stadium - in other words, not enough.
If we are going to be putting forth the effort to create alternative/silent sport facilities could we also start to create other venues for our kids that will make them feel proud to play in the city?
My sons play for one of the only travelling baseball leagues in Minneapolis. We have our share of home games. The teams that come in from the suburbs hate to play on our fields - no mounds, outfields that have more dirt, rocks and weeds than grass. We are not even allowed to drag a field if it has rained because of Park Board rules.
Our kids are just as good as any kid from the burbs. Do they not deserve the best from us?
If we are going to build beautiful new facilities for the silent sports and not address all the venues then lets just let them skateboard on the sidewalks and make a few wooden ramps.
Rick Kuhlmann
Hale-Page-Diamond Lake
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