Chris Johnson wrote: Theodore Wirth's vision, and that of the Park Board in the first half of the 20th century, for those concessions was to provide a service to the public and an opportunity for employment for neighborhood youth, and the learning and other community benefits that go with it. Like neighborhood schools and neighborhood libraries, neighborhood parks become part of and support the community fabric. There was a park within 6 blocks of every residence in the city, so that all children and families would have easy access to them -- not just the families with soccer moms willing and able to act as limousine services to such inaccessible places as the Ft. Snelling soccer fields now leased by the Park Board.
Until the early 1980s, the Park Board grew its own plants and trees at its own greenhouses and nursery, providing yet another pair of locations for a large number of city youth to have good experiences and gainful summer employment. So, do you want billboards on park benches, Dairy Queen signs over concessions, and other privatization and commercialization of our parks? Or do you want the community- and neighborhood-oriented parks that our predecessors left us? Mark Anderson replies: What are you saying here, Chris? You wax on about Theodore Wirth's vision for our parks, and I was waiting for your climax: where you explain the grave danger to this utopian vision. Apparently this is all about giving DQ the concession at Lake Harriet? That gives up the community-oriented parks we have? I don't understand, Chris. I think the main result of out-sourcing the concessions would be that the park system could collect more cash than their current inefficient and poorly managed yields. At the top of your e-mail you basically accuse the Park Board of hiding theft at the concession stands. Then at the bottom, you defame the Board for giving up day-to-day management. I'd think you would celebrate taking the management away from the Board. Also, why do you have an emotional attraction to the concession stands being run by the Park Board? I can understand your concern with losing the benefits of our park system. Mpls does have a great park system. I would miss it too, if we lost all the green space. But the concession stands? Who cares who runs them? They are already the exception to the green space, perhaps an unavoidable blot on the rest of the parks. But if we have to have them, let's at least make money on them. Mark V Anderson Bancroft REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
