I don't know if anyone has looked into this....
I have never seen it, but I believe the Park Board has a portable park that
functions as a Park building on wheels. Should Jordan be a priority for staff
and resources?
Maybe Jonathan Palmer or other folks from Jordan can help us with what has
been tried and what resources are needed to make the Jordan Park work better.
It is unfortunate that a wonderful building, pool and picnic shelters, and
most importantly programs are under utilized at the really cool North
Interpretive Center Park . I have attended some great programs run by Park naturalists
where I was the only one attending. Maybe some of those programs could be held
in Jordan or some creative way could be figured out to bring kids who would
benefit and enjoy some of these great programs to the North interpretive center.
In Seward one of the local churches lets the Seward Neighborhood Group use
their van for our youth farm project kids.
I have been working on our NPR Phase 1 summary and using info. from the NRP
web sight. I am not sure what this has to do with anything, but I found it
interesting how similar some of the demographics of Seward and Jordan are as they
are listed on the web site. Some of the information is pretty old and our of
date, but according to the data listed-
Seward population 7276 median income $17,846 percentage in
poverty 20%, percentage of rental 64%
Jordan population, 7752, median income $21,924, percentage
in poverty 21%, percentage of rental 38%.
Jordan has a lot more kids under 18 and in the last 10 years the population
has grown a lot more in Jordan.
Unfortunately basketball hoops can solve problems and cause problems. I have
almost gotten killed,( beer bottles thrown at my head) trying to keep
basketball courts in residential areas safe.
Two years ago, at Matthews Park we had to temporarily put lids on the
basketball hoops when things were getting out of control.
My kids play in tournaments like Hoop It Up that are set up on city streets
and parking lots. Maybe there is a corporate sponsor who would sponsor a summer
tournament in Jordan?
Maybe Vicky Heller needs a good tax write off?
Matthews Park has large light poles for night baseball and softball, maybe we
could use them for windmills, light poles and cell towers and duct tape those
solar lights you can get at Target (that charge during the day and light up
at night) to those same poles.
Speaking of solar, the Seward Neighborhood Group and Park Board staff are
meeting tomorrow to try to finalize a scope of services agreement for solar
panels to be installed on the roof at Matthews. John, Walt and Annie, we could use
your help.
We are trying to give the Park Board $13,000 of brand new state of the art
equipment and $10,000 cash to install solar panels on the roof of Matthews. Park
staff have been dragging their feet on this project. We would like to
actually see the panels on the roof, generating electricity for the Park Board which
will be connected up to a computer and data collection software that can be
used by kids doing science projects on solar collection.
Speaking of Power generation. I think the Park Board is a licensed public
utility (unlike the city of Minneapolis which isn't) and may have some unique
opportunities because of this.
Innovative Power Systems has a solar power generator trailer that can be
rented fairly cheaply. I would to see more of those trailers purchased or donated
to the Park Board so that all neighborhood/park events could be powered by
solar. Those huge and really loud and smelly gas generators could and should be
replaced by solar power.
Thanks, Scott Vreeland
Seward
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