On Wednesday, May 19, 2004, at 09:46 AM, stack wrote:
It seems like more people every year are appreciating the river in Mpls as a wonderful natural amenity.
Stack, I noted in a recent article that we workers at the Post Office with the supposed premier view of this "natural amenity" are being given a luxury far beyond our modest station in life. Now, I have access to the parking ramp along Hennipen Avenue there, and given that most workers prefer the basement ramp I could probably get away with parking a small camper on the upper level and enjoying that "natural amenity" for free. In fact, I could probably just set up housekeeping... and enjoy that "natural amenity" at far less cost than the price of a million dollar condo.
Except I've checked out that view, and it's not all that "wonderful", and it's certainly not "natural". What one can see along this chunk of the river is a several huge concrete and steel bridges carrying cars, trucks, busses, and trains. There are no falls here, only massive concrete spillways and huge locks. The river traffic is dominated by towboats pushing barges of dirt and the occasional giant excursion boat. Along the river one finds not natural flora and fauna but ever rising skyscrapers of concrete and steel.
So this portion of the river's run is clearly not a "wonderful natural amenity". It is actually more of a 19th century "industrial park" threatened by increasing gentrification. If I want to enjoy "natural amenity" I know of several much more scenic spots along the river both above and below this Milling District. In fact, the most "natural" part of the river in Minneapolis is above the head of navigation at the Soo Line bridge. Everything downstream from there has forever been changed by the Corp in it's work to maintain a legally mandated 9 foot channel. Interestingly, much of the land between the railroad and the river in the 1970s building where our Park Board will meet tonight is fill land- the old maps show the river extending further west.
So it is ironic that our Park Board sitting on perhaps filled in river channel will tonight rule on whether a tiny hydro generator fits the character of the site of the former falls just down river. Said falls were gone over a century ago, replaced by working mills and all the incumbent industry. And while the museum now sited there is a nice touch, I had the pleasure of seeing flour milled nearby and the museum is a near lifeless substitute for the real thing. So instead of a museum telling our children about water power, let's give them the opportunity to see the real thing with Crown Hydro's green power project!
from upriver in Hawthorne,
Dyna Sluyter
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