Wednesday evening the MPRB was host to a bevy of black and gold letter jacket clad students of DeLaSalle High led by Brother Michael and John Derus armed with piles of letters to present to the commissioners. 3 young men (come on ladies, why so shy??) spoke to the benefits of having a home field. If you didn't catch them on the 10:00 pm news on WCCO 4 they will no doubt be on the cable station reruns.
Through out all the ups and downs, the millions of dollars, the spectacle of combative commissioners and riled public, and not once has any TV station showed up despite being invited to do so over and over. That they showed up for a scripted, pre-packaged, marketing-spin pleading of DeLaSalle's desires to get some real estate for cheap is highly curious. I guess John Derus must have had some favors he called in at WCCO to get them there.
One student mentioned that the DeLaSalle students only "officially" learned about the plans in February. I wonder why the school saw fit to wait so long before "officially" telling its student body? Clearly students themselves knew before that, since they were writing letters to the editor of the Star Tribune back in January.
How about the remarks by DeLaSalle alumni and Park Board attorney Brian Rice in the Skyway News article? Referring to a study done by Miller Dunwoodie (the premier preservation architectural firm in town -- responsible for the restoration of the State Capitol, city hall courthouse and Basilica of St. Mary) which described the houses on Nicollet Island as the best collection of preserved Victorian houses in the city which should be kept, Rice says:
"[That's] a crock. When they talk about the historic nature of the island - hell, if you were going to preserve the historic nature of the island, you would have tenements and business on the island. From the 1930s to the 1970s, until they got moved off, it was hobo land."
Rice is not an architect or a historian. One can imagine how stupid it sounds to have a non-lawyer render a legal opinion. I think you get the picture.
-- Chris Johnson Fulton
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