It's a little disquieting to see my "post-portly" figure displayed on the front page of Skyway News all over the place, but I understand the message - in the balance are a handful of Island residents current and former vs the marching legions of a well-anchored private high school.
The letter jackets that the De LaSalle kids were wearing proudly at the Park Board meeting deserve recognition. So does the memory of Sheba, the Island donkey that was the football team's mascot for a number of years. The Islanders and the high school have been living together for generations - a hundred years, give or take. There have been keggers down by the black bridge for just about ever and the kids and their parents, the school administration, the police - regular and now park varieties - and the residents have had long-standing accommodations to fall back on whenever the volume gets a little annoying. What's going on now is just crude pressure politics and I can't say I like it now any better than I did thirty-five years ago when real estate developers were smacking their lips and De LaSalle and the rest of the Island community were on the same page defending their turf from the then current crop of empire builders. Bear in mind that various interests have lusted after the Island since before the American Civil War. There's a picture in the Minnesota Historical Society that shows the same Nicollet St. that I'm standing on in the Skyway News picture as it was in the 1860's - then just a muddy scar on the Island's surface. We have come very far from that urban frontier and what you see now is there because many people value the ambiance that Penrod Jasper would find comfortable - that's Booth Tarkington's small town Indiana boy growing up in the early twentieth century - or that the nineteenth century's Samuel Clemens would understand at a glance, experienced riverman that he was. The environs of Nicollet Island are best experienced on foot. We who have lived there or are living there now know this. So do the De LaSalle kids. Thanks to the efforts of many well-meaning people who had their own recollections of going down to the Island, all the world - "tout le monde" - can still experience this quiet oasis. That's precious, folks. Let well enough be. Fred Markus, Ebenezer Tower, Phillips West --- http://USFamily.Net/dialup.html - $8.25/mo! -- http://www.usfamily.net/dsl.html - $19.99/mo! --- REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact 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 Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@mnforum.org Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
