a forum to debate and discuss issues about public policy especially related
to Park Board issues.
A great deal of the comments made about the park board recently are not
really an attempt to have an enlightened discourse about public policy, but
really an attempt to make the Park Board look as bad as possible as often as
possible.
My friend Chris Steller has done less than a stellar job of reporting on
park board issues. Since the DeLaSalle project, which he hates, he has
consistently written inaccurate and incomplete articles about the Park Board.
He is not reporting the news, he is making up opinion pieces explicitly
excluding information he has that would make his stories more accurate. I
think
this is one of the challenges of Internet news, and formats like the issues
list... accuracy is optional.
The recent flurry of comments about parkland you can't use are based on an
article where Tom Nordyke and Dawn Sommers were specifically and intentionally
misquoted.
This is an issue that can be resolved without character assassination
I have no doubt we will resolve these issues in a principled and pragmatic
way based on additional research of original acquisition and historical
agreements that were made about permits and land use in that area.
I have great respect for Tom Nordyke's work as president and colleague.
People in glass houses should not throw stones...
A former Library Board member that lost his right to be an elected official
because of financial management problems of the Minneapolis Library system
writes "What idiot approved this? " about a revenue producing art event that
will provide revenue to keep the Matthews Park ice rink open next year.
Sheldon Mains is the president of the Seward Neighborhood Group. I have been
told by hundreds of people in Seward that we absolutely need to keep the
Matthews ice rink in the Seward neighborhood open next year. Where do you think
the money comes from to do that?
OK... if the Seward Neighborhood Group could have a national art event
sponsored by Red Bull that would bring a world class art project to Franklin
Ave
for a day, and that event would pay for a neighborhood staff person for a
year- would I call the board idiots for approving that project?
Oh and by the way.. Seward Neighborhood Group had to lay off all its staff
because of financial mis- management. ( So this is an example of a cheap
shot.. Sheldon Mains has done a great job of trying to straighten out a mess
that
was not his fault, but I can easily unfairly smear him by innuendo).
So another example of some cheap shots come from David Brauer who provides
commentary after a Chris Steller article.
I have respect for David Brauer and his work on the Mpls. issues list and
local politics. Because of that I am surprised that he has taken these cheap
shots at the Park Board.
He recently wrote about sponsorships:
"More lack of foresight and planning"
"This typifies the current way of operating at the Minneapolis Park Board.
It's all react, not planning for the future and developing a comprehensive
approach."
OK .. ignore the fact that we have done an incredible job on comprehensive
planning that has resulted in an approved comprehensive plan that really
reflects a city wide perspective on the future direction of the park board and
ignore the months of hard work for the 2008 budget process that determined
that,
rather than cut free services to park users, we would seek some sponsorships
to pay for budget deficits.