I think Carol Overland is confused, at least about the history of the
Minneapolis public golf course, now named Gross Golf Course, and why
it's Minneapolis park land but based outside the city limits: the
land was donated to Minneapolis in 1913 by the Armour meatpacking
company of Chicago when it decided not to build its Twin Cities
stockyards on the northeast edge of Minneapolis, but go to South St.
Paul. Armour supported that public golf course financially through
the Depression and World War II, as a matter of fact, and St. Anthony
Parkway, part of the Minneapolis Parks system's Grand Rounds, went
through part of St. Anthony on a curving route to East Hennepin Ave.
from 1924 to 1934.
So a quick look at a map of two isn't going to help you much, if you
don't know the East Side of Minneapolis to begin with. Or if, like
many outsiders and newcomers, you think south Minneapolis near the
river is somehow Southeast Minneapolis [NOT], or that the Mississippi
River divides Minneapolis from St. Paul [NOT].
But, that golf course is Minneapolis park land, and all who use it or
live nearby will be affected by an asphalt plant in the immediate
vicinity. In fact, I just was informed that former First District
Park Board Commissioner Dziedzic and current First District Park
Board Commissioner Wielinski have just testified against this asphalt
plant at yesterday's Roseville City Council meeting. That park
district represents the entire East Side of Minneapolis, and I think
that our park commissioners know the East Side of Minneapolis better
than someone's attorney who lives elsewhere. (It would be fun to know
whether Carol represents the asphalt company in question on legal
issues.)
And, please, it would be nice if people who don't live over here on
the East Side would stop telling us how the wind blows and what we
smell and breathe in from which direction. I actually laughed at the
attempts to tell us that an asphalt plant on Roseville's border will
have no impact on anyone in Minneapolis, not even on the golf course.
In parts of the East Side, there are folks who believe that we have
more friends, especially on environmental issues, in St. Paul and
Ramsey County than we do in Minneapolis. For example, there is a
Superfund site on the border of Minneapolis/St.
Paul/Lauderdale/Roseville, the old Valentine Clark creosote plant
site, that is still leaking its poisons into Southeast Minneapolis,
and into western St. Paul. We in Como regularly work hand in hand
with folks on the western edge of Ramsey County and St. Paul--the St.
Anthony Park folks most especially, and sometimes Lauderdale--on
mutual environmental concerns. We're in the same watershed, you see,
and have to face the same glop oozing through the ground and its
water, or spewing into the air. Because the air knows no borders is
also why the SE Como neighborhood was involved, as was Prospect Park,
in the whole air pollution cleanup at Rock-Tenn, and their later
burner issue. That's in St. Paul, on the map. These Ramsey County
folks understand our common environmental concerns on the East Side
much better than do, say, people living around Lake Nokomis or Cedar
Lake, or in Red Wing, etc.
An implied request that we who are environmentally-aware be
parochially interested in artificial political lines of demarcation
on maps just doesn't wash. As I asked before, do the air and the
groundwater know not to leak outside of Roseville's political border
on a map?
Connie Sullivan
Como, in Southeast Minneapolis, on the St. Paul/Lauderdale/Ramsey County border
lAt 9:49 AM -0500 8/10/10, Carol A. Overland wrote:
>Confusing??? Though not a newcomer to Minneapolis by any means, I went
>to look at some maps to see if I had my head implanted...
>
>None of this is to say this project won't spew a lot of stuff -
>estimated spewing map from EA - the tank farm is at the north edge of
>this map:
>
>
> From the City's official map, the golf course is on St. Anthony Blvd
>and outside the gray city boundary:
>http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/about/maps/streets.pdf
>St.Anthony map:
>http://www.ci.saint-anthony.mn.us/vertical/Sites/%7B5ED4AFB9-D450-4F68-BA29-2600D3C2A620%7D/uploads/%7B062D71A8-8BDA-4A10-9450-58FDE3217843%7D.GIF