Are they giving away our parks?
BY ED FELIEN
It was just a few years ago that the Minneapolis Library Board gave away our
library system to Hennepin County because they could no longer afford to pay
for it. It was the first step in transforming a world-class reference
library into a pop stand for pulp fiction. Now it seems weâre headed down
the same slippery slope with one of the best park systems in the country.
We lost the libraries because the library board couldnât figure out how to
pay their bills. They built a massive new main library downtown at the same
time Governor Pawlenty was intent on stripping cities of local government
aid. They had developed an edifice complex, where a building became more
important than their original mission.
The park board is having similar problems. People keep giving the park board
things, and then the park board has to take care of them.
Rajahs in India used to bankrupt a neighboring prince by giving him a white
elephant. The white elephant was sacred, but added to the honor of owning
the sacred animal, the prince had the expense of feeding it and taking care
of it. This soon bankrupted the prince, and his neighbor could then take
over his kingdom.
Are the rich people in Minneapolis playing the same game?
The Berger Fountain is a case in point. Ben Berger was one of Minneapolisâ
more colorful characters in the 1940s and â50s. He owned the Minneapolis
Lakers (before they were sold to Los Angeles), the Minneapolis Millers
hockey team, a number of movie theaters and Sheikâs CafĂ© (before it became a
âGentlemenâs Clubâ). He was also a park commissioner, and he admired a
fountain in Sidney, Australia, and had a copy made and gave it to the City
to be put in Loring Park. But, like the white elephants in India, the
Dandelion Fountain is high maintenance. Its construction is very complicated
and it keeps breaking.
Enter Ray Harris!
Ray Harris made a small fortune as a developer parlaying tax increment
financing into construction schemes for Calhoun Square in Uptown and then
Greenway Gables Townhomes off of Loring Park. He took a flyer on Block E and
the Sears building on Lake Street but couldnât get those projects off the
ground. Greenway Gables is where he lives and where he is still active. When
he was working on the Greenway Gables project he got special treatment
because he gave the park board the green walkway from the Berger Fountain to
the Nicollet Mall. It was good for him: It made him look like a prince to
the City Council that gave him special tax increment financing; it increased
the value of the properties; and it put the maintenance of the Greenway off
onto the Park Board. It was a perfect white elephant, and now it seems the
prince has returned to claim the kingdom.
In a Dec. 16 column in the StarTribune in 2005, Barbara Flanagan talked
about how Ray Harris âcanât stop tending to this city where he has spent
about 50-plus years developing parts of it.â
âThere are three âlittle thingsâ that have Harris back in action.
âOne is Peavey Plaza on the Nicollet Mall at 11th Street. Then there is the
Loring Greenway leading from the Mall to Loring Park and, in the park, there
is the Berger Fountain.
â âThe Park Board doesnât care about fountains. They accept them and then
ignore them,â Harris said. âThe Bergerâs foundation needs lots of work. Itâs
leaking. And there are so many other things that need repair on it.
â âThe [Loring] Greenway is in horrible condition,â he continued. âItâs
supposed to be a charming walkway from city streets to park greenery. Well,
take a look at it. The one good thing I can tell you is that the city has
agreed to repave it, which will give it a temporary lift.
â âThen, Peavey Plaza next to our Orchestra Hall is in horrible condition,â
he said. âThe surface needs to be replaced. It needs greenery. At night, it
could be dangerous. The orchestra realizes it, but it is not their worry.
Peavey Plaza is city property.â â
Now, six years later, the plan has come to the surface. On June 15, 2011,
Don Siggelkow, the assistant superintendent for development services for the
park board brought a proposal to the Innovation and Development Committee of
the park board that spelled out an operating agreement framework for the
park board and the Downtown Park Alliance. The work team that made the
proposal were Anita Tabb, the park Commissioner representing the downtown
district; Bob Fine, the conservative Park commissioner who headed up the
park board before the new wave of populists took over; Tupper Thomas, the
president of the Prospect Park Alliance, a private nonprofit corporation
that has taken over management of Brooklyn, New Yorkâs largest park; Don
Siggelkow; and Ray Harris, modestly identified simply as a Loring Park
resident.
The proposal is simple: turn over the operation of Loring Park and the
Sculpture Garden to the Downtown Park Alliance and taxpayers continue paying
for maintenance at the current level. The Alliance will determine whether to
continue the Art Festival and the Pride event at Loring, and the Alliance
would have the power to âcreate and manage new events.â And, if the park
board is willing to give up control of the operations of these parks, then,
maybe, the Alliance will be able to generate private funding for more
beautiful and sacred white elephants. But rich people canât be expected to
donate money to the parks if they donât have control over the operations?
And the park board seems to support the proposal. Scott Vreeland, perhaps
the most populist of the DFL commissioners, said on the Minneapolis Issues
List:
âDoes this make sense and how would it work? We have just started a process
to see if a conservancy model is helpful and appropriate for a Minneapolis
park and perhaps as a mechanism for future acquisition and funding of much
needed green space in downtown Minneapolis that could connect to the river.
âIn Loring Park there are neighbors who want to make a long term investment
to beautify and make capital investments in the park. And for them the
conservancy model is the best way to galvanize a substantial and sustained
effort which would go beyond the current âFriends ofââ model.â
Wouldnât it be better just to give back the white elephants and let the
people keep their parks. Give the Berger Fountain to some corporation that
wants to put it in front of their office building on Nicollet Mall. Give the
Loring Greenway back to Ray Harris and let him maintain it. Give the
Sculpture Garden back to Walker Art Center and let them pay for cutting the
grass, and give Peavey Plaza to the Minnesota Orchestra. Why do we have to
keep getting more and more stuff? Ray Harris has sold the park board on the
dream of a greenway that goes from the Sculpture Garden and Loring Park all
the way to the Mississippi River. Great! If some rich people want to build a
private greenway with public access that stretches the length of downtown,
let them, just donât expect the taxpayers to pay for the maintenance and
upkeep. Our priorities should be maintaining and improving existing programs
in our parks.
We are in danger of developing a two-tier system of parks in Minneapolis: a
boutique greenway system for rich older white people and understaffed and
poorly maintained programs for children of color. Itâs not too late to turn
this around.
Ed Felien
Powderhorn