The Star Tribune gets it half wrong, half right with their endorsements, endorsing Jason Stone, Tracy Nordstrom, Scott Vreeland and Tom Nordyke. While arguing for reform, the editorial strangely endorses a few of the very commissioners causing the problems the Star Tribune criticizes.

» The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board needs a good housecleaning. …

[I]n general, the reformers are right. The board has deteriorated into petty factions. Personalities clash. Priorities are at odds. Too often the board’s process has been abused. …

The majority has operated as a cozy, insider group that bypasses citizen involvement to get what it wants. The bizarre manner in which it hired Jon Gurban, a man who had neither applied for nor interviewed for the superintendent’s job, is one example. Another is the way it tried to push through the DeLaSalle football field. We happen to think the high school (under strict conditions) should get its field and that Gurban is doing a reasonable job. But process matters. Power plays and shortcuts only serve to invite the widespread public distrust that the board now suffers. …

A fresh start is badly needed. The old politics of arrogance, expedience and gathering only the votes needed to ram something through is giving way to a new consensus style that invites exhaustive input from citizens. That requires patience, humility and respect for an often ill-informed public.

Not only must the board be more transparent, it needs a sharper vision and better planning. It needs financial creativity, partnerships and collaboration. It needs greater understanding that parks aren’t just for recreation and environmental protection but for enchantment — the generous use of beauty to lift the urban spirit. Locating a new park headquarters in a concrete machine shed with a big front parking lot violates everything about that principle. Theodore Wirth would have wept. «

Read the complete editorial at the Star Tribune website.