Monthly Archives: November 2010

THEN AND NOW: A PARK WATCH REFLECTION

THEN AND NOW: A PARK WATCH REFLECTION

During a recent purge of old newspapers, I came across an article by Craig Cox in the May 2005 issue of the Minneapolis Observer. Titled “Gurban’s Gambit,” it was about the reorganization plan initiated by former Park Board Superintendent Jon Gurban that created three districts to deliver park services. I paused to read the article.

According to Gurban, the reorganization would “empower staff to make decisions at a more local level, bring the park board closer to its constituents, and more effectively utilize the organization’s resources.”

At the time, many Park Board observers questioned the need for the decentralization. Liz Wielinski, who is now a MPRB commissioner, said in post on the Minneapolis Issues List that she was concerned that the hiring of the three new district managers would shift needed resources form forestry and recreation budgets.

Now, five years later, the districts no longer exist. After David Fisher became MPRB interim superintendent in July of this year, the districts were dissolved. According to an MPRB press release circulated on September 22, the MPRB’s organizational restructuring “will focus on delivery of services through a return to an organization structure that has assistant superintendents in particular areas of expertise reporting to the superintendent.” The release also stated that the restructuring is a return to a system that worked “well for 60 years and provides reduced management layers and clearer accountability.”

Arlene Fried, Co-founder of Park Watch

December 1 Park Board Meeting

HEADS-UP FOR THE DECEMBER 1, 2010 PARK BOARD MEETING

5:00 P.M. REGULAR BOARD MEETING. Committee meetings to follow. The meetings will be held in the boardroom at Park Board headquarters, 2117 West River Road, just north of Broadway Pizza.

5:30 P.M. OPEN TIME. Speakers need to sign up before 3:00 p.m. the day of the meeting.

Some highlights of the meetings that will be discussed or voted on:

The lease with Ames/McCrossan for the use of Bohemian Flats.
The 150 page 2011 Park Board Operating Budget.
The development of the 2011 Legislative Agenda.
The study report for the 6th District’s off-leash recreation program.

The following is the link to the complete agenda, with staff reports, for the MPRB Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Wednesday,
December 1: http://www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=37&calid=682

MPRB meetings are broadcast live from 5-9 p.m. on the City of Minneapolis Government Meeting Channel 79 on Comcast cable and online at http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/webcasts.

The regular meetings are rebroadcast on Channel 79 at 1 p.m. Saturdays and 5 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month. Webcasts for the recent two months are posted two to five business days after the meeting and are available for viewing under “Webcast Archives” at http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/webcasts.

The Park Board’s website is http://www.minneapolisparks.org.

Arlene Fried, Co-founder of Park Watch

HEADS-UP FOR THE DECEMBER 1, 2010 PARK BOARD MEETING

HEADS-UP FOR THE DECEMBER 1, 2010 PARK BOARD MEETING

5:00 P.M. REGULAR BOARD MEETING. Committee meetings to follow. The meetings will be held in the boardroom at Park Board headquarters, 2117 West River Road, just north of Broadway Pizza.

5:30 P.M. OPEN TIME. Speakers need to sign up before 3:00 p.m. the day of the meeting.

Some highlights of the meetings that will be discussed or voted on:

The lease with Ames/McCrossan for the use of Bohemian Flats.
The 150 page 2011 Park Board Operating Budget.
The development of the 2011 Legislative Agenda.
The study report for the 6th District’s off-leash recreation program.

The following is the link to the complete agenda, with staff reports, for the MPRB Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Wednesday,
December 1: http://www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=37&calid=682

MPRB meetings are broadcast live from 5-9 p.m. on the City of Minneapolis Government Meeting Channel 79 on Comcast cable and online at http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/webcasts.

The regular meetings are rebroadcast on Channel 79 at 1 p.m. Saturdays and 5 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month. Webcasts for the recent two months are posted two to five business days after the meeting and are available for viewing under “Webcast Archives” at http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/webcasts.

The Park Board’s website is http://www.minneapolisparks.org.

Arlene Fried, Co-founder of Park Watch

MINNEAPOLIS RIVERFRONT DESIGN COMPETITION FORUM SCHEDULED FOR DECEMBER 7

MINNEAPOLIS RIVERFRONT DESIGN COMPETITION FORUM SCHEDULED FOR DECEMBER 7

A community “Design Ask” forum has been scheduled for Tuesday, December 7, 2010 from 7:00-8:30 pm at the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board headquarters on West River Parkway just north of the Broadway Bridge.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) and Minneapolis Parks
Foundation, along with creative partners University of Minnesota College
of Design and Walker Art Center, are sponsoring a design competition
addressing Minneapolis’ upper riverfront, the area extending from the
Stone Arch Bridge to Minneapolis’ northern city limits, along both sides
of the Mississippi River.

This project builds on the MPRB award-winning
2000 master plan and is the first demonstration project of the
Minneapolis Parks Foundation’s “Next Generation of Parks” – a
design-driven vision for a 21st century park system.

As part of the project we are asking the community to be partners in
aiding the 4 semi finalist design teams in their planning efforts through
a two-pronged community outreach phase.

Please go to the website http://minneapolisriverfrontdesigncompetition.com
and sign up to receive the e-newsletter which will give you the opportunity
for the web based “Design Ask” questions posed by the design teams.

Please join us to help decide what features we should have in a vision for
our riverfront.

Liz Wielinski, District I Park Board Commissioner

FINALISTS CHOSEN FOR RIVERFRONT DESIGN COMPETITION

The following article by Jake Weyer was published in the November 15, 2010 issue of the Southwest Journal:

FINALISTS CHOSEN FOR RIVERFRONT DESIGN COMPETITION

The Mississippi River from the Stone Arch Bridge, the southernmost point of the Minneapolis Riverfront Design Competition site.

Four landscape and urban design teams were selected this month to take part in the Minneapolis Riverfront Design Competition, the largest event of its kind in state history The four firms will visit Minneapolis later this month to evaluate the 5-mile project.

After reviewing 55 applications from 14 countries, a jury of city, park and community leaders and design professionals opted to go with Ken Smith Workshop, of New York; Stoss Landscape Urbanism, of Boston; Tom Leader Studio, of Berkeley, Calif., and Turenscape, of Beijing. The four teams will spend the next couple months drafting a land-use design for a 5.4-mile stretch of riverfront that includes 220 acres of parkland between the Stone Arch Bridge and the city’s northern limits.

“The jury believes the four selected teams really embody the aspirations of the next generation of parks,” said Cecily Hines, president of the Minneapolis Parks Foundation, which is sponsoring the competition along with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, Walker Art Center and University of Minnesota College of Design.

Hines said jury members were looking for innovation and inspiration when selecting finalists. They also reviewed team philosophies and past projects. Former Park Board Superintendent David Fisher, a big driver of the competition who served on the selection jury, said the quality of applications was impressive across the board.

The goal of the competition, announced in September, is to establish parkland as an economic engine for the city, strengthen the river’s association with the city’s identity and make the waterway a connector of communities rather than a barrier. The finalists will explore themes of sustainability, infrastructure, public space and neighborhood links along and across the river. Firms will also put together cost projections for various projects and long-term maintenance.

Each team will receive $30,000 from the Park Board to pay for fees, travel and materials needed to complete their designs. The teams will visit Minneapolis from Nov. 29–Dec. 1 to tour the riverfront and learn more about the city. After the visit, competition organizers will use questions from designers to create a public survey that will be posted online and available in recreation centers. Community members will also be invited to respond to the questions at a meeting Dec. 7.

Designers will submit their plans by Jan. 1 and present them publicly six days later. The jury will name a winner Feb. 10 and the Park Board will use the design to help guide riverfront development.

The competition is unfolding at a time when the Park Board, fresh off its first layoffs in history, is looking to make further budget cuts in preparation for even leaner years. But At-Large Commissioner Annie Young said future thinking is what sustainability is all about. She said a revamped riverfront could eventually be a boon for Minneapolis tourism and a valuable amenity for the north-side community and the rest of the city.

“It’s an interesting time because of the economics in our society,” she said. “People are probably going ‘what on Earth is going on, we don’t have any money,’ but the fact is this is for future thinking and to give us some goals and a vision for what we can do. It’s going to be phased. It’s not going to happen overnight.”

The city is a big partner in the project. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, City Council Member Diane Hofstede (3rd Ward) and Council President Barb Johnson (4th Ward) all served on the selection jury. Council Member Kevin Reich (1st Ward), who made a campaign promise to work closely with the Park Board, has also been following the competition’s launch.

“This is exciting,” Reich said. “You’ve got some local talent, national talent and international talent, so it’s a really good mix. The fact that 55 groups applied from around the world says that this is something that is worth studying.”

All of the firms except Ken Smith Workshop have Minnesota connections on their design teams. Collectively, the teams have been involved in award-winning riverfront and industrial reclamation park projects in Shanghai, Memphis, Toronto, New York, Dubai, Milwaukee and London.

For full biographies on each team, go to http://www.minneapolisriverfrontdesigncompetition.com.

November 17 Park Board Meeting

HEADS-UP FOR THE NOVEMBER 17, 2010 PARK BOARD MEETING

5:00 P.M. REGULAR BOARD MEETING. Committee meetings to follow. The meetings will be held in the boardroom at Park Board headquarters, 2117 West River Road, just north of Broadway Pizza.

5:30 P.M. OPEN TIME. Speakers need to sign up before 3:00 p.m. the day of the meeting.

This will be the first regular Park Board meeting which our new Superintendent Jayne Miller will be attending. Some highlights of the meetings that will be discussed or voted on:

• 2010 Financial Audit Entrance Meeting with Rick Pietrick, Office of the State Auditor.
• The third quarter financial report.
• The Superintendent’s 2011 Recommended Budget. This is a report item and will not be voted on at this time.
• There will also be a public input session on the budget. (However, the 2011 Recommended Budget is not attached.)
• A Professional Service Agreement with Intemark to pursue a continuation of the Toyota sponsorship agreement with the MPRB. (However, there is no staff report or agreement attached.)
• 2011 Legislative Agenda.
• Lease agreement with Ames/McCrossan for the use of Bohemian Flats for two years.

The complete agenda, with staff reports, for the MPRB Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Wednesday, November 17: www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=37&calid=681

MPRB meetings are broadcast live from 5-9 p.m. on the City of Minneapolis Government Meeting Channel 79 on Comcast cable and online at www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/webcasts.

The regular meetings are rebroadcast on Channel 79 at 1 p.m. Saturdays and 5 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month. Webcasts for the recent two months are posted two to five business days after the meeting and are available for viewing under “Webcast Archives” at www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/webcasts.

The Park Board’s website is www.minneapolisparks.org.

Arlene Fried, Co-founder of Park Watch

HEADS-UP FOR THE NOVEMBER 17, 2010 PARK BOARD MEETING

HEADS-UP FOR THE NOVEMBER 17, 2010 PARK BOARD MEETING

5:00 P.M. REGULAR BOARD MEETING. Committee meetings to follow. The meetings will be held in the boardroom at Park Board headquarters, 2117 West River Road, just north of Broadway Pizza.

5:30 P.M. OPEN TIME. Speakers need to sign up before 3:00 p.m. the day of the meeting.

This will be the first regular Park Board meeting which our new Superintendent Jayne Miller will be attending. Some highlights of the meetings that will be discussed or voted on:

• 2010 Financial Audit Entrance Meeting with Rick Pietrick, Office of the State Auditor.
• The third quarter financial report.
• The Superintendent’s 2011 Recommended Budget. This is a report item and will not be voted on at this time.
• There will also be a public input session on the budget.
• A Professional Service Agreement with Intemark to pursue a continuation of the Toyota sponsorship agreement with the MPRB.
• 2011 Legislative Agenda.
• Lease agreement with Ames/McCrossan for the use of Bohemian Flats for two years.

The complete agenda, with staff reports, for the MPRB Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Wednesday, November 17: www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=37&calid=681

MPRB meetings are broadcast live from 5-9 p.m. on the City of Minneapolis Government Meeting Channel 79 on Comcast cable and online at www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/webcasts.

The regular meetings are rebroadcast on Channel 79 at 1 p.m. Saturdays and 5 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month. Webcasts for the recent two months are posted two to five business days after the meeting and are available for viewing under “Webcast Archives” at www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/webcasts.

The Park Board’s website is www.minneapolisparks.org.

Arlene Fried, Co-founder of Park Watch

2011 BUDGET INTRODUCED

The following article by Jake Weyer was published in the Southwest Journal on November 1, 2010:

2011 BUDGET INTRODUCED

Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board staff presented the superintendent’s $60 million proposed budget to commissioners Oct. 20 at the organization’s administrative headquarters, 2117 W. River Road.

The 119-page financial document lays out the board’s strategic direction through 2013 and lists myriad service expenses and planned capital projects. The most significant planned expenditures are in maintenance ($16.5 million), recreation ($11.2 million) and forestry ($10 million).

All of those numbers are down from last year, a trend carried throughout many other departments. Personnel expenses are also down following the Park Board’s elimination of 21 employees this fall. At the same time, the budget shows a nearly $3 million jump in neighborhood capital expenditures from two years ago, which staff said reflects a commitment to infrastructure upkeep.

Interim Superintendent David Fisher, who led the budget’s development, said the shifts in funding priorities were challenging, but they should result in a more sustainable organization and park system.

“Sizing our organization to a sustainable level and increasing our funding for capital improvements has been a very difficult transition, but also a very necessary one,” Fisher wrote in his budget message to commissioners.

The budget also plans for $7.6 million in Local Government Aid (LGA), which is $2.7 million short of what the state certified. LGA has been reduced mid-year for the past three years and could be in jeopardy again as the state faces a $6 billion deficit.

“Unfortunately we only know what we know, and we will have to be prepared for additional challenges should our LGA be further reduced,” said Karen Robinson , the Park Board’s assistant superintendent of administration.

The Park Board will discuss the budget again Nov. 3 and make a presentation to the Minneapolis City Council’s Ways and Means Committee Nov. 4.

M P R B Seeks Public Input for Lake Harriet Area Playgrounds

The following press release was distributed by the Park Board on November 10, 2010:

www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=52&prid=1397

MPRB Seeks Public Input for Lake Harriet Area Playgrounds

On November 3, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board approved the formation of a non-appointed Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) with the charge to provide input into the design of the regional playgrounds and site improvements at William Berry Park and Beard’s Plaisance. Each year, Lake Harriet draws hundreds of thousands of visitors from the neighborhood, city and state and around the world. The long-awaited improvements to these playground areas will likely be popular among visitors and serve to spark the imaginations of children through innovative and inclusive play experiences.

Ideas and suggestions from the community for the development of the playgrounds are both welcomed and encouraged. All CAC meetings will be held from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at Linden Hills Recreation Center, 3100 43rd St. West, Minneapolis. Meetings are open to the public and scheduled for the following dates:

Thursday, December 9
Tuesday, January 11
Tuesday, January 25
Tuesday, February 8 (tentative)

Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin in the summer of 2011, with both playground sites reopening in the spring of 2012. For additional information and updates, check out the project web page at www.minneapolisparks.org.

The Board has retained Close Landscape Architecture as a consultant for this project. Planners from this local firm have extensive experience working with residents to design innovative urban parks and community gathering spaces. Funding for the playground renovations has been provided through a grant from the Parks and Trails Fund, part of the Minnesota Legacy Amendment.

CONTRACT APPROVED FOR NEW SUPERINTENDENT

The following article by Jake Weyer was published in the November 1, 2010 issue of the Southwest Journal:

CONTRACT APPROVED FOR NEW SUPERINTENDENT

The Park Board approved a three-year contract Oct. 20 for new superintendent Jayne Miller, who started officially Nov. 1.

Miller, a veteran of parks management from Ann Arbor, Mich., is expected to work up to three days a week through the end of the year and full-time after that. She will earn $142,000 annually.

Interim Superintendent David Fisher’s contract ended in October, but he planned to help Miller transition. He will also stay involved in the Park Board’s recently launched riverfront design competition.

During Fisher’s four-month tenure, the organization went through an unprecedented restructuring that resulted in the Park Board’s first-ever layoffs. Commissioners thanked him for navigating the Park Board through hard times and welcomed the organization’s new leader. The board voted unanimously to hire Miller Oct. 13.