Secrets of the City

what are they thinking? they say we don’t have enough parks, we have tons! and since when aren’t we safe?

i assumed the park system is what put us so close to the top since i can’t really think of much else

That’s quite a map included with the article, but what, pray tell, are “Birth Options”?

birth options probably refers to where/how a mother can give birth: hospital, birthing center, home, taxi cab, with a doctor, midwife, ect.

that is a curious stat about parks — I’ve always heard Minneapolis was tops relative to city park space — anyone have any info on that?

We are very blessed with parks in the Twin Cities, that’s for sure. The lakes, the river, the big parks scattered about… But, I think it’s sad how little green space there is downtown. Building Block E was a serious failure in that they could have used the space for an excellent park. Every “major” city has a good park at its core, why doesn’t Minneapolis?

I think with time, a good centralized park will come into being and will be magnificent. One of those block parking lots would be perfect. Personally though I’ve always sort of liked how downtown was gritty. And that’s coming from a forester…

Greg, Minneapolis used to have a great park at its core: Gateway Park, where Nicollet and Hennepin come together. It was wrecked, like so many other things, in a short-sighted effort for “Urban Renewal”. You can still see part of the park: there’s a monument to George Washington in front of an ugly modernist apartment complex on Hennepin.

When people are skeptical of developers, this is why. They’ve ruined so much of Minneapolis already.

Great, all the people of MN need is more encouragement to reproduce.

I’m convinced we are the # 1 “City to Prattle Endlessly About Your Children”

loring park much? central minneapolis is more than shiny steel and glass

and what’s wrong with modernist architecture? i’d be pissed if they tore that apartment building down. it’s beautiful. certainly better than corporate postmodern random-wedges-hanging-way-over-hennepin in my opinion.

loring park is a fine park, but it’s not located at the core of downtown, which is what i’m talking about. very few pedestrians in downtown would walk over to loring park for a little green space, much less just happen to walk by as they wander around.

not located at the core of downtown.

well,, you know, i think the question is kind of semantic. what, you want a park at City Center? I mean, we have the beautiful river running right through town (OK, not the center of downtown) and then there’s Loring. if you merely refresh yoru screen and your parameters and include uptown and Northeast in your frame of reference, you have two very nice green amenities “in the city.”

usually when people make this argument, they’re not saying what they really think, which is “Block E–WTF?”

how far do most people in Manhattan have to walk to get to Central Park?

our “downtown” is pretty dinky by most standards, and there is plenty of green available to whoever wants to find it. now as to the question of wether the city authorities tolerate loiterers–that’s a horse of a different color!

and yeah, children really suck, mike. nice sentiment.

okay, you’re right… i should just say what i’m really thinking: “Block E–WTF???”

referring back to my original comment, i said we’re totally blessed with lots of good green space in the twin cities…

and i’m not thinking of central park, which is a weekend destination for most downtowners in new york, but how about union square, tompkins square and washington square parks, to name a few. those are the kinds of parks that i think could have been well-imitated where the monstrosity of block e now sits.

but yes, this discussion will get uselessly semantic if it goes much further.

regarding the gateway– i actually really like the greenspace around thr ING building or whatever they’re calling that Lincoln Center-like place in the general vicinity. its a very comfy place to sit and read a book of an autumn day. granted, the NO TRESPASSING signs they have everywhere are a little offputting. the stuff around the Fed building is inviting too,other than the fortress itself. don’t forget Cancer Survivors park (eww, pretty contrived) and the Berms at city hall. not great parks or public spaces, but i could see taking a nap there.

Chul: perhaps you’d be enchanted by the Northeast Bank’s Parking Lot Park.

I walk to Loring Park fairly often — especially when it’s “warmer” out. It’s a great park. And I live “on the other side” of downtown. Perhaps the real issue is not where the park is physically located, but the fact that Minnesotans are simpy not “walkers,” in general. We tend to take our cars every where, while in New York (to address the Central Park reference) people are true walkers. A successful park in Minneapolis would probably need some serious park parking, so that people can drive to it and then hang out. Sad! But actually, the park by the river, North of Hennepin — Boom Islandish — whatever it’s called — has plenty of parking inlets throughout. And it’s a beautiful beautiful walk.

I live in that “ugly modernist apartment building” which was built in 1965. I agree that Gateway park was a loss. But my building, The Towers, has some pretty nice architectual points too. Very classic 60’s. The lobby decor was updated in the 90’s & feels a bit outdated now, but when it first opened the building was quite the talk & considered one of the shishi-ist places to live in Minneapolis. It was where Mary Richards moved to in the later episodes of the Mary Tyler Moore show.
As far as Minnesotans not being walkers, I disagree. In the warmer months people are outside all the time walking & riding bikes, etc. New York is incomparable. Parking is extremely expensive in NY as is car insurance, it is more economical for people to walk or take public transit. Here, public transit in rather inconvenient (though getting better) & parking is often free.
While growing up we drove the 3 blocks to church every Sunday morning, but my mom & I dilligently drove from NE to uptown & walked around Lake of the Isles a couple times each week. Maybe the typical Minnesotan doesn’t walk as means of transportation to & from. But we definately are out there using our parks, trails, & lakes and keeping active.
Go to Kansas City. No one is ever in their parks or outside walking anywhere. Now those people really aren’t walkers. And it’s not even that cold there.

hopped up on goofballs: and yeah, children really suck, mike. nice sentiment.

You missed my point: I like kids; it’s their parents who tend to suck, at least to the extent they won’t stop rambling on and on and on and on about their lifestyle choices.

Hi, neighbor. Didn’t mean to offend… I just think the long winter months tie us to our cars a bit. Yes, it’s true; we tend to take advantage of our summer outdoor time quite well, but… Take this winter, for example… It was been quite warm, and yet I seldom see more than just a few runners out in the parks. It’s a lot to ask of a city to retain highly marketable space for parks that will only be used for three months of the year. And yet Minneapolis has done a great job of preserving these areas. The area around the river, like I said, is quite lovely.. and the Stone Arch Bridge makes for a great walk, run, bike ride, or whatnot. I just don’t think we are short of parks here at all. Would you all have us turn the lumber exchange building into a dog run? I think not.

And don’t forget the sculpture garden, which is a park (jointely owned by Mpls Parks and The Walker), and one of the best civic landmarks in the country.

FYI, I also like The Towers. Very Mies Van der Rohe like, or Le Corbu. Anyone who can’t appreciate its distinctiveness isn’t very schooled in art or architecture.

Finally, kids do suck (my .02).

Still not relating to kids:

I’ve seen a lot of pictures of the old Gateway Park, and none of them make it look like a fun place to be. As much as I’d love to see something like Bryant Square Park in downtown Minneapolis, I think that we may be romanticizing the loss of what was never a very pleasant place to spend a Saturday afternoon.

I think Mary Richards actually moved into Cedar Square, now known as Riverside Plaza.

I guess we have crappy child care and stroller access, according to the “experts” at fitpregnancy.com. I just want to know what determines good stroller access, and how the hell are we worse then the other major city’s? What makes Virginia Beach such a great place to push kids around on strollers?

a city that can’t keep ice and snow off it’s sidewalks for half the year is probably not going to score high for stroller access.

re: the walking thing. I spend a fair amount of time in Manhattan, and those people do not walk! I have business with an ad agency there and they get a cab to go three blocks. My Minnesota sensibilities tell me that it is a bit rude to expect a cab driver to stop and take me 3 little blocks. The cab driver might think I’m lazy. He or she might holler at me when I give them my destination. So I walk alone. Anyway, the female employees at the ad agency are wearing shoes that are not suitable for the human foot, let alone the walking human foot. I got them to walk a mile with me once, and they complained the whole way. We Twin Citians are far better, and more willing, walkers.

“Expecting and new moms have few parks: Minneapolis has 63 percent fewer public parks than average, relative to population.”

thats from the website, but we have tons of parks dont we?

alexis: I was more thinking they’d make the parking lot across Nicolet from the new library into a park, since I am there all the time. It’d be nice to go lay down in the grass with a book in the good seasons.

Says Boston has 73% less park space than average which is also ridiculous…Common & Garden (true downtown parks), Emerald Necklace, Jamaica Pond, Arboretum (265 acres).

Chul, et al:

Re. the old Nicollet Hotel block (the parking lot across the street to the north from the new library), the city has been contemplating a fairly major mixed-use development involving an underground transit hub for buses, 300 or so units of housing, street-level retail, a skyway connection to the new library, etc.

So I expect green space would be minimal on that block in the future, though there’s some close by, as h.u.o.g. pointed out in another comment above.

(Here’s a link to the city’s RFP for the site, as well as an October article from the Downtown Journal that discussed the site.)

BTW, there’s going to be a Dunn Bros. coffee shop in the new library building at the corner of Nicollet Mall and 4th Street, and another in the old Pacific Building, which is the one on Washington just around the corner from the Monte Carlo Bar. So, given the number of coffee shops already in the area, there’ll be no shortage of caffeine. But maybe not enough grass.

Here’s a link to James Lileks’ photo tour of the old Gateway Park that was being talked about above, and here are a few more really good photos of the same area.