Secrets of the City

For a long time I’ve resisted supporting a change to our basic legal system which would basically award costs to the winning party, ala the English system. In other words, if you sue, you have to put up a bond to cover the costs of the defendants in case your suit is meritless, as is this one. But, DeLaSalle has now spent many thousands of dollars which could have gone for educational purposes defending itself against the well financed (read subsidized by your taxes) residents of Nicollet Island. Time for a change?

Tom, the DLS claim for a football stadium turns on an agreement they can’t enforce because it’s barred by the statute of limitations. DLS has no legal entitlement to a stadium; instead, it has a bunch of shills and crooked politicians who refuse to recuse themselves despite obvious conflicts of interest. If you want DLS to pay the costs of the plaintiffs in this case, that’s fine with me.

BTW, I live in SE Minneapolis. I have no connection to the islanders or the school. I just don’t like to see public parks turned over to religious organizations.

in case your suit is meritless, or in the event that you lose. If it’s the latter it would put the wronged & impoverished @ a double disadvantage. They would not only be unable to afford counsel, they’d be liable for the bad counsel they receive. The system is stacked enough against the indigent, it’s just unfortunate that well-heeled folks like the Nicollet Islanders take advantage of the current system.

DeLaSalle is putting up a stadium at their own expense which will be used by the park department to provide much needed playfields in the city. There is no net loss of park, unless you count vacant lot full of weeds as park, to the city. DeLaSalle provided a public easement through their property for the westbound exit off the Hennepin Ave. bridge. Perhaps if you think there should be no public/private exchange here, they should close that and let the city figure out how to get people on and off the island some other way?

BTW, now DeLaSalle plays on public land. Should we ban that because they are a Catholic school?

And Grote, what the English system would mean is that the indigent would only be represented in suits the attorney thought he had a reasonable chance to win. Put the onus on the attorney, not the client, imho. And I’m speaking as the victim of at least five meritless lawsuits that cost me tens of thousands at City Pages.

Tom, a football stadium is going to have very limited utility, and it will be located on what should be one of the crown jewels of the Minneapolis park system. The fact this Park Board has historically done a crappy job of managing park land doesn’t justify this boondoggle.

I couldn’t care less whether DLS plays in public stadiums. I object, however, to a grant of a precious public good to a private religious institution. As a disaffected Catholic, I’m also wary of the entanglement issues. If you ask me, the best solution would be to build a public stadium someplace else, and let everyone (including DLS) play games there.

Two things continue to amaze me about this story: The never-ending hurdles and para-legal trickery put up by the residents of the island who don’t want anyone else spoiling their small paradise, and the fact that their case is founded on the supposed destruction of parks/open space/hisorical signifigane, etc. Hey, if it’s such precious, hitorical park land, how the hell are you able to live there in the first place and not pay any taxes on the land to boot?

Then these frauds have the audacity to play the Christianphobia card. Shame on these people.

I live a few hundred feet from DLS, and honestly I wouldn’t miss Nicollet Island if it sunk into the river. That said, there really are no children in the neighbourhood to use the DLS stadium when they’re not. All I see around me are 50+ monied condo-dwelling shriveled bitches and yuppie investment bankers too busy to have a kid. I think I’ve seen like two strollers on the street in the past month. I think the baby store only stays in business because people in from the burbs shopping at surdyk’s decide they need some cute baby crap while they’re in town. I’d wager there’s more dogs in my neighbourhood than children, so why not build a dog park instead? I don’t have a dog, but it seems like it would be more appropriate to the area.

Plus the other pending lawsuit about how DLS didn’t adequately explore other options has a good point. Really, is a few blocks over by boom island really too far for the poor widdle athwetes to walk for their games/pwactice? Aren’t they supposed to be in shape and exercising? Plus there’s way more parking over that way for when they do have games. Then again I could probably rent my parking space out as ‘event parking’ for 15 bucks whenever DLS has a game, so maybe this isn’t so bad after all …

Also re: the Hennepin bridge
I hate this thing. It looks nice from a distance but it’s horribly designed for access. They also built it to look like a highway bridge so it’s no wonder people blaze along it far above the 35mph speed limit. I mean, it has what basically amount to exit ramps to the island … that’s not very good access from city street to city street already.

Oh hell, Nicollet Island is just a big ugly mess. I’m back to where I started here wanting it to finish sinking into the river.

Octaneboy, it’s not just the people on the island that don’t like it. Most people in the East Bank (the rest of the neighbourhood there between central and the RR tracks) aren’t exactly thrilled about the plan either. I don’t really like the NI jagoffs either, but I’ve got my own reasons for not wanting the stadium there.

Also, hypothetical question:
Since the facility is supposed to be open to public use at times when DLS isn’t using it, what if one were to form an all-gay football leage and play some hot sweaty games in the stadium without getting a talking to by DLS? What about a gay rights BBQ, assuming they went through the appropriate channels to book it? I somehow have a feeling a catholic school wouldn’t be thrilled about that, but they also wouldn’t have any right to impede that use, correct?

Because if they could this whole plan is a sham.

tmayhem, It’s my understanding that as park borard land, the park board will be the only entity that controls/schedules it when the school is not using it.

I don’t live far from Macalester’s far-larger stadium, so I’m having a hard time imagining what sort of nusiance the DLS field will be to people who don’t live on the island. Light pollution? (puh-leeze) Parking? Noise? Tougher to get to Nyes?

Fire up the hot sweaty gay BBQ; you only need jump through the hoops of the Mpls park & rec gang. Say ‘hi’ to Phyllis Kahn’s chickens.

Since we’re so fond of sports facilities, here’s my site plan for Nicollet Island:

You can fit a few more holes in Boom Island Park, but we might have to bulldoze some of NE Mpls to fit a full 18 in.

I don’t even like golf.

Oh and watch out for the water hazards.

You better work on your slow rising drive for that hole otherwise your going to be bouncing off that bridge big time.

Or here’s another awesome site plan:

Hilarious!

You nailed ‘em!

If there’s a legal way to bulldoze all the non-historic structures on Nicollet Island, that’s fine with me. Eminent domain followed by development of a Mpls Central Park — sounds good to me.

BTW, I’m sort of amused by the suggestion that the only people who oppose this football field are Islanders. I’ve always suspect that the only people who support the football field have connections to DLS.

PS- Ilé de la Nicollét

tmay…I’m not ready to nominate you for induction into the Donald Ross Society, but I do like the general idea. I would think you could do a par 29 executive course with 7 par 3 holes around the perimeter and 2 moderate narrow par 4 holes right down the middle. I’d suggest eliminating the roads altogether and buliding a marina on the north end of the island, and would also recommend keeping Phyllis Kahn’s house as the clubhouse.

The never-ending hurdles and para-legal trickery put up by the residents of the island who don’t want anyone else spoiling their small paradise, and the fact that their case is founded on the supposed destruction of parks/open space/hisorical signifigane, etc.

This is extremely common for *all* residents that have some sort of park area nearby. They all want to claim the public property near their home as their neighborhood park instead of realizing that it’s everyone’s.

what, you mean like DLS claiming the parkland in its backyard AS its backyard and not something to be enjoyed by everyone?

you mean like DLS claiming the parkland in its backyard AS its backyard

Care to provide any info or link that supports your contention?

DLS has never claimed the island is theirs, even though the school predates municpal designations and every residenet by several decades.

Quite the opposite is the case. After DLS spends their own money to remove the asphalt and weeds in favor of natural, green grass, they will essentially turn over the keys over the Minneapolis Park Board.

‘Evil Catholics’ paying for public parks; Minneapolitans should be ecstatic!

Hey OctaneBoy, once and for all, the islanders pay full property taxes just like everyone else. This has been explained over and over again. My cousin owns down there and he’s paying over $4,700 this year.

Yes, and then after they replace asphault with grass, they’ll build bleachers over some other grass! And some fences to make it difficult to walk on the grass!

Let the poor mackerel snappers have their field. I would have liked to have it when I went there.

OctaneBoy is so full of baloney, I could make sandwiches for the entire city. Just because the school, as an institution, is older than any human alive, he thinks that gives it precedence. I’ve got news for you, LowOctaneBoy — most of the houses on the Island predate the school by several decades. As do “municipal” designations. Grove Street is one of the 5 oldest platted streets in the city, and has been a municipal street for a lot longer than DLS has been around.

This also has nothing to do with Catholics or “paying for parks.” This has everything to do with a bunch of chest-thumping alumni who want to make their imaginary penises feel bigger by having a cool “ivy-walled” stadium for their surrogate bullies, I mean, athletes. It’s all about living vicariously and trying to be Bigger and Better in the Football game than other local private schools, like Breck. This stupid plan would not have even got off the ground if it weren’t insider connections with political big dogs who lack any ethics to speak of.

Lastly, this is the third time in recent history that DLS has gone to the city begging and coniving to get public land. The first of those 3 times, they destroyed a few hundred affordable housing units.

This is definitely not Catholic, or even Christian, behavior. It’s unmitigated pride, envy and greed — three of the 7 Cardinal sins which are the bane of real Catholics.

Just to clarify the original post in this thread: the legal action taken on Oct. 25 is the first and only lawsuit filed by Friends of the Riverfront, and the first and only lawsuit so far concerning the DeLaSalle stadium plan (not “another lawsuit.”) You can find the lawsuit, the state law it’s based on, and more information at http://www.ourbeautifulriver.org.

Why don’t the Islanders deserve a field? As a student at DLS the idea that we shouldn’t be allowed a field as a private Christian institution is quite ridiculous. I’ve been educated in Catholic institutions all my life and I can say that I’m agnostic and that DeLaSalle has never pushed its beliefs upon me. I have several gay friends who attend DLS who rally around in full support of the stadium. You can sit around at your computers and talk and talk but you can’t say that you know the true situation. The people who live on the island live on park land themselves and , no, they most certainly do not pay taxes. As for the park that would be taken over, its a pile of weeds called “a recall to Minnesota’s prairies, put in fact in just a maze of walkways that lead no where. I’ve never once seen a person walk through there and enjoy it as it is right next to the smelly train tracks. Quit being armchair critics and get the story straight. -Sayre Rose