The parks cleanup as seen from Phalen Park AND District Council gets award

This morning was the annual Saint Paul Parks cleanup. People gathered at various parks around the city, received bags and instructions and proceeded to remove a lot of things which should not have been where they were. They all merit commendation.

One such gathering point was the Phalen Park picnic pavilion where a few dozen gathered. I do not know how many places had miniature programs before the public disembarked, Phalen Park did.

For those of you from St. Anthony Park or Mac-Groveland who may not be familiar with Phalen Park, the pavilion sits directly south of the statue defaced last year.

Mayor Coleman the Second was there to present the Payne/’Phalen District Council with an award for its work in organizing the community after last year’s vandalism to the statue. The mayor mentioned that he had been in China and discussed the statue with the maker and commended the neighborhood for its good work. Director Kerry Stone accepted the award along with President Ryan Kapaun, Sheldon Schwartz, Al Oertwig, and other directors, staff, and volunteers from the organization. The ceremony was short, to the point, and dignified [considering that all present were dressed as if they were going to a cleanup].

When mayors come to events, they seldom are early and leave as quickly as they can, probably often because there were other places they have had to be immediately before and after the given appearance. However, this time the mayor was there at least half an hour early, talking with people who came by, even this writer. [We agreed that remaining ambulatory was a good thing.]

Anyhow, congratulations to the Payne Phalen Council [for the record, I am a director but was not involved in this project] and thanks to all the volunteers who showed up at all the locations to help keep our city’s parks clean.

[Cf. Scarred statue, 08/10/08]

Phalen Park Crime Meeting

I am much more likely to attend meetings that communities call and have public officials come to than I am those which are called by the authorities [often without checking on what else may be simultaneously happening in the community] for the public to attend. That was not the primary reason that I did not attend last night’s meeting at the Phalen Recreation Center dealing with three recent Phalen Park crimes, but I have to admit that I was not there and am relying on what other have said about the meeting.

I have read the newspaper coverage and saw some of the local television coverage. It looked like a meeting attended by the usual people and quite a few more [Laura Pabst of MS-J&T estimates attendance at 200] . It seems that those present learned that the mayor, councilmember, and police chief are against crime and that the three crimes seem to have no common factor except for geography.

In general, crime is down. The stats are supposed to make us feel more comfortable. Having been the uninjured victim of a statistically rare but violent crime myself [not on the East Side], I do not find this much of an answer. Victims don’t care about the numbers.

I have often questioned what meetings like this accomplish. It’s kind of like the righteous in the world meeting in church, shouting Hallelujahs and thanking the Lord that they aren’t like those people.

But, based on what I have picked up from other sources, there may have been some gains from the meeting. It does appear that some linking of community organizations in crime prevention and neighborhood nuisance work has been accelerated by more people getting together at the same time and place.

Media links:

DPP, MS-J&T, KAAL

Scarred Statue

Last year an ugly statue was placed in Phalen Park, north of the picnic pavilion, east of the amphitheater, and within view of the Karl Neid, jr. bridge. I say ugly. Others disagree. That is well. Art is a subjective thing, And I admit that after seeing the statue in person, I concluded that it was not as ugly as the pictures I had seen would have led me to think.

But even though we don’t all agree on how lovely/ugly the statue is, what can be [and must be] agreed on is that the recent racial vandalism and defacement is clearly ugly.

On Friday the 15^th there will be a community ceremony to demonstrate neighborhood indignation at all that has happened there and to serve as a sort of kickoff to the cleanup of the statue scheduled to begin the next Monday. I doubt if I will be there since I already have booked the time for something else, but I do wish to announce it here for your information/edification.

Earlier post on the Karl Neid, jr. bridge: [10/14/07]

http://ccmusings.blogspot.com/2007/10/bridge-in-phalen-park.html

ADDENDUM [8/12]: I should have put this in the original post, but this morning's DPP has the infomation phrased concisely.

IF YOU GO: 'UNITY CEREMONY'

What: Unity ceremony prompted by a sculpture being defaced with hate graffiti

When: Friday. Viewing of the sculpture begins at 6 p.m., and the ceremony at 7 p.m.

Where: Phalen Park pavilion, St. Paul

Parking: Available at Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church at Arcade Street and Larpenteur Avenue. It's a short walk to the park; shuttle bus service will be available.

A Bridge in Phalen Park

There is a bridge in Phalen Park just north and east of the picnic pavilion. When it was reopened in 1992, it was dedicated to the memory of the late City Councilmember, Karl Neid, jr.

Today is the fifteenth anniversary of the dedication of that bridge. A plaque on the west side inside announces that and explains a little about Mr. Neid. Hundreds of people cross the bridge every day as the running/walking and bicycle paths that surround the lake pass over it. I doubt if many of them ever notice the plaque, much less read it. And after fifteen years, given varying maturation and migration factors, there are probably quite a few who do not even remember the man for whom the bridge was named. A few may be aware that each year a city employee receives the Karl Neid award.

Maybe one reason that so few people ever look at the plaque is that it sits on the bicycling side of the bridge, so that to read it most people would have to put themselves in harm’s way to read it. And maybe it is just that there are plaques on bridges and other public works everywhere are so omnipresent that we just don’t notice them.

I won’t eulogize Karl Neid, jr. right here right now. If I’m still doing this in May when the anniversary of his passing or on his spring birthday which I don’t know right now, I will likely say a lot more.

But I do wonder how many ever notice that bridge or speculate on how some of our municipal public matters might have turned out differently were he still with us.

And if you get around that bridge sometime soon, take a look.