Following the muser's lead on a dog park

It is nice knowing that once in a while an idea suggested here actually gets some consideration.

In a post dated 1/6/08 I suggested that the city might wish to “think outside the box” to alleviate some of its dog park shortage. [While I cannot agree with what some of the most rabid dog park enthusiasts say, that dogs deserve equal consideration with children in determining park policy, it is clear that there is a shortage of such facilities.] Arlington/Arkwright is a nice place, I guess, for dog lovers who want to use it [and I am well aware that some dog lovers do not cotton to the idea of dog parks – that’s why we in the neighborhood had to negotiate between the two factions when that park was established], but Arlington/Arkwright is dying from too much love.

Noting that Stillwater was considering using a location it owned in Wisconsin, I suggested that extra-container cogitation might suggest such a use for Lilydale Park.

An article by Dave Orrick in yesterday’s paper that consideration is being given to a dog park in Lilydale [The map the DPP used yesterday is vague about whether the site is indeed in Lilydale. It also does mislabels the river running by the park. It is a shame when the local rag does not even know what the Mississippi River is.] The Parks Commission has approved it and that the City Council will be considering the matter Wednesday.

It kind of makes me feel good, not only because I can say the idea started here, but because we really need another dog park available to our city’s dog-owning residents.

Trees? We like them, don't we?

Today is Arbor Day. [In this era of artificially moving holidays to specific days of the week, I don’t know why this made-up holiday isn’t held on Saturday, but it doesn’t seem to be.]

I had not intended to mention this, since it really is not particularly local and everybody loves trees, at least until the birds come to the one by where he/she parks his/her car.

But thanks to Joe Kimball of MinnPost I have been made aware of some local happenings which will take the spirit of Arbor Day well into May. The complete list of events can be seen in Mr. Kimball’s post, but it is worth noting that in addition to planting 300 trees in the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary [and isn’t it a bit unnatural for humans to introduce life into a nature sanctuary?], Como Park will receive more than 100 new trees. This seems to be a smart idea after all the natural demolition which took place a couple of years back.

Kimball’s post also notes that volunteers are still needed for this endeavor on Saturday, May 2 and he provides a link for those interested.

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.

Getting spiffy for our visitors

I noted earlier today that some of the people one might expect for a GOP national convention won't be here. But there is an article in MinnPost about how both our city and Minneapolis are spiffying up for our new friends, the Republicans, whichever of them make it, when they come here in a few weeks.

There are new plantings in Rice and Smith [Mears] Parks and at the Saint Paul Hotel. There even was a big drug bust across the street.

I do wonder why we don’t get so concerned about dentists, plumbers, attorneys, Lutherans, Hibernians, software engineers, or others who come to town.

And I know that I will likely never receive an answer, certainly not a good and truthful one.

Jimmy Lee

I think I met Jimmy Lee once. It would not have been a personal meeting but I think he was introduced at a community meeting in the Summit-University area in the early 1970s. I do know that I was aware that he was involved in athletics and the teaching and officiating of sports and that he was the first black man to officiate at the levels he did, at least here in Minnesota. When the city decided to rename Oxford Recreation Center after him, it was easy to understand their thinking.

The overruns and continuing ongoing problems connected with building the new recreation center do not do anybody’s memory well, but it looks like the project is almost finished, even if there are fewer houses in the neighborhood to provide clients. And the reviews have been good.

I would hope in time that people forget about the costs and snafus and just enjoy and use the facility and appreciate people like the man for whom it was named and others like him who have gone on to another arena.

An article about Mr. Lee inspired this post and can be found here.

Treasure Hunt 3 is over

We have had a winner for Treasure Hunt 3 who prefers to remain anonymous. Congratulations to whomever, anyway. The site is, as he/she suggests, the tall tree at Sue's Park at Payne and Rose

This whole Treasure Hunt thing has had a mixed and slow reception. I am not sure if I will continue it. I am thinking of maybe doing something with a fixed time line [one month, maybe] or maybe running two hunts simultaneously, one thought to be simple and one thought to be so obvious that nobody would ever want to be identified as the winner.

I am willing to accept suggestions on the hunt itself as either a comment here or as an email to minnmusic at yahoo. Of course, if you wish to suggest a site, it might be better to use the latter method.

Regardless, it will probably be August at least before I start another hunt.

The clues for Treasure Hunt 3 and their explanations are below.

And congratulations again to our anonymous winner.

Clue Number 1: The Man in Black knew that life was not always easy for everybody.

Johnny Cash sang that “Life ain’t easy for a boy named Sue.”

Clue Number 2 [4/3/08]: Once there were 3 R’s amid a street of bars.

“3 R’s” refers to the Phalen Park elementary school formerly located at the site. “A street of bars” is an allusion to one of the more unfortunate historical perspectives people have had of Payne Avenue.

Clue Number 3 [4/11/08]:

Hammerstein met Rogers, Gamble met Proctor, Bigelow met Brown Bringing culture and soap and telling about it in places all around. Pastor meets social worker meets mortician meets town.

Can somebody please give us the real lowdown?

This first line refers to famous partnerships. The second mentions what they did. The third line refers to the Payne/Maryland Partnership of Arlington Hills Lutheran Church, Merrick Community Services and Bradshaw Mortuary, who along with the City of Saint Paul [Parks Department and Library Agency] are looking at a development which seems to threaten at least some of Sue’s Park. And all the "visioners" that are hired cannot or will not give the straight answer of how much of the Park they want to devour.

Clue Number 4 [4/19/08]: Think of a Catholic haven.
Think of a Lutheran church.
Think of children playin’.
Remember where it hurts.

Maryland was established as a haven for Catholics. Maryland Avenue is nearby. East Immanuel Lutheran Church is cater-corner. “Children playin” alludes to the Arlington Recreation Center across Rose Avenue. The allusion to hurts is a bad pun on Payne.

Clue Number 6 [5/6/08]

A Bluff has both up and down.
And don’t think about a department store.
Forget that street across town
Or a Senator from yore.

None of them matters here.
Put them out of your mind.
Don’t shed for them a tear
And maybe the prize you will find.

Sue’s Park is named for a woman named Dayton, but not one of the Lyman Dayton for whom Dayton’s Bluff and Dayton Avenue were named, nor the departed Dayton’s store or its heir, Senator Mark Dayton. Mourning any of them will not help you find the treasure.

Clue Number 7 [5/18/08]

This is the top of a tree [Surprised?], a threatened tree. Regular readers of this site [both of you] might have extra insights about why this tree was chosen to be placed here.

Sue’s Park is threatened and the tree with it. It has been written about here.

Clue Number 8 [5/29/08]

You don't really think that I could go more than two hunts without having an East Side site, do you?

This verifies that the site is on the East Side.

Clue Number 9 [6/29/08]
Think about Phalen Park.
It’s not in Phalen Park, but that first line is relevant, anyway.

This is an allusion to the Phalen Park School which used to be on the site.

Sue’s Park update

Hoisington Koegler Group, the group charged with “visioning” for the Payne/Maryland Partnership showed a new concept to Payne/Phalen District Five Planning Council’s Community Planning and Economic Development Committee last night.

The new “concept” does call for saving part of Sue’s Park, the western part with the big evergreen tree.

But I would have to conclude that the park is indeed still threatened. In addition to remembering that this is only a “concept,” that it is far from being a secured site plan, one needs to remember that even this new concept cuts out a good piece [it looked like a third or so] of the park.

Earlier post: RIP: Sue’s Park? [2/1/08]

The Dog-gone Facts about a Dog Park, revisited

Betsy Mowry wrote a piece for the Twin Cities Daily Planet yesterday [St. (sic) Paul dog owners straining at the leash] about dog parks, noting the overuse of Arlington/Arkwright.

While I think she neglected to point out some of the history of Arlington/Arkwright Dog Park, especially missing the contribution of Payne/Phalen District Five Planning Council in mediating and mitigating problems between users and immediate neighbors, Ms. Mowry seems to have diagnosed much of the situation correctly. It continues to be true that the basic problem at Arlington/Arkwright is overuse, overuse which is caused because the city has never followed up on a promise which it made to Arlington/Arkwright neighbors and the dog using community last century, that if the one there worked well, that more would be forthcoming, and that Arlington/Arkwright would not be the only one.

Even if we can get all the improvements that were agreed upon last year for Arlington/Arkwright funded and implemented, there will still be problems until we get more dog parks in our city.

At one time there was discussion that David Thune was considering allowing one at the site of the NSP High Bridge Plant. I suggested here earlier that Lilydale Park might work. Both seem acceptable to somebody from my side time of town, and especially since there aren’t a lot of immediate neighbors to play NIMBY as there are in Mac-Groveland and other western neighborhoods, those sites might have a chance of happening.

But until we get more parks, preferably in western neighborhoods, Arlington/Arkwright will continue to be overused.

Earlier posts: The Dog-gone Facts About a Dog Park [11/27/07]; Thinking Outside the Box? [1/6/08]

RIP: Sue's Park?

I was at the show that HKGI held last night at the Arlington Hills Lutheran Church to show five of its visioning ideas for the Payne Maryland Partnership.

It appears that the process was skewed to reflect the interests of the institutional parties involved [Merrick Community Services, Arlington Hills Lutheran, Bradshaw Funeral Home, City of Saint Paul Parks and Recreation, and the City of Saint Paul Library Agency]. They stated at the beginning that there primary focus was for the organizations that had owned real estate involved.

None of the five plans preserves Sue’s Park, which was set up almost twenty years ago to be passive and for which the city accepted a large donation to make it possible. Apparently Parks and Rec does not care about either the utter disrespect it is showing to the woman who made a five-figure donation or to what effect such cavalier disregard shows to future donors.

I was told that there would be a similar amount of green space available elsewhere on the new, expanded, site and that there would be no loss of park land, but there is no loss of green space only if one considers soccer fields green space.

I don’t think it does. Some people know that I am not big on soccer. I will state now that I firmly believe that I would be thinking the same if the fields were for an American game like football or baseball.

Earlier post:

Payne Maryland Partnership announces choice of visioning agency

Thinking Outside the Box?

Is this what they call “thinking outside the box”? Or at least outside the city limits?

In an article in today’s DPP, Ken Harycki, the mayor of Stillwater says, among other things, that they are looking at using land they own in Wisconsin [yes, Wisconsin] known as Kolliner Park for a dog park because, as he noted "Everyone wants a dog park, but not in their neighborhood.

This acknowledgement of a likely need that nobody wants immediately near seems to put dog parks in a category similar to big box stores, landfills, or low-cost housing. But aside from making that perhaps pithy point, it does make me wonder:

Is there property that Saint Paul owns outside the city limits which might make a good dog park? I’m thinking Lilydale, but maybe Water Works Property to the north would work also.

Congrats HGTV winners

Congratulations seem to be in order for the winning projects in the HGTV competition. It will be good to see the improvements at the three East Side sites.

But can somebody get the DPP to read a map?

Wilder Rec Center is in the Payne/Phalen area. The Nelson house and the Vento sanctuary are in the Dayton’s Bluff district, although the nature sanctuary is, of course, actually under the Bluff.

But congrats anyway.

The Dog-gone Facts About a Dog Park

The last recommendation from Payne/Phalen District Five Planning Council’s Arlington/Arkwright Dog Park subcommittee which came from meetings this summer with neighbors, park staff, police, and dog owners, has now made its way through its land use committee and been approved by the Board of Directors.

I won’t publish all the details of the recommendations. I chaired that subcommittee so it might seem self-serving and I really don’t have a good angle to view it all from. Except for the first one which called for a new gate on the southwestern side of the park on Arkwright and has already happened, they will all have to work their way through the various processes.

But I do think that one truth came through clearly in all of this. I haven’t ever owned a dog, but I can see this:

THIS CITY NEEDS MORE DOG PARKS.

Most of the problems which had neighbors concerned in the first place at Arlington/Arkwright were caused or aggravated by overuse. That the city only has one such place is the problem.

When the dog park was established six years ago, it was established on a one-year trial and the District Council agreed to monitor matters in a half year and after one year before recommending that the park be continued. There were no complaints in that first year, and indeed In six years there have been almost no complaints to the District Council office.

The ones we did receive came from overuse, from too many people parking and parking by the back entrance on Clark for easier access.

And we learned that while many of the users did come from the East Side, that many come from suburbs where the people are quite accustomed to leeching off city people and quite a few people came from Saint Paul neighborhoods across town – Mac-Groveland, Merriam Park, St. Anthony Park, and West Seventh were mentioned.

These people don’t come here for anything else. They don’t eat at Serlin’s or Governor’s or buy their hardware from Kendall’s. They don’t attend services at our churches. One of them did mention buying tires at a now gone Tires Plus, but I’m not sure how much play that should get.

We need a new dog park for them. At one time Councilmember Thune suggested one at the site of the soon-to-be removed NSP High Bridge Plant. I don’t know if that is still in his mind yet, but it makes sense to me. I would even go along with closing the Kelly Crosstown [aka Short Line Road aka Ayd Mill Road] and making it a linear dog park. But we probably need one further north.

Any suggestions?

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.