Park Debate

I had the great pleasure this evening of catching our only Park Board debate in Minneapolis East of the Mississippi. The incumbent, Walter Dziedzic (no campaign site found) squared off against LuAnn Wilcox. Just my luck that I missed the first half hour. What I caught was still informative. Both candidates plan on opening the Theodore Wirth house to the public. Both candidates displayed excellent knowledge of what occurs in the park system. Both candidates agreed that time and resources must go into developing Marshall Avenue NE, Boom Island and the BF Nelson eye sore along Main Street. One point of contention. Mr. Dziedzic suggested that BF Nelson and Boom Island be merged into one park and naming rights sold off to create revenue. A “Place Your Name Here” sort of gig. Ms. Wilcox pointed out that city laws required a different method for naming parks. A clear statement that the two candidates disagree on the involvement of private companies in our parks. I was most impressed by answers to two different questions. Ms. Wilcox, when asked about the role of condos and immigrants in our community, pointed out that the folks buying condos in our community are not using ball fields. In fact, she said usage studies indicate 75% of our park users are passive. In other words, our new residents are not using the ball fields. She also said emphasis needs to be put on our park buildings, keeping them staffed and opened to help and welcome new people to our community. This was in contrast to Mr. Dziedzic's closing comments regarding his minor league baseball career. He said that playing ball was where he met people from all over the world. He said that on the ball field; they were players and part of a team. His point was that youth athletics were a way to bring kids of different backgrounds together.
Both candidates have a plethora of endorsements, but I don't much care. Mr. Dziedzic has the DFL endorsement, but I wonder if that would have been the case had Ms. Wilcox been in the race during the Party convention. She was not. Regardless, I've heard enough to know that Ms. Wilcox best represents my views. She understands the cultural shifts that are happening in our culture and she is best prepared to create a park system that is intended for passive users, free of corporate influence, and providing for individual athletic activities. She supports all of this activity while still keeping our existing athletic fields. Kids today are doing different things, and there are fewer of them. We need a park for some soccer players, but we need parks for rock climbers, mountain bikers and strollers as well. Go LuAnn.