BY CYN COLLINS

Residence: Seward Neighborhood, four blocks from Birchwood Cafe.

Occupation: Scenic Carpenter. I make things, but they only look good from one side. (laughs) Officially, I’m the Technical Director of flower shows, fashion shows and holiday shows for 20 years on the Eighth Floor auditorium of Marshall Fields, formerly Dayton’s, now transitioning into Macy’s.

Organizations/Affiliations: Minneapolis Park Board and Recreation Commissioner District 3, since January. Park Board representative to the Mississippi Watershed Management organization, which is little known, but does great work. Works with Watershed Partners, the Sierra Club, River Gorge Stewards, the Seward Neighborhood Group environment committee, Friends of the Mississippi. I was on the “Above the Falls” citizen advisory committee in the past, and still attend meetings.

SSP: Tell me about your role as a Park Board Commissioner . . .
SV: I really enjoy being a Park Board Commissioner. I work on fun things. It’s a great organization, and it’s great to have a sense of ownership of these great resources. I think there’s a great challenge to putting the Park Board in a position toward changing the future.
We have a changing population, and increasing density, which presents a challenge to preserving green spaces.

SSP: What were you pushing in the May Day Parade?
SV: The Energy of the Universe!

SSP: Tell me about your history with the May Day Festival and the Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater ...
SV: I’ve worked on the May Day Festival for 30 years. I missed the first two or three years. I used to live on Bloomington Avenue. It’s a trouble spot.
I did the Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater’s “Circle of Water” Circus in Sweden and Denmark. First, I did it with my family. I had two kids, one in diapers at the time. We spent six months on the road. It was challenging.

SSP: Tell me about your connection to the river ...
SV: I’ve always been a river advocate. I grew up in New York City, close to water. I came here to go to grad school. I feel really connected to the river. It’s funny, there’s a big focus on the lakes, not as much on the river. My interest in the river was galvanized by living near the river and performing in the “Circle of Water” Circus.

SSP: What did you study in grad school?
SV: I was a theater major. I was a professional actor for 15 years. I loved it. It was a 20-hour-a-day gig—living and breathing with fellow actors. I worked with Palace Theater, Theatre de la Jeune Lune a couple times, and others. We never had the money to build sets, so we did it ourselves.
I still have friends from those days who are are still involved in theater, such as Michael Sommers and Kevin Kling. I’m so appreciative that they’re still doing it—it’s such hard work.
I played a dog for about a year! It was in the “Circle of Water” Circus, and then the Theatre de la Jeune Lune after that.

SSP: What is something people don’t know about you?
SV: I was in a ballet choreographed by Loyce Holton (the grand dame of the Minnesota Dance Theatre Company). It was a Channel 2 production on “Swan Lake Minnesota.”

SSP: Tell me how you transitioned into river protection work.
SV: I was the cultural representative to the Cedar Riverside PAC which became the West Bank Community Coalition. I was a Palace Theater representative to the Southern Theater. I moved to the Seward neighborhood in 1990. This is such a great neighborhood. I joined the Seward Neighborhood Group, and became chair eventually. I was president of the (SNG) for a few years. I like it because it’s involved in environmental work.

SSP: What else do you like about living in the Seward neighborhood?
SV: I just really enjoy living in Seward, and having the best neighbors in the world. It’s such a great place to come home to and leave for work from.
Talented and interesting people live here. It’s a diverse neighborhood. One story: I was a coordinator for the Peace Festival, bringing together disparate African groups. That work was challenging and fascinating. It was interesting working with musicians from all over the [African] continent.
One cool thing I got to do, about six or seven years ago: We had funding at SNG, and I wondered why it wasn’t more diverse. It finally struck me that “outreach” meant you had to go out into the community (laughs). I put together an East African River Cruise. There were Somali and Oromo and Liberian translators there. Being on the river, looking up at the gorge was great! It was a mix of elders from the towers and new immigrants, meeting each other and talking to each other. It broke down barriers that continue to this day. We were all in the same boat, literally and figuratively! I’d love to continue this work.
The second year of the cruise, the sky opened up and there were torrential rains. You could have dumped a bucket of water on your head and it would look the same. It cleared up as the trip started but hardly anyone came. I looked down and saw the entire river was a bed of cigarette butts, because of the heavy flow from the gutters and drains.

SSP: That sounds awful. Is that common?
SV: Cigarettes are by far the largest flotsum in the river, flowing all the way down to New Orleans. Now that the bars don’t have indoor smoking, and people standing outside just flick their cigarettes on the sidewalk, the health of the river is getting worse, as the health of the people is getting better.

SSP: Tell me about one of your philosophies?
SV: Viridian philosophy. I’ve worked on environmental education and social marketing. Viridian philosophy is a philosophy that if we change the social morays of what gives us social status, we can make change. For example, having a Cadillac is a symbol of social status. The corporate culture tells us what we want. It would be having a butterfly garden, or a Toyota Prius instead as symbols of social status. If we can tell a different story of who we are and what we want, we could make significant changes, by appealing to people’s status. I’ve gotten some staff of the Park Board on TV, trying to get others on board.

SSP: What are you working on now for the Park Board?
SV: I’m trying to secure more parkland near the river—90 additional acres above Plymouth Avenue Bridge to Camden.

SSP: What is your main work? What motivates you?
SV: I talk a lot about environmental issues. I care a lot about kid’s activities and education. The “Nature Deficit Disorder” book author came to town. That was great. You look at urban kids and their fear of nature, you’re wanting to remove yourself from nature. People want to have 24-hours of lighting. There’s a big cultural difference.
I’m radical. I want to “depipe and depave.” Keep the water where it falls rather than running into the river via drains and sewers. An impervious surface (e.g. paving) is a perversion of the water cycle—and it’s the major source of water pollution. This is called “non-source point” pollution. If we could have more Milwaukee Avenues [exemplary Seward street] that would be great. We could have bumpouts that collect water. Having graywater, and blackwater—have our own water treatment facilities—we can have very pristine water in our own system, using technology that currently exists, such as composting toilets. If we decrease the size of sidewalks, other tree species could exist. I’m currently also looking at rooftop wind turbines.

SSP: What is your favorite book?
SV: “One Was Johnnie” by Maurice Sendak. I’ve read it many times with my granddaughter.

SSP: Tell me about your solar-powered canoe and Mississippi River outings.
SV: It’s actually a battery-powered motor by solar power (the second battery). We charge it in my backyard. It’s nice. It’s a complete kit I can take with my boat and canoe. I also have an electric scooter, that I take to work and meetings, for 6 cents a day!
I launch at the U or from Boom Island. I can go upstream. It’s cool being on the river. Most of the time I have the river to myself, especially the gorge. Once I went out to Boom Island under the Lowry Bridge. It was windy and the waves were really big. One shouldn’t be out on the river alone in 4-foot waves (laughs).

SSP: Tell me about your favorite part of the river ...
SV: I love the woods of Giggly Hills, and the natural prairie restoration. It’s the “art of seeing.” If you look at these woods—the forest has become pretty degraded. Going to the prairie bowl, it’s wonderful to see plant life restored and preserved. That’s at 36th Street and West River Parkway.

SSP: What more would you like people to know about their environment?
SV: Buckthorn. It’s a great hedge, looks nice in yards. But it’s taken over our local natural areas. For me, it’s as big as the Dutch Elm Disease, but its not in people’s front yards so it’s not the crisis Dutch Elm Disease was. Where there’s buckthorn, there’s no understory, no fall color changes, no species diversity, and no animal and bird habitat. It also changes soil chemistry. It’s an alien allopath, meaning it makes the area better for itself, and worse for other species. Also, it’s a host for those unladylike ladybugs.

SSP: What would you like to add?
SV: Water connects me to many communities. It opens a door to all sorts of environmental issues. For clean water, you need clean air. For clean air, you need education. You need grassroots community support. Water connects me to politics and education. It’s one of the doors that connects me to friends and neighbors. If we could get folks to think of their role in a watershed ... it helps them think of their role in a cycle of interaction.