Boondoggle Park

BY ED FELIEN AND SHAWNE FITZGERALD

The Yamasaki building at Washington and Hennepin

The downtown business interests want to declare themselves a park and have the rest of us pay for their festive decorations. They’re talking about our spending $50 to $100 to $150 million on landscaping improvements.

Their just released “Downtown 2025 Plan” is breathtaking:

“The Nicollet corridor will cover 20 blocks, starting at the Walker Art Center and Sculpture Garden, running through Loring Park to Peavey Plaza, then heading north along a newly green and fashionable Nicollet Avenue to the Mississippi Riverfront.

“Starting at the 5th Street light-rail station, a strip of intense greenery will run for six blocks to the foot of the Father Hennepin Bridge. This Gateway Park will feature a large gathering space just north of the Library and a ‘step down’ to the river on the current site of the Post Office parking ramp.”

The new improvements will “Animate NICOLLET with a curb-less walking environment that shares space with quiet, zero-emission transit vehicles—electric buses or modern streetcars—that offer free shuttle service every few minutes.

“By eliminating curbs, the new Nicollet will give pedestrians extra dominion over the space. Indeed, the space will be designed to attract crowds and active lifestyles. Trees, kiosks, flower beds, water features, art pieces, lighting and vertical connections to skyways will all be part of the experience, as will moderately sized, quiet and zero-emission transit vehicles—either low-profile buses or modern streetcars of the type gaining popularity in many cities. These vehicles will provide frequent and free circulation along Nicollet and throughout Downtown. The overall effect—in greenery, technology and active living—will make Nicollet the greenest urban street in America.

“Interpose, at intervals along the route, public plazas and gathering spaces that feature stunning art pieces, water features, dramatic lighting, interactive programming and other attractions that, taken together, become the region’s signature place and iconic identity. Those navigating the Nicollet corridor’s entire length will seldom experience the same trip twice. That’s because Peavey Plaza, Gateway Park and the other public nodes along the way will be in constant motion. A farmers market one day, a jazz concert the next, portrait painters, urban rock climbers, model boat racers. You never know what you’ll find on Nicollet. It’s a combination of the State Fair and Rockefeller Plaza with a North Woods accent. Nicollet will be alive 24/7/356/4—that’s an all-day, all-week, all-year, four-seasons experience. People will live on it, work on it and play on it. Ten million people a year will visit the corridor by 2025, making it an increasingly popular tourist destination. Nicollet will be more than a “must-see” stop; it will be a “must-have” experience.”

It is tragically ironic that those same conservative interests that complain about welfare and unemployment insurance and government jobs programs and scoff at the argument that government jobs can stimulate the economy, now want the Minneapolis taxpayers to tie an expensive ribbon around a blighted area of downtown and hope that the hundred million dollar ribbon of parks will somehow create major developments in condominiums and office towers.

First, it hasn’t worked before. They’re tried to revive the Gateway District ever since the 1950s when they took the beautiful statue that actually welcomed visitors to Minneapolis when they go off either the Great Northern railway at Hennepin and the River or the Milwaukee Road at Washington and 3rd Avenue away from its site at Hennepin and Washington Avenue and moved it to a vacant lot in Northeast. At that time Washington Avenue was Skid Row, so the City, in its infinite wisdom, tore down 17 square blocks in the early 1960s and gave massive public subsidies to the construction of Northwestern National Life Insurance (now Ing) building at Hennepin and Washington. The Minneapolis city government ain’t Pericles, and the Yamasaki building is a puny and paper-thin Parthenon, but it’s probably one of the most beautiful buildings in downtown. But even it couldn’t spark the revival the downtown business interests wanted.

Second, the housing market doesn’t need stimulation. According to Forbes magazine, Minneapolis has the second lowest vacancy rate for rental housing in the country, after New York City. It’s currently at around 3.3%. This would be a great time for government to step out of the way and let market forces work. The plan says the new Gateway Park will inspire new residential towers on adjacent sites, but common sense tells you that vacancy rates are a more reliable source of inspiration for development.

Who are the movers and shakers behind this cry for a $50 to $100 to $150 million gaudy ribbon of parks in downtown? John D. Griffith, the Target executive vice president in charge of property development, whose annual income is around $2 million, is chair of the study, and Sarah Harris, the daughter of Ray Harris (the man who we credited with coming up with the idea of a conservancy so that Minneapolis taxpayers could pay for the parks downtown but Harris and other downtown interests would control them—“Ray Harris wants your Park Board” by Shawne FitzGerald and Ed Felien, Southside Pride, Nokomis and Riverside, November 2011), sits at his right side.

The people who plan our generosity are the ones that stand to benefit the most from the improvements.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.