Here’s a story about an attempt to change the name of the Carl W. Kroening *Interpretive* Center to the Carl W. Kroening *Nature* Center. It’s also a story of Parks Commissioner Meg Forney being one of the weirdest elected officials in Minneapolis.
Continue reading “Dumb Park News”Uptown’s Mall: More Park, Less Parking
If you’ve ever been to Uptown’s The Mall, you might not have realized it’s a park administered by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. It can feel more like a nicely landscaped parking lot with a generous grassy median. The drive-able portion of The Mall really just serves the function of letting drivers hunt for parking. According to Google Maps, if you drove all .6 miles of this street-to-nowhere looking for a place to park, it would take you four minutes (without traffic). That’s a lot of space that could be used as a grassy area for people to socialize and entertain.
But why would anyone call a park a “Mall”?
Continue reading “Uptown’s Mall: More Park, Less Parking”“In the 17th and 18th centuries, ‘mall’ referred to a place where people would gather to play pall-mall, a croquet-like game. The games were social gatherings, and the term gradually transformed to mean any grassy area where people could gather to socialize and entertain.”