A little history - the Minnikahda Club was there before the Minneapolis Park System. There was a lot of class warfare involved in carving off the lake frontage for public use one hundred years ago. As part of the deal, the Club still gets to pump water out of Lake Calhoun to water its golf course. Wonder if we could condemn the property for the same price that they have accepted for so long as the taxable property value? Doubt it. As it is, the place is fenced off green space providing maybe 100 people a golfing outing on any given day. Maybe another 750 or so rest comfortably in the knowledge that those lovely links are reserved just for them . . . and the kids who sneak in through the breaks in the fence every now and then. As long as we're talking about maybe condemning and taking over the Minnikahda Club for public use, maybe we could bring up the topic of Meadowbrook Golf Course. Located in St. Louis Park, west of Hwy 100 and across Excelsior Blvd from Methodist Hospital, it is owned by the City of Minneapolis. I've never quite been able to figure out the deal. Maybe there were a bunch of senior Minneapolis gov't employees who were living in St. Louis Park back in the '50s, looking forward to their retirement activities, seeing the logic of having a city-owned park near their homes? Or was it just one more example of how the suburbs colonize and parasitize the central City? Anyone else ever notice that the "Hennepin County Park System" was bought and paid for by Minneapolis as the major taxpayer before it got changed into the "Hennepin County <<Suburban>> Park System"? At the time, there was no buy out, and part of the impetus was supposed to be the idea that the suburbs might "take over" the Minneapolis Park System, and lordie lordie, we didn't want that to happen . . . So, just like with the Metrodome vs. Met Stadium locations, we traded off the truly desirable land for something no one else wanted anyway. Golly, we sure have had a bunch of shrewd operators on our city council over the years. As if 75% of the arrests in the Minneapolis Park System aren't still suburban kids. And we keep providing this wonderful park system for all our neighbors while they disconnect and hide their systems from us. Now if only we couldn't figure out a way to arrest people for economic crimes that are so much more egregious than smoking a little dried up weed. Say - - you don't suppose that might be part of a continuing pattern where the rich and powerful criminalize the lower classes, do you? Why, that could even lead to the upper classes ridiculing some poor backwoods kid raised by just one parent who has the gall to beat a favored oil-rich Connecticut Texan for his personal habits - while foisting some ne'er-do-well coke-snorting wastrel rich kid on the rest of us . . . Dave Porter SW Mpls ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.
