As Prince fans mourn and stop by a memorial outside his Paisley Park studios in Chanhassen, some are brainstorming ways to create a long-lasting tribute to the musical icon who died on Thursday. Ideas in the works:
• State Senator Karin Housley, R-St. Mary's Point, says Prince's signature purple should be the official state color. "Twenty-seven states have a state color. We should have one, and it should be purple," she said. On Monday she presented a bill that would declare the royal color as the state's official color.
• Minneapolis City Council Member Jacob Frey has floated the idea of naming a new park being built across from U.S. Bank Stadium as Prince Park or Purple Rain Park.
• One group has started an online petition to rename Terminal 1 Lindbergh at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to the Prince Rogers Nelson Terminal. As of Monday afternoon, the group had collected 11,310 electronic signatures on the website http://chn.ge/1QxqxLr.
• MnDOT bathed the Interstate 35W bridge in downtown Minneapolis in purple light over the weekend, but a name change for the bridge is not in the works. That's something the Legislature would have to approve, said MnDOT spokesman Kevin Gutknecht.
• One of the light rail lines may become the Purple Line. But Metro Transit spokesman Howie Padilla said the existing lines will stay Blue and Green. Still, the agency "holds Prince in high regard" and will likely do something in his honor.
Tim Harlow
