Readers Write: Downtown’s future, naked swimming, state politics, fraud scandals

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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Thank you to James Lileks for his creative and very practical ideas for future downtown Minneapolis development in “Onward with ingenuity” (Jan. 4). Mostly, thank you for reminding city planners, businesses and political leaders to look forward, with energy and yes, some delight while planning for the city’s future. Because of a recent move our daughter made, we have become tourists in a Midwest city that has inspired us, delighted us and made us feel so welcome when we visit.

That city is Detroit (yes, you read that right). Minneapolis and Detroit share commonalities of a river, sports stadiums and cool weather. Where we differ is Detroit did not tear down small-scale buildings, and has benefited from commitments from a variety of businesses (e.g. Shinola) to locate their offices and retail space to downtown Detroit. One thing we noticed on our first visit was that Detroit has a central area for gathering. Where is ours? Every time we have made a trip to Detroit there has been something going on at Campus Martius Park. Music, marathon endings, ice skating, tree lightings and art displays are scheduled in the park, and it is surrounded by coffee shops, restaurants and places to sit. We wanted to stay and enjoy the beautiful city. While Detroit is probably not on many city planners’ wish lists, maybe it deserves a second look?

Liz Knutson, Minneapolis

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Two articles in the Jan. 4 paper — a letter to the editor from a city planner (“We still have some compromising to do”) and a Lileks column — reveal the magnitude of the task ahead to reimagine and redevelop our cities as calmer, more egalitarian places, where a mix of land uses coexist in mutually beneficial ways, and where moving people around is far less destructive to the environment and our quality of life.

I appreciated ideas from both writers, from the suggestion that we “fill [Nicollet Mall] with trees and fountains and planters and benches” to capping “over the freeway between Pascal Street and Western Avenue ... restitching the neighborhoods around the freeway.” Downtown Minneapolis is especially challenging, due to the sheer scale of the towers and how they meet the street.

Where to start? If the city of Minneapolis committed to a dense canopy of trees throughout downtown — not just on Nicollet Mall — that change alone would be transformative. It would soften the impact of block-long facades, provide a shady, human-scale walking environment, improve air quality and help ameliorate the urban heat island. In short, it would “set the table” for any of the changes to follow.

And I-94? If the boulevard concept is scrapped, start now with the well-documented Rondo cap, demonstrating how impactful that would be for life on the surface. Other early steps might include closing less-used ramps and redesigning the frontage roads as multimodal boulevards — densely tree-lined, narrowed and traffic-calmed, with transit, bike lanes and wider sidewalks — rather than leaving them as speedy options for racing through town. In short, make moves that begin to show how a freeway can be tamed incrementally, and land returned to the communities that border it.

Bob Close, St. Paul

The writer is an urban designer.

Regarding Laura Yuen’s column about boys swimming naked: I grew up near Pittsburgh (“Why were boys required to swim naked in Minnesota?” Jan. 7). I took swimming lessons in the 1940s at the YMCA on the North Side. We girls had to wait secluded until the boys’ class was finished and they were all out of the pool area — because the boys didn’t wear bathing suits! Oooh, ick.

As for high school: I asked my husband about the Quaker boarding school he attended in Newtown, Pa., “Did the boys wear suits in swim classes?” “No.”

And at Penn State in the 1950s, we all had to pass a swimming test in order to graduate. There was no big pool on campus at that time, so the men had to go into town to a public pool for their swim classes. “Did the men wear suits in class?” “No.”

So, as you noted in your column, Minnesota wasn’t alone with this practice. Add Pennsylvania to the group. Sometime in the ensuing years I read that this practice, fortunately, had been banned. I don’t remember when. Oooh, ick.

Judy Starkey, Wayzata

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Yuen’s story of school boys being required to swim naked brought back memories of naked swimming at the YMCA and in junior high school. When I was a fifth grader, the YMCA had an iceberg swim where large blocks of ice were placed in the pool. This special event was watched by our mothers, who were allowed to view from the bleachers. I remember climbing onto a block of ice and thinking, “Whose idea was this?” Thanks for the memory.

Mark Odland, Edina

Retired State Rep. Dean Urdahl wrote a compelling commentary advocating major reforms including term limits and the abolition of party legislative caucus fundraising (“I’m leaving office after 22 years with concerns and ideas for putting people above politics in Minnesota,” Jan. 7). Both of these are long overdue and essential if we are going to have honest and representative government.

We have been writing commentaries pushing for those very same reforms for over six years and, unfortunately, no legislator was willing to provide any leadership. We applaud Urdahl’s willingness to speak out. No doubt he will be criticized for being late, but that is insignificant compared to the importance of the message. He is affirming that state officials are willing to grant special favors to moneyed interests as outlined in a May 2021 report by the Humphrey School of Public Policy and, in return, party caucuses in the Legislature receive generous contributions: over $130,000 per legislative incumbent for the 2020 elections.

The public overwhelmingly supports term limits and clearly does not want government for and by the wealthy. Now we need our elected officials to make this a reality.

Arne H. Carlson, Janet Entzel and Tom Berkelman

Carlson is the former governor of Minnesota. Entzel and Berkelman are retired DFL legislators.

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Minnesota Star Tribune Opinion continues in the way it highlights the information and letters that it agrees with and eschews those it does not. I think those folks are generally pretty bright, but they sure are stubborn even after those they support were beaten in every metric. It’s not over yet, especially in light of the tricks their favorite party is playing now after improperly vetting their candidates and losing power in the House as a consequence. I see that liberal candidates are being turned back by voters around the globe. How about it, Minnesota voters? Give our fair state a chance by voting a different way?

David Paton, West St. Paul

Thanks Lawrence R. Jacobs and Joseph Tamburino for your very telling and spot-on Jan. 7 commentaries (“Returning to good governance in Minnesota will require sustained attention” and “Where were our state investigators? It’s not like we don’t have any — or even enough,” Strib Voices). Our current administration and its staff should be ashamed and embarrassed by how badly they have allowed the taxpayers of Minnesota to have had their collective pockets picked in broad daylight. The pickpockets have figured it out and know that nobody is minding the store. The hundreds of millions lost is deplorable and not enough of the mainstream media is screaming from the rooftops and demanding answers. Sadly, but not unexpectedly, this administration’s solution is to throw millions of dollars, more people and another layer of bureaucrats at the problem now that the horse has been stolen. This will inevitably only slow down supervision and enforcement of the problem to yet another level. Come on, let’s just give the current departments the power and jurisdiction to cut off funds and shut these criminals down when they see red flags. We need more efficiency in the system — not more government layers to get in the way. Please show some respect for us and our money.

Dennis Larson, White Bear Lake