In June, the Trust for Public Land declared that Minneapolis and the Twin Cities had the best public parks in the country. Better than New York. Better than Boston. Better than Sacramento, Calif.
Then, earlier this week, the Metropolitan Council said the metro's parks attracted 47 million visitors in 2013, an increase of 3 percent from the previous year. We love our parks.
Finally, on Wednesday, the Minneapolis Park Board got together to decide whether they wanted to take on the city's newest and perhaps most visible park project, a sweet piece of land smack dab in downtown, adjacent to the new Vikings stadium and the eventual towers for Wells Fargo.
It could be the crown jewel of parks, an oasis between the river and Loring Park.
The Park Board responded: "It ain't a park, and it certainly isn't public," said Commissioner Anita Tabb in rejecting control of the space.
I can't really blame them. The idea for what's now called "the Yard" was developed backward, a nibble of dessert after the public was force fed the cost of the stadium first.
The Park Board is already financially pinched, and it is rightly suspicious of having to foot the bill for what could be an expensive little bauble that will mostly serve those attending sporting events or corporate shindigs.
The afternoon before the Park Board meeting, I talked to David C. Smith for some historical perspective on the Yard. He wrote a book on the Minneapolis park system for the Foundation for Minneapolis Parks in 2007.