Livability |
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Report: Prospect Park, Minneapolis: An Historical Survey 2001 Prospect Park Survey by Date of Construction How do neighborhoods get designated as historical areas in Minneapolis? Questions and Answers (Q&A) from the July 19, 2007 Meeting NOTICE OF PROPOSED HISTORIC DISTRICT MEETING, July 19, 2007 Suggestions for Improving Life in Prospect Park, June-July 2004 |
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Prospect Park Neighborhood Livability Vision: Create an appealing neighborhood with easy access to services and cultural resources.Create an appealing neighborhood with easy access to services and cultural resources. The PPERRIA Livability community since 1995 has addressed improving the overall appearance of the neighborhood, establishing its sense of identity (developing neighborhood ID signs), pubicizing neighborhood services in directory format, welcoming newcomers, and organizing multicultural events. It also has pursued developing the neighborhood using the Urban Village paradigm. The term "urban village" refers to a cohesive community within an urban area, with housing in close proximity to employment, public transportation and community services. It is comprised of paths and places, residential and business uses integrated at a pedestrian scale to fulfill many of the essential needs of daily life. The village should meet needs such as shopping, child rearing, education, arts, security, recreation and spiritual well-being. The identity of the village is defined by local landmarks or intersections with a symbolic importance established through neighborhood custom, sometimes termed "sacred places." The concept is similar to that of the "neighborhood unit," originally defined by city planner Clarence Perry in the 1930s. Prospect Park, Minneapolis: An Historical Survey Prepared by Marjorie Pearson, Ph.D., Senior HistorianHess, Roise and Company, October 2001, 38 pages. Download the PDF of the report. [3.6MB] Contents: 1 Prospect Park, Minneapolis: An Historical Survey October 2001 Prospect Park Survey by Date of Construction Download the PDF of the Report Index [112KB] NOTE: Individual Property Surveys by first letter of street name:
I thought it might be helpful if I shared a memo I prepared for a PPERRIA community meeting I attended in July. - 2nd Ward Councilmember Cam Gordon, 2007-09-17. As part of this process the CPED-Planning preservation team typically conducts a local designation study. These take some time and most often involve consultant services. They are somewhat easier to do if the neighborhood is national register eligible or has national register status. But such status also adds other questions that need to be considered as well since local designations have a greater “bite” in terms of the regulatory power they establish. It is not in CPED-Planning’s adopted 2007 work plan to do a designation study this year. It could be a consideration for 2008. However, I have learned that there are more than twenty such districts in the city that have been identified as possibly having local designation status. As part of the update to the Comprehensive Plan the City is hoping to prioritize those areas. City planning department staff is aware of the efforts in Prospect Park and has assured me that they will be keeping that in mind as they balance this with other requests as well as current staffing levels/budget resources. I think that they also recognize that redevelopment in SEMI and planning/development work related to U of M and Central Corridor also suggest that Prospect Park should be higher up on our list. The official process as outlined in the City Code of Ordinances is included below. ARTICLE V. DESIGNATION Questions and Answers (Q&A) from the July 19, 2007 Meeting Download the PDF of the Q&A [36KB] NOTICE OF PROPOSED HISTORIC DISTRICT MEETING June 25, 2007 Dear Neighbor, The area designated is bordered on the south by Interstate 94, on the east by Emerald Ave., and on the wet by Williams Ave. S.E., and on the north, the boundary roughly parallels University Avenue including the Schneider Drug and old Tower Grocery buildings, then following a line that includes residential properties and excludes commercial properties. Historic designation would give us greater control over the nature of residential development in our neighborhood. It would also require that we develop specific guidelines to outline and define the exact nature of the control we wish to exercise. As such, this could have a potential impact on every residential property owner in Prospect Park and makes our participation in the process extremely important. All property owners will be receiving a packet of information in early September explaining the process. There is also an excellent National Park Service website on historic designation at www.cr.nps.gov/nR/. The meeting is to address concerns and answer questions at a community level. We urge you to attend. PPERRIA Livibility Committee PROPOSED HISTORIC DISTRICT MEETING Suggestions for Improving Life in Prospect Park (submitted through the Prospect Park E-mail list, June-July 2004)I wish we all picked up the trash in our gutters and along the streets and sidewalks where we walk every day. Bending is great for flexibility! Litter & trash cleanup always appreciated! cans, wrappers, papers, etc. Alleys should be given the equivalent or more attention than the front yards. Quit treating the neighborhoods neglected look as if it were the equivalent of natural or wild. Junk cars and stored in driveways. Nonoperative vehicles should be towed away. I am grateful to the neighbors who have in some years planted and tended flowers around our corner mailbox. I understand that they might not take on this extra project every year but it sure is fun when they do! Help keep posted postings and flyers current:
Keep an eye out for uneven sidewalks. Rose bushes with thorns and low tree limbs with dangling light bulbs are especially Amen to your suggestion about the brush overhanging the sidewalk. I wish neighbors with automatic irrigation would end their schedule by 5:30 a.m. so I don't get a surprise shower when the system starts up next to me during my early morning walk. I wish neighbors would set up their garden and lawn watering to avoid sidewalks at all times so I don't have to go into the street to avoid getting wet. (See also BUSHES, PLANTS.) Drive slowly in the neighborhood. Arthur is especially bad for people driving fast. I also yell to people to slow down if their windows are open. I wish people would drive more slowly through the neighborhood - the curvy streets make things dangerous. Leave a front light on at night. They don't have to be floodlights, but a small porch or front window or even a lawn light makes any neighborhood seem a bit more friendly & safe. Gardensin Prospect Park are beautiful in the evening, too! It costs less than 75 cents per month to have an efficient light bulb on all night. Turn on their front door lights at night when it gets dark and either leave them on all night or turn them off when they go to bed. I leave my backdoor light on all night because it is next to our garage and the front door light on for several hours. You can buy a timer for about $20 at Home Depot that can be installed into the light switch so lights will go on and off automatically. I also think installing motion lights near garages is good. (See also BUSHES, PLANTS.) Dogs All pet cats and dogs with /collars and ID tags. The burden of finding the owner of a distressed, lost or hurt pet should not be on each other's neighbors. If only they could talk I wish that dog owners would not let their dogs roam all over other people's front yards and "do their business" on their plants, bushes, and grass! It is disgusting and offensive to look out my front window and watch a dog "go" wherever it pleases in my yard, and it is infuriating to step into a dog pile on the boulevard. Please add to the wish list-that folks would not exercise their dogs off lead except in their own yard or one of the designated dog parks. If anyone needs info on location of the dog parks or how to get a permit for the dog parks, I'd be happy to send that as well. Reports should be filed by individuals with Mpls Animal Control for all incidents involving all aggressive behavior in dogs. A report can only be filed upon an incident. If the report waits, it means someone else has gotten threatened or hurt in the future! We should support an environment where neighbors can feel good about filing a report in the neighborhood because it means the larger safety of our elders and children. Sometimes people think it isn't nice to file a report on a neighbor's dog. Children walk to school with Pratt, etc. It really should not be tolerated. I received a letter from the inspector stating that I would be fined if bushes were not trimmed to a height of 7 feet above the sidewalk by June 23, I think it was. I complied. Since then I have noticed many other homes with more low hanging shrubbery than I had & theirs is still hanging low. Were they fined? Does the inspector follow up? I'm 6'4.5" and the honeysuckles and lilacs hanging over the sidewalks require me to duck, bob, weave and do the limbo throughout our early evening constitutionals... If people own property adjacent to where an alley outlets onto a street, it would be great if they could be sure to cut back vegetation so that cars coming out of the alley have good visibility of pedestrians on the sidewalk and cars on the street. For example, at the end of my alley, I'm so afraid that I'll hit a pedestrian walking on the sidewalk, since there are some overgrown lilacs on the adjacent property which make it impossible to seen an approaching pedestrian until they are virtually under my tires. Along with trimming shrubs, eliminating buckthorn. Some people don't understand it is an invasive scrub and let it grow for the birds. My Girl Scout troop and I have helped along the river to get rid of buckthorn only to see it replanted by the birds. In addition to your suggestion for trimming bushes, it would be helpful if those people who live on corners would trim any shrubs that block the view of on-coming cars. It would also be safer if people trimmed the shrubbery near the end of their driveways so they could see pedestrians better when they are backing out. That triangle that's near PPUMC is nice, if a bit overgrown that last time I looked at it but the plants are so tall it's impossible to see around it and is actually a hindrance to drivers trying to negotiate it. I try to avoid coming to Pratt that direction because I don't want to have to deal with it. Scrap brush cleared from Tower Hill especially Malcolm and Orlin sides. An unattractive entry impression into our neighborhood. History designates it as "Oak Savanna" basically oaks with prairie grass and very little else! Now a national historic site but does not reflect that environmentally. On a practical side for current living - scrap brush houses mosquitoes, wood ticks, problematic other... Many are invasive and non- native plant volunteers. Those invasive plants spread in our yards too! Why isn't there parking on only one side of these narrow, winding streets? I wish people wouldn't park too close to my driveway; it makes it difficult to drive my car in and out. Could we get together and (with permission from the city) paint yellow curbs out a certain distance from selected driveways? I wish people would be careful about parking on the sharp curves. When you're driving, it is hard enough to see around those curves (many of which don't have stop signs or the like) without cars further blocking your view. Perhaps this would be something to address with the city - some curbs could be painted yellow or something. Have at least one safe clear place for kids to sled on Tower Hill without fear of hitting your head seriously on a tree. It's dangerous and no fun. We should as a community of neighbors provide good fun wholesome alternative recreation for our neighborhood kids. It is my understanding that there used to be a PPERRIA approved shortcut between 2 yards (on the N. side of Franklin) that went from Seymour over to Orlin. This was to save school kids and playmates and others having to walk around the long block up the Seymour hill (toward the Tower) or around the other long block of Melbourne over to Orlin and back toward the Tower. You can still see the vestiges of it on Orlin, but not so much on Seymour. 2 rental properties have since filled it in with storage. On Seymour, the entrance of the short cut was 2 houses south of the Pages new house and 2 houses north of the Schwabachers. On the Orlin side, it goes on the left hand side by a very small gray colonial rental (if you are facing the house). You can see where the old path would have gone. We have similar shortcuts on Arthur for access to the park and playground. All the kids want to play together and sure makes life easier, You could avoid the big Seymour hill which is hard for even me, not to mention others - seniors etc., to walk up. And going around the Melbourne way is ridiculous! I wish my neighbors would come out of their houses now and again when I'm outside and say hello, or pause when they are rushing away in their cars to say hello. I have lived in the "hood for 3 years and am slowly getting to know folks - I love it but would like to meet more people. I would like to see more people hanging out in their front yards. I wouldn't even recognize all the neighbors on my block and would like to say hi to people as I walk past. Living in PP is a positive experience because of the respectful manner in which people treat each other. I appreciate this manner and hope to contribute to it. IMPROVE APPEARANCE OF THE FRANKLIN AVE. BRIDGE OVER 94 Perhaps this idea extends beyond the immediate scope of your question, but it has occurred to me that if the neighborhood was able to improve Franklin bridge crossing 94E (such as with nicer railings, improved sidewalks, perhaps some ivy), the entire neighborhood would benefit, including by appearing more connected to the river. I believe the UMN Design Institute had worked with the City a couple of years ago, proposing revisions to many of the bridges crossing highway 94. The idea is to revamp these bridges one at a time, with each taking on a unique design rather than the usual "highway engineer" solution (note the 3rd Avenue bridge crossing 94E near the Convention Center). While such extreme makeovers may not be in our immediate capacity to pursue, we might at least consider lobbying for upgrades to the surface treatments. There is a city ordinance which allows people to burn certain item (like dead trees and brush, but not leaves and carpentry materials) in their yard in a 3 feet by 3 feet monitored area. It allows people to have recreational fires as well, in the same amount of space. We have done this to get rid of the dead tree branches left in our back yard. We also have an outdoor fireplace for nights we sit out to keep away the bugs. A neighbor, I'm sure out of safety concerns, called the fire department. The fire department came and left with an apology. I respect my neighbors concern for safety and would not jeapordise my property or theirs. Please let people know these rules from City of Minneapolis Fire Departments website:
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