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December 31, 2006

Twins park has woes waiting in the wings

By Brian Ojanpa

No one said it would be easy.

Starting this week, Hennepin County shoppers will begin ponying up an additional .15 percent sales tax to help pay for a new Twins ballpark, whose design and logistics already bear signs of becoming tangled balls of fishing tackle.

As they say, the devil is always in the details. In this case, impending glitches for the $522 million project include:



LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION: The cramped few acres designated for the downtown park will create a fit tighter than shoes a size too small. This was known going in.

Much less publicized: The land has yet to be purchased from its owners, which include a Houston real estate firm that presumably knows how to get blood from a turnip.

The county’s spending cap on land acquisition is $90 million. If fair market value exceeds that, things could get interesting.



CHOO-CHOO, BUT NO ROOM FOR YOU: The light-rail station to be built just outside the stadium has the potential to make that area resemble a Tokyo subway at rush hour.

An anticipated 4,000 fans will enter and exit trains there at every game. The necessarily petite design of the boarding area calls for a space 23 feet wide.

Just for yuks, I got out my tape measure. My family room is exactly 23 feet wide. Uh-oh.

Minnesota Ballpark Authority director Dan Kenney tried to put a cozy spin on this by comparing it to the same crowded urban-ballpark experience fans get at a Chicago Cubs game.

Two things wrong with that: The passenger-dispersal spaces around Wrigley Field are expansive by comparison, and Wrigley has been around since God made dirt. It’s long been paid for, unlike the new Twins park, where ballyard-funding taxpayers deserve better.



WHAT? NO MOAT?: Design plans for the ballpark’s outside perimeter appear to create something less than an inviting, urban neighborhood atmosphere. The potpourri of concrete this, barrier that includes an 8-foot-high wall running the length of an adjacent street.

It’s purpose is to keep pedestrians from crossing that street willy-nilly. If its visual impact conjures images of a freeway sound barrier, well, so be it, I guess.



BIKE-TRAIL'S TAIL WAGS THE DOG: Plans also call for a regional bike trail to weave around the stadium. Not enough room for a ballpark in the first place, and it has to accommodate the bicycle crowd besides? Hello? Hello? Anybody home here?

What’s more, the biking folks think their needs are more pressing anyway. They think the stadium should accommodate them, not the other way around.

“Can they have a few less feet for grandstands? Can they have a few less concessions?” implored Ruth Jones, a board member for the bike trail delegation.

Jones further told the Star Tribune that she wished her group could have commandeered more site for the trail.

“But we have to work with what we’ve got,” she said.

Don’t we all.



Brian Ojanpa is a Free Press staff writer. Call him at 344-6316 or email bojanpa@mankatofreepress.com.

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