Walk to Ole Olson Park

About 2 miles north from downtown Minneapolis is Ole Olson Park, a small park of only a couple of acres. The Park and Rec path from downtown dead ends here just before the railroad bridge. There is a lot of trash to be picked up here. Maybe I'll walk back up here in March to work on it.  We noticed the slope going down to the river was bare.  Friends of the Mississippi is working with Park and Rec to remove invasive species and restore the slope to dry savanna.  The details of that project can be found here:  https://www.minneapolisparks.org/_asset/y5ssr0/orvin_ole_olson_park_fmr_factsheet.pdf

Now that the slope has been cleared you can see that it's a graffiti playground under the BNSF Railroad Bridge.  It was so bright yesterday morning and the shadows so intense, it was a challenge to take photos. By the afternoon it was in the high 50's.  Not normal for February in Minnesota.

Leftovers from the party.  Nice shoe.

Freshly done? The graffiti here is mostly stylized lettering and while I have little appreciation for that I do like the color combination here.

If I were going to go back to clean the litter in this area, my policy to still to leave homeless camps alone.

Here is where I have a problem though.  This is a closeup of a burn pile for removing the insulation from copper wire.  There were several burn piles here.  Whether or not this stuff was obtained legally or not, you don't burn it. It's illegal and we don't need these toxins released into the air or the river.  

http://www.scrapmetaljunkie.com/873/burning-wire-illegal

Ok, enough whining and time to start the walk back home.

Starting the New Year

It's time to start some trash clean up.  It's still winter technically but I can feel spring is just around the corner. I was out a couple times during the past week.  I took a survey of my mile from the Hennepin Avenue Bridge to the Plymouth Bridge.  Yes, somebody has been under the bridge drinking so I picked that junk up.

This is new.  Someone is storing their stuff along the river.  Neat as a pin.  Hope the spring floods don't wash all that stuff down river. 

Here's a sight I've seen a half dozen times before in this exact location.  Whole Foods bag, whole roasted chicken tray.  Yum. A picnic.  The receipt says that you also enjoyed barbecue potato chips.  I love barbecue potato chips especially with a Dr. Pepper but I don't leave my trash after I finish consuming them. 

That snag I was working on last fall has all sorts of new stuff that is stuck there.  See you next fall when the water level is lower.

Bassett Creek is looking nice.  I can see that there is some trash that is frozen into the ice.  I expected that.

I saw a nice clean bag from Bobby and Steve's Auto World hanging from a shrub so I used it to pick up some stuff.  While I use many bags that I find to pick up trash I usually bring a few from home, ones that I mostly get from Target.  Some city council members are proposing a single-use plastic bag ban because they screw up the recycling sorting machines.  We have one sort recycling in Minneapolis so we don't have to separate our recyclables by type but I guess those plastic bags are a problem.  According to a recent article in The Journal (journalmpls.com) there are more than 160 cities in the US who have already done this.  I wonder if the guy who loves the Whole Foods chicken would pay extra for the paper bag.

Winter Break

Most of my recent walks have been inside the skyway system where the temperatures are quite reasonable.   The windchill outside this morning was -22.  There is probably no one littering up the parks this week, but there is stuff to contemplate in terms of trash.  While I'm grateful for the skyway option, I am going to have to avoid walking through Macy's for awhile until they change their soundtrack.  Second floor is Billy Idol singing Dancing With Myself and 3rd floor is Gwen Stefani singing It's My Life.  EVERYTIME I'M in the STORE. Help.  I've had those songs in my head for the last three days straight.

I saw an article in the paper recently about prices going up for those small size cigars or cigarillos.
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2015/12/29/mpls-tobacco-shops-bracing-for-incoming-price-hike-on-smokes/
Prices are not just going up a little but a lot.  Since I pick up gobs of discarded cigar packaging, I'm kind of happy about that. In terms of brands, the litter I pick up is split 50/50 between Swisher Sweets and Show brand. Show brand is the one with the silhouette of the shapely girl working the pole.  Some folks will be priced out of their habit and I guess that is the intention of the new law.  There will be some restrictions on single cigarillo packaging and flavored cigarillos.  Hey, we know you guys are marketing to kids!  I know because I think I tried one of those cherry flavored cigarillos when I was about 16.  It will be interesting to see if I find a decrease in this kind of trash come spring.

 It's been 9 months now since Minneapolis put the kibosh on restaurants using styrofoam containers.  I did a once around downtown looking at skyway fast food joints last week.  I am happy to say that according to my rough and sloppy survey, downtown seems to be about 99% compliant.  There had been a couple of hold outs. One was at an Italian joint and I saw that they have just switched over to the compostable products.  I'm sure the styrofoam did a better job at keeping their product hot and less messy for the customer but what are you going to do.  Grazie!

Before the holidays when the weather was still relatively mild, I went down to check on the homeless encampment.

I had been wondering what was going to happen to the guy living there once the deep freeze comes (like now).  The camp looked like it had been torn apart.  I took out a couple bags of trash.  I am hoping that some organization like St. Stephens came in to do some outreach or maybe this guy just got out before it got too cold.  Anyway, possibly this can be a cleanup site for an Earth Day group this spring.

Birds and Benches

It's been a little more than a month since I last wrote a blog.  I got distracted by this owl over by St. Anthony Main. Normally street art like this is outside but this fine mural by Adam Turman must be viewed from the outside looking in.  I was doing just that and a minute later I was stepping off the sidewalk, rolling my ankle and ended up flat on the ground in the dirt.  My husband was looking down at me and thinking what the F&%#$ have you done now woman.  I layed there in the dirt (giving myself a few minutes to assess the damage).  Yep, ankle hurts, knee hurts, neck hurts.  Thanks to Chad, a stranger who assisted us in getting back to our side of the river.  

With the help of some physical therapy on my ankle, I've been back out checking on the park.  It was fun to see this canoeist still enjoying the Mississippi River and Bassett Creek on a December afternoon in Minnesota.

There was a real shit storm that hit this bench.

I stalked this tiny Downey Woodpecker until I got a photo.

I've been picking up trash of course.  Some of it, like the sock inside the shoe is frozen solid.  Of course there is less of this kind of thing in the park, but I still see signs of folks sleeping out.  Seems dangerous.  It is dangerous.

Finally, I am a little preoccupied with this bench.  Located above Bassett Creek, it has a nice view of the Mississippi.  A little isolated, so it's a good drinking bench.  I pick up a lot of beer and liquor bottles in this spot.  It's not that I mind that.  It's just that most often the folks that drink here throw their litter off the cliff and into the shrubs below.  I will eventually be able to get to this spot at the end of next summer when the water levels change again.  What would it take to change this behavior here?  Should Park and Rec just remove the bench?  That would be one way I suppose.  If there was a trash can here would that help or would the trash can just get pushed over and rolled down the hill?  It would definitely get rolled down the hill. What about a sign? A sign that says "please don't blah, blah, blah".  No, signs are just good for adding graffiti to.  Flowers?  Yes, and maybe paint that bench pink.  Well, there is some kind of solution here and I'll give it some thought.

Father Hennepin Bluffs Park

Yesterday was one of those top ten weather days.  Early November and it's t-shirt weather outside.  We walked across the river over to Father Hennepin Bluffs Park. It's 5.5 acres of park along the bluff as well as down along the river.  There are some pretty rickety old wooden steps that take you down the bluff to the lower trail.

http://www.nps.gov/miss/planyourvisit/fatherhennepin.htm

There would normally be more water down here, but that just gave us an opportunity to explore.  All the old mill ruins are now a graffiti playground.  This park is pretty much neglected. There is plenty of trash to be picked up.  Will do that some other time.

Urban Grotto

Ghetto Protected.  Nice angel.

See that yellow guy?  That image is all over town including a new red one that is along River Road on the downtown side of the river.  He gets around.

That's the Pillsbury's Best Flour sign on top of the old mill buildings.  It was refurbished in the last year and finally relit in the last week.  Workers were down in the lower trail area working on the hydro project that will power the A-Mill building which has been turned into artist lofts.

http://millcitytimes.com/news/a-mill-hydro-project.html

Good time to explore.  Thanks for leaving the ladder.

What's behind that door?

At the south end of the park you can stand on the shore directly under the Stonearch Bridge.  It's a hot mess of graffiti down there.  Across on the downtown side I could see that this area looked like it had been recently painted which is why I wanted to see for myself.

That barrel should be recycled.

 

                      I did find a nice covered bench to admire the view of downtown.

You will be okay.  Just don't use the south end steps to go back up the bluff from here.  There is a five foot gap about half way up.  Better to bushwhack it up the hill and through the woods or go back through the park.  Didn't intend to keep walking after Father Hennepin Park, but it was just so nice out.  We decided to walk towards the U of M since we had never done that on the east side of the river.  We got distracted by a path off in the woods.

It's a graffiti playground down in that pit.  Nice view of downtown from here.

Looks like sometimes this pit is home for some folks.

Looking back to where we have been.  The bike path is right off to the left so you don't have to walk on the track if you don't want to.  There is a graffiti culture over here both on the outside and inside of the railroad cars. This area looks like homeless folks are finding shelter here too.

Rainy nights, in my lonesome.

Sluto, I've seen your work elsewhere.  Nicely done.

Take me home.  Yes, time to head back home.

Mississippi Meringue

More about that walk yesterday.  As you can see, I'm downstream from downtown Minneapolis.  I'm on that stretch of river between the two locks.  I saw a lot of whitish brown goop floating on the river. Looks like meringue topping on a pie.  Mississippi Meringue.  That's what I'll call it. I have no idea what that stuff is, chemically speaking.  I know I may pick up trash, but what's really important is the quality of the water itself. Can we swim in it, can we eat the fish from it, how are the fish and wildlife doing?  What do we need to do better?

You can get some of those answers in the State of the River publication that is a joint effort of the National Park Service and the Friends of the Mississippi.  It's available on the web at http://stateoftheriver.com/  

I'm going to get through that whole report at some point.

I was following a trash pool that was floating upstream when I noticed the pill container (far left).  I can see it is still full.  Not surprisingly, I pick up quite a few pill containers out of the river, but this one is out of my reach. Page 42 of the State of the River addresses the problem of pharmaceuticals going in the river. Basically don't throw your left over drugs down the drain or in the toilet.  Our treatment plant is not designed to treat for those.  Crush them up and put them in some dirt or cat litter or coffee grounds and seal them in a bag?  That's what I've heard, but are there better methods.  Ideally if there were a place to take them to like a Target Pharmacy for a take back program that would be even better. Here is what the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency recommends.  
http://www.pca.state.mn.us/index.php/living-green/living-green-citizen/household-hazardous-waste/disposing-of-unwanted-medications.html

Floating on top of that nice thick green carpet is a bottle with something inside.  Is that another message in a bottle for me?  Out of reach.  I'll check back in the future and see if it's washed closer to shore.

Living on the River Part 2

I had seen this spot near downtown before.  There is a lot of garbage here.  I hauled out some of the stuff on the bottom a month or so ago.  I had been wondering what was on top of the cliff. This is what I came across this morning.

 This is just part of what I found.  Are there folks living here?  I can't imagine there are, but yes I think there might be.  So what is the next step?