The Prospect Park Association (PPA) held its last meeting Monday before the holiday season where members gave updates on renters’ rights representation, the Witch’s Hat Tower construction and more. 

Some PPA members voiced frustrations with the slow progress and delays to the Witch’s Hat Tower. The Association outlined its goals to hire an organizer to get more renters involved in the Association, honor the first African American family in Prospect Park with a playground at the Pratt school and lower greenhouse gas emissions in the neighborhood. 

Witch’s Hat Tower construction delays

Joe Ring, who leads the Tower Hill committee within the PPA, said progress on the Witch’s Hat Tower renovation stalled after contractors discovered the observation deck is not structurally sound. Ring said this has been added to the list of the Tower’s needs, but no timeline is set for when construction will be completed. 

In addition to the ongoing repairs, Ring said the area around the Tower is covered with buckthorn, an invasive plant that needs to be removed. The Tower Hill Committee is currently trying to work with the Prospect Park Garden Club to find ways to remove the plant. 

“Each year gets worse and worse and worse,” Ring said. “We began looking at trying to get a remediation program for buckthorn on our own.”

The plant removal could be done with the garden club under the Minneapolis Park and Recreation’s Park Stewardship Program, which allows volunteers to restore and beautify Minneapolis parks, Ring said. The program helps the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board keep track of what projects are being maintained by which organizations around the city. 

“I’m kind of frustrated because the buckthorn really bothers me,” Ring said. “For the 35 years I’ve been involved with Tower Hill Park, there’s been a ton of money that’s going into it. And it just breaks my heart to see how bad it is.”

Ring said conversations with the garden club about buckhorn removal are still ongoing. 

Tenants’ voices in the PPA

PPA Treasurer Lynn Von Korff said the Association is looking to hire a tenants’ rights community organizer who would do outreach in hopes of bringing renters’ voices into the PPA Board and subcommittees. Von Korff added that community attendance at PPA meetings has lessened in recent months, so bringing in new voices is needed. 

“This person isn’t hired to be an advocate to represent renters,” Von Korff said. “This person is to help organize renters and give them some support and to listen to their voices.”

Efforts to interview and hire a tenants’ rights organizer were postponed due to discussions around the neighborhood merger between the Southeast Como, Mary-Holmes and Nicollet Island-East Bank neighborhood associations, which the PPA pulled out of in January 2024. 

“There was some really great narrative around that. We’re talking about that: you want to listen to folks,” Von Korff said. “So this is a person who would listen to renters. Try to get them involved. Hopefully, recruit people who might want to serve on the board.”

The PPA reserved around $15,000 from the Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program to hire a tenants’ rights organizer. 

The 25% by ‘25 plan

The 25% by ‘25 plan, a neighborhood-led effort to reduce carbon emissions, is continuing efforts in the neighborhood to improve wall insulation and electric equipment instead of natural gas, according to Mary Britton who leads the PPA’s environmental committee. 

Britton said according to data from CenterPoint Energy, Prospect Park used 20% more natural gas than the state average and 13% more than the Minneapolis average. Natural gas use accounts for around 40% of Minneapolis’ greenhouse gas emissions, Britton added. 

Since 2019, Prospect Park has lowered its natural gas use to 8.4%, equivalent to around 73 houses not using natural gas, Britton said. The plan’s goal is to reduce the neighborhood’s carbon emissions by 25% by 2025. 

“I’ve been able to reduce my own natural gas use 75% in the last three or four years,” Britton said. “I’ve still got a thing or two I can do.”

Though this is the last year to complete the PPA’s goal of lowering natural gas use, Britton said she will continue to hold workshops about how residents can receive possible rebates and tax credits if they become a natural gas-free home. 

Honoring the Jackson family history 

The PPA and the Pratt School have been constructing a new playground to honor the Jackson family, the first African American family to reside in Prospect Park in 1908. PPA member Jerry Stein said efforts to finish the playground were halted due to accidentally digging into the basement of the Pratt School. 

“In addition, the equipment was only part of the vision we had for the playground,” Stein said. “There are more artistic elements that we still are imagining we will get to raise funding for that were part of the original drawings we built the organization a couple of years ago.”

Stein said besides the playground and Jackson Family Day, when students learn about the family, the PPA would like to start community discussions about Roger Wilkins’ book, “A Man’s Life.” Wilkins was related to the Jackson family and wrote about the civil rights movement. 

“The book came out in 1981,” Stein said. “It’s remarkably relevant today, raising issues about what it means to be a young Black boy and a Black man in a white society.”

Stein said he hopes to also invite Wilkins’ brother-in-law, Melvin Peters, who is an Eastern Michigan University professor of African history, to hold a conversation about Wilkins’ book with the community. 

“I agree completely with Jerry that the issues and raises are relevant today and the book is impressive both in its substantive content and the style of its prose, so I fully back this project,” David Frank, another PPA member, said.