.

       
    ABOUT CIDNA

    CIDNA is a neighborhood organization organized exclusively for charitable, educational,
    religious, or scientific purposes within the meaning of Section 501c(3) of the Internal
     Revenue Code and, within such exclusive limitations, for the specific purpose of
    promoting cooperation among its members; insuring its members a voice in civic affairs
    affecting the community; developing a sense of individual involvement in the community;
    maintaining and improving the physical, social and cultural environment of the
    neighborhood; acting as a contact between the neighborhood and other agencies;
    reviewing, studying and making recommendations regarding issues of concern affecting
    the neighborhood and area, both directly and indirectly. CIDNA is non-partisan, advisory
    and educational in nature.

    The area of the Cedar-Isles-Dean Neighborhood is that part of the City of Minneapolis
     bounded by Lake Street on the south; France Avenue between Lake Street and West 24th
    Street on the west (portions comprising the border of Minneapolis and St. Louis Park).
    The northern and eastern borders are formed by a line drawn as follows: starting at West
    24th Street (at the St. Louis Park border), thence east across Cedar Lake to the Burnham
    Bridge (that crosses the railroad tracks), thence south along the tracks to the Kennilworth
    Lagoon; thence east along southern shore of the Lagoon into Lake of The Isles continuing
    east to the channel between Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles, and thence south to Lake
    Street. CIDNA membership is free to all residents.

     CIDNA Officers:
    Chair: Craig Westgate
     Vice Chair: Michael Wilson
    Treasurer:  Edwin Bell
    Secretary:  Ryan Fox

    Board of Directors:
    Craig Westgate, Chair; Michael Wilson, Vice Chair; Edwin Bell, Treasurer; Ryan Fox, Secretary;
    Lowell Berggren; Ed Ferlauto; Stephen Goltry; Ray Greco; Rosanne Halloran;  Art Higinbotham;
    Roger Klimek;  David Lissauer; James Reis and Amanda Vallone.
      

    Coordinator:  Monica Smith, info@cidna.org

    CIDNA Bylaws (revised March 4, 2003)  click here (pdf) to download.





    Park Siding Park History

    Location: W. 28th Street and Xerxes Avenue South
    Size: 1.39 acres
    Name: The park name, adopted November 4, 1925, was chosen because the property was adjacent to
    the railroad track just west of Dean Boulevard. There was actually a track spur, or “siding” from where
    park board equipment and supplies could be unloaded. From 1916, when the park board first leased
    the property, it was referred to as the Dean Boulevard Construction Yard or the Nelson Tract after the
    name of the company that sold the land to the park board.

    Acquisition and Development
    The original property of three acres was purchased June 4, 1919 from the Nelson Brothers Paving and
    Construction Company for $26,200, payable over ten years.

    The property was acquired to provide a storage and work yard, primarily as a paving plant for parkway
    construction. The board first leased the space for that purpose in 1916, but park superintendent
    Theodore Wirth presented a drawing of the proposed location and arrangement of an “asphalt plant
    and storage yard” at that location in his 1915 annual report. However as early as the 1907 annual
    report, Wirth had recommended almost the same site for an “oil storage tank” that could be filled easily
    directly from railroad tank cars. His plan was to spray the oil on gravel parkways to keep the dust down,
    which might be considered an environmental hazard now. He thought oil would be more efficient than
    the water used to sprinkle city streets at the time.

    In 1915, Wirth estimated that the pavement required for the entire park system at the time was one
    million square yards, a volume that would be handled more economically with a modern asphalt plant.
    He noted that he already had a portable plant located on the Nelson Brothers’ land before the lease
    was negotiated. After only a year of operating under the lease, Wirth recommended in June 1917 that
    the park board purchase the land.

    The park board initially agreed to pay $32,000 for the property in 1918, but backed out of that deal and
    was sued by Nelson Brothers to enforce the agreement. The court determined that the agreement was
    not a valid contract and the Nelson Brothers and the park board compromised on a purchase price of
    $26,200.

    Wirth wrote in his 1919 annual report that the location provided excellent railroad track facilities for off-
    loading supplies, and space for shops, storehouses and yards. Perhaps what he left out is most
    telling, and may have contributed to the board’s reluctance to proceed with the acquisition at the
    original price: asphalt. Wirth’s plans for an asphalt plant were obviated by his conclusion that an
    asphalt-concrete mix for parkways was less durable and more expensive than tar macadam. By 1920 it
    was obvious that the asphalt-concrete mix used on The Mall and King’s Highway was already in need
    of repairs. Wirth also made the case in his 1920 report that “asphaltic concrete” was two to three times
    more expensive than tar macadam. His opinion had shifted dramatically from 1916, when he
    emphasized the need for an asphalt plant, to 1920 when he stated the standard pavement for the park
    system would be a tar macadam surface.

    Wirth’s plan when the board finally acquired the railroad siding was to lower the ground near the track
    by six feet and use the excavated gravel and sand in the Grand Rounds construction projects then in
    planning stages. He speculated that the value of that material would more than cover the cost of the
    acquisition. He further noted that the new machinery for grading, ditching and paving to be used in
    constructing the Glenwood-Camden Parkway (Victory Memorial Drive), among others, had been
    received and was housed in an old building on the park siding property.  

    This was at a time when extensive road-building had begun on the Glenwood-Camden Parkway, soon
    to be followed by either paving or construction at Linden Hills Boulevard, Stinson Boulevard, St. Anthony
    Parkway, Minnehaha Parkway and West Lake Calhoun Parkway.

    For accounting purposes, improvements to the property were charged against the park construction
    fund, rather than the property itself, and are therefore difficult to track from park board reports. The board
    did contract with the railroad in 1923 to extend the storage tracks on the property.

    Wirth wrote in 1926 that the value of the property to the park board was steadily increasing. The location
    of the yard was especially useful for additional road construction on Minnehaha Parkway and the west
    side of Lake Calhoun.

    A small piece of the property was leased to a private citizen in 1933 and by the 1950’s, with the
    exception of a playground for young children, the land was largely unused. The park board staff
    recommended in the 1950s that the property be sold. In 1971, a developer was interested in buying the
    property and, with the required permission from the District Court to sell the land, it was advertised for
    sale. The only bidder was the developer who purchased 1.3 acres of the property for $150,000.

    A proposal to rename the park Woodcarvers Park, in 1977, in exchange for the donation of three 25-foot
    totem or heritage poles for the park was not accepted by the park board. The park was referred to
    informally by park staff as Woodcarvers Park anyway because of the woodcarving shop and school
    across the street from the park.

    When the park board completely renovated the little park in 1997, it won a design award from the
    Committee on Urban Environment. The renovation was financed in part by Cedar-Isles-Dean
    neighborhood revitalization funds.

    Today the tranquil little park, nestled on a dead-end street among modern townhouses, lies beside not
    a railroad track, but a bicycle and pedestrian path. No longer a place to unload railcars, it’s an excellent
    place for a breather for cyclists who travel the path the trains once did. No hint remains of the muscular
    work of mixing asphalt and building roads.