After much angst over moving to a “gasp” suburb, I moved to Plymouth 10 years ago because my husband and I found an affordable house fairly close to Minneapolis. I’ve enjoyed many neighborhood parks, summer outdoor concerts, art classes—the recreation. I’ve never been active in the community, though. I couldn’t even name the mayor, though I’ve voted in the past few elections. I just voted for whatever name appealed to me at the time.
I’ve since discovered the mayor’ name, along with that of my ward’s councilmember. Plymouth operates under the council-manager form of government, who knew? The city council receives input from a number of citizen commissions. The commissions consist of Environmental Quality, Housing & Redevelopment, Human Rights, Parks & Recreation, Planning and Plymouth Transit. The rosters for each commission list the citizen leaders. I reviewed several months’ agendas and meeting notes for three commissions.
From the Environmental Quality committee meeting agendas and notes, I infer several residents are very interested in water quality. Very commendable.
The meeting notes for the Human Rights committee didn’t indicate much activity, though the commission promotes training for teachers, and an essay contest for students. I’m hopeful this means there are not many human rights violations in the community, though the suburb is stereotypically “white” with limited diversity.
The committee that most drew my attention was the Parks and Recreation committee. From the meeting notes, I gathered this was an active committee, involved with parks, ice rinks, performance and activity centers (meeting places for residents and community leaders) and lots of events, such as Plymouth on Parade and a fine arts exhibit. In fact, there is a winter festival, Fire and Ice, this Saturday, February 7th, at Parkers Lake. Some of the activities include “hayride, ice mini-golf, and snow bowling.”1 The festival will end with fire works. Fun!
So, I’ve learned more about Plymouth, but guess what? I still like the recreation the best, and I’ve already forgotten the mayor’s name.
1 http://www2.ci.plymouth.mn.us/pls/cop/docs/FOLDER/RECREATION/REC_ACTIVITIES/LEISURE_TIMES/WINTER_SPRING/COMPLETE+WINTER+GUIDE.PDF (02/02/09)
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I enjoyed your sarcasm throughout the post. I too was a resident of Plymouth but never really learned much about the community. I miss parks and recreation.
ReplyDeleteMy grandparents used to live in plymouth. I never new much about it except that it was a wonderful city. But now I do :) Thanks
ReplyDeleteJamie Groth
This was a really good post! You kept me entertained with your humor and informed on the great city of plymouth =D
ReplyDeleteI liked the detailed, yet sarcastic side that came out in this post! The tidbit about the mayor was great, made me laugh.
ReplyDeleteGood use of an ironic tone throughout, and I appreciate the inclusion of a link at the end of the post. Please go ahead and use even more links in future blogs. They really add to the "viral" feel of blogging.
ReplyDeleteGood post Cathy. And to respond to what you said on my 2nd blog, yes, articles are more fun to read when you know the people being talked about. I look for my friends in the sports section all the time.
ReplyDeletethis was a very entertaining post. Good job.
ReplyDeleteGreat post and very informative to non-residents! Makes me wonder about my own city committee and how they spend their meetings :-) Your “kicker” punchline at the end was the perfect conclusion to your opening paragraph. Great job.
ReplyDeletelaughed a few times. good work
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