Jour 1189 Blog # 2: Covering Communities

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)