515 Crew

So, the city just spent 25-30 million dollars building the Western Gateway Park. It was just finished, what, 2 years ago? There's been a couple of events there for the public...i thought it was a great place for the 80/35 festival. Now they want to spend 2 million more taxpayers dollars to build a freakin' Pappajohn Sculpture Park. Basically they're going to take all the crap he's collected in his yard, and build all these berms and crap for the sculptures, rendering the park useless for public events. Pappajohn has done some nice things for the city, but i don't think we should render public land useless just to have a showcase for his shitty taste in art.

email your councilmember from here:http://www.ci.des-moines.ia.us/mayor_council/index.htm

there's a map if you don't know what zone you're in.

just put this list in the "to" item line:
'mjkiernan@dmgov.org'; 'fcownie@dmgov.org'; 'tdvlassis@dmgov.org'; 'vlassis3@mchsi.com'; 'Mahafb@AEDairy.com'; 'hensley2@mchsi.com'; 'bjmeyer@dmgov.org'; 'ccoleman@dmgov.org'; 'ccoleman@dm.bbb.org'; 'ColemanSeven@mchsi.com'

here's a generic letter, add your own flare:

Council Members,



Hello. Please vote NO for the proposed Pappajohn Sculpture Park. I believe ~25million dollars was spent to build the Western Gateway Park, a beautiful facility for great events such as the art festival and 80/35. It has come to my attention that the park will no longer be available for use for concerts etc because of risk to sculptures/RE-landscaping the park, rendering it useless to the public. Why did we build this park in the first place? I’ll assume for use as a public space, such as these events. Now someone (who?) wants to spend another 2 million of the taxpayers money to display the artistic tastes of a SINGLE person, and at the same time destroy the public space. I understand that Mr. Pappajohn has done much for the community, but a wing in the Des Moines Art Center, or their front yard, or perhaps the Riverwalk would be a much better venue then what is supposed to be public land. Many people feel the same as I do. Please vote NO.

Love,

515crew and Varg

They actually believe that the sculpture park is going to stimulate business growth in the vacant buildings around gateway park.

add your comments:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/p ... 8809220317

I received an email back saying...

you are wrong

bocce ball, harseshoes, soccer field? actual park stuff ... that would be removeable for events

I actually see people in the park quite frequently. Playing ultimate frisbee, catch, flying kites, sleeping... I don't think it has went to waste. I think the location doesn't lend well to the lunch time crowd or downtown in general as most people don't live in that area.

I do agree that it needs some trees and landscaping though, aside from the nipple on the west side of it. Which was apparently going to be a fountain until they realized they didn't have money to build it.

storkus wrote:The problem is, save for those two events, have you ever seen even a single soul set foot in that place? It's totally barren, because it was horribly conceived from the start.

It's big, flat, and empty, and it's basic human psychology that people aren't going to gather there, for that reason. A wide open urban area makes people feel like they're being scrutinized, and makes them feel vulnerable. They needed to put trees and varied landscape in there. If Central Park was just a huge patch of open grass, no one would use that either.

I'm torn on the idea, entirely because of 80/35. The Art Festival was way better on the bridges, so I don't care if it has to find a new home, but it was a great concert venue. I can't really justify having it go to waste for the other 364 days a year, though, and this idea seems like the best way to salvage something useful out of the terrible idea that was "Western Gateway Park".

I can see your point. At the same time, it's another 2 million dollars spent on the same place that is under used, and i highly doubt his art collection will increase the numbers of people entering the park after the first month. I'm not sure where all the statues and stuff will go, but it sounds like it'll be worthless for public events, or stuff like ultimate frisbee. Des Moinians are slow on the uptake of new stuff, they should have given it a couple more years.
passed 6-0, despite my huge effort.

itll be more than 2 million. how much do you think the city spends on the umbrella grafitti and vandalism

I don't know, I guess I'd rather see a sweet sculpture garden than have the money be spent on new park equipment in the 'hood that's just going to get destroyed. Might as well throw another few million at it.

id prefer they sell it.

Their response to me was that it was actually going to only be another 500k from the city, and the rest of the money was being supplied by private donations. I would rather see that money be funneled into something more useful. The sculpture park might be cool initially, but it defeats the use of the green space, and once you have seen it, how many times will you return. Not to mention, I can see it just getting destroyed by idiot "loopers" on the weekends.

aeon grey wrote:I received an email back saying...

you are wrong

Was it from Christine Hensley?

Big Fat Retard wrote:

aeon grey wrote:I received an email back saying...

you are wrong

Was it from Christine Hensley?

Yeah.

aeon grey wrote:

Was it from Christine Hensley?[/quote]

Yeah.[/quote]
I knew it. That's how she replies to anyone who disagrees with her.

i am certainly not an optimist. I pass the park 3 to 4 times a day though, and generally see at least a few people there. Which I take as fairly impressive given the part of downtown it is in. Not really anything else going on over there right now. It will get better as things develop there. I am honestly fine with them putting some sculptures in the park, but not if it is going to take up all of the open space.

storkus wrote: It's just another case of someone coming to Des Moines, and the mere mention of them being from New York causes our instinctual reaction to throw handfuls of money at them. When is this city going to learn that there are millions of people in New York, and very few of them know how to make a city worth a shit?

I really don't know what this statement leads towards. Was this park someone from out of town's idea?

what it comes down to is, i'd rather have a field of grass sitting there available for use, then pappajohns crappy art. use the 2 million for some art supplies for the kids.

yay!, old man art!!

i say, why not have a hilarious sculpture park. if we wanted to have a thriving downtown, where people actually walk OUTSIDE, we would get rid of the ridiculous skywalks. seriously, everyone i know that comes through des moines always says the same thing: "drove through downtown today and it looked completely dead.". i assure them that there are people just that they are inside walking around.