Yet another reason to get rid of the park board and turn it into a city department.

I worked last summer for the park board in the NE community and the notion of any racial discrimination is completely foreign to me. I worked at a park alongside a black woman and our supervisor and park board managers treated both of us with great respect. The park board was a great place to work and and I did not see any of this during my time of employment.

In reply to mnpls123: Minneapolis is often referred to as having the best park system in the country, which I would agree with. One of the main reasons for this is that the park board is independent from the city, therefore allowing it to make decisions without political pressure and look at the long term preservation of the city's parks and wilderness.

For a couple years, I've done some work for the Mpls parks as an independent contractor. I've met many board members and employees, and have seen quite a variety of activities in many different parks and park properties. I've never witnessed any discrimination whatsoever.

Sorry, it's hard to take any massive-scale complaints of racial discrimination as serious coming in the same year that a proposed dog park in Minneapolis was blocked because of racial bias.

Now hold on a minute... we'll see if my comment is published... unlike others. I emailed the park board about some unsafe trees last year (dead branches overhanging a common area of a park) and they were on it in a matter of hours, not days. Very respectful. I was impressed and thought, I wish the city as a whole was like this. Really. I think the Park Board is doing a good job. On the other hand, I have never said that about the Star Tribune's coverage... and thus, why this will probably never see the light of day.

So tired of whining...give it a rest, its so old.

"Yet another reason to get rid of the park board and turn it into a city department."................Just a bad idea, mnpls123. Think how horrible it would be if for some reason a political shift like Wisconsin happened in the City government. I'll take an independent board any day before allowing a dismantling of the best park system in the nation.

I'm glad these people stepped forward. Park board employees live in a total state of fear and are deeply afraid of their manifestly incompetent managers. Since the new Sup arrived employees have been shaken up and the only thing they can count on is inconsistent leadership, arbitrary discipline, and a climate of intimidation.

The Park Board is just as terrible as the City administration. However, it's hard to explain 160 complaints without a coordinated effort.