And don’t you forget it.

Minnesota Monitor has an item on proposed corporate sponsorship for our parks ^[1].

Minneapolis taxpayers could soon be greeted at their city parks by banners advertising a national home improvement chain that has no stores in the city proper. Lowe’s says it’s willing to donate $90,000 in goods and services to six parks. The string attached: Lowe’s wants to hang 8-foot by 2-foot banners proclaiming “This area brought to you in part by Lowe’s” in outdoor locations such as Loring Park as well as smaller signs near donated equipment reading: “These products and more are available at Lowe’s.”

Say wha? No, WTFF?!

Like it’s not bad enough that there are parks called “Gold Medal Park” to begin with (scandal-ridden as it is ^[2]) (not that it’s not a nice space).

I’d readily take my $30/year from the Twins Stadium and add them to my tax dollars that already go towards city and regional parks. Yes, I will gladly pay extra to keep your corporate sponsorship off our parks.

Funny how with a stadium, you’re glad that there is corporate sponsorship so that’s less out of your pocket to pay for a stadium you probably didn’t want to pay for in the first place.

There’s another argument in here somewhere about corporate interests in government affairs and privatization.

I guess the said thing is that we can’t find enough money in the budget to adequately fund the parks in the first place. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if Lowe’s made the offer anyway.

(Isn’t there already a water park in North Minneapolis somewhere with a corporate sponsorship? Or Cedar-Riverside? Or did someone blog it? I can’t remember now where I saw this.)