Doug Grow: War Memorial Running Aground
While thousands of veterans gather in Washington this weekend to visit the World War II memorial, Ed Karbo continues to wage his fight for a war memorial on the banks of the Mississippi River in northeast Minneapolis.
Every time Karbo, 85, and his platoon of old comrades think they're getting close to accomplishing their mission, they are confronted with another obstacle.
Karbo fears time is running out.
"In the four years we've been working on this, I've lost six of my men," Karbo said. "My body's starting to go. We're not kids, you know."
Karbo seems to have friends in high places: City Council President Paul Ostrow, who has written a letter supporting the concept, and the Park Board's Walt Dziedzic. He has friends in the Legislature. Friends on the County Board.
But among other things, Karbo has learned that political people can be a little "squishy." They can seem like supporters one day, but hard to find the next.
The most recent disappointment in the Karbo mission came in a letter from the Above the Falls Citizen Advisory Committee (AFCAC) earlier this month.
In a blunt, three-paragraph letter, the organization said it does not approve of the plan for the memorial.
Karbo, an old soldier, was angered and stunned. The letter was a huge blow, because the Park Board and politicians will listen to the citizens group.
Start with the plan, designed by architects who worked for free. The memorial, to all war veterans, would be on parkland on the Mississippi between the Camden Bridge at the Xcel power plant.
On paper, it appears simple. There'd be walkways across bike and walking paths, to a plaza surrounded by woods. There would be stairs leading down the bank to the river. Along the walkways, there would be 3-foot-high granite markers containing plaques showing the dates of U.S. wars.
Simple as the design seems, Karbo believes it would serve a multitude of purposes.
He thinks it would open an area of the river that is inaccessible to the public. ("The only way you can get there now is to slide down the bank on your butt," he said.) He believes the area would be a quiet place for people to reflect. But he also can imagine kids fishing in the memorial area.
A people place. Sort of a living memorial to all those who have sacrificed. He says such a memorial exists on the river in Little Falls. It was that memorial/park that inspired him four years ago.
But his plan conflicts with the Above the Falls Master Plan. (Yes, there is such a plan, which is watched over by AFCAC. Are you beginning to see why Karbo sometimes get discouraged?)
"The Falls Plan calls for riverbank restoration, revegetation, creation of habitat and reduction of paved surfaces," AFCAC wrote in the letter to Karbo. "Your proposal, which includes clearing natural vegetation and putting hard surfaces at the riverfront, is not consistent with the Plan, DNR standards or NPS guidelines for this section of the river ... "
The tone of the letter is insulting to Karbo. With the exception of his time in the Army during World War II, he's lived his whole life blocks from the Mississippi. He cares about it. He learned to swim in it. For decades, he's used some Xcel Energy land next to the river as a little tree farm and then given trees -- thousands of them -- to the Park Board and other public entities. He recently was honored by Hennepin County for his good works.
"I love the river," he said. "It should belong to everybody. The stairway to the river that they're so opposed to opens the river to everybody."
The old vet is discouraged, but he's not yet ready to compromise.
The Park Board's Dziedzic, who says he supports the memorial idea, believes that Karbo and his pals will have to compromise.
"Different people have different ideas about things," Dziedzic said. "I just don't think that the environmentalists are going to let anything be built down to the river."
Dziedzic said he thinks that parkland near the new Park Board headquarters on the west side of the river might be a good place for the memorial.