Update: We are pleased to announce that the St. Paul City Council approved $60,000 on October 4, 2023, to improve the entrance and accessibility to Pig’s Eye Park. In addition to Friends of the Parks and Trails, groups sending letters of support included Dayton’s Bluff Community Council (District Council 4), Friends of the Mississippi River, Friends of Swede Hollow, Pig’s Eye Park Friends, the Saint Paul Audubon Society, the Saint Paul Parks Conservancy, Southeast Community Organization (District Council 1) and Wakan Tipi Awanyankapi (formerly the Lower Phalen Creek Project).
The monies will cover upgrades including solar lighting, bicycle parking, restroom facilities, trash and dog waste receptacles and a kiosk installation. Thanks to Saint Paul Parks and Rec, Ward 7 City Councilmember Jane Prince and environmental activist Kiki Sonnen for their efforts.
Friends of the Parks’ request
Friends of the Parks and Trails’ executive director, Amy Gage, submitted the following statement to the City of Saint Paul Parks and Recreation Department on August 25, 2023, with the full support of the organization’s Board of Directors:
Good morning and greetings to my friends and colleagues who work for or on behalf of the City of Saint Paul.
I am writing on behalf of Friends of the Parks and Trails of St. Paul and Ramsey County, an advocacy group that strongly supports the Ward 7 and broader city proposal for a STAR Grant to construct a safer, more accessible entrance to Pig’s Eye Park.
As you can see in the post from our website — https://friendsoftheparks.org/getting-to-pigs-eye-park/ — we asked our members to submit letters of support for this STAR Grant, too. Our board is excited about the possibility of a safer entrance as a first step toward opening this resource more broadly to the public and to seeing even more funding go toward its cleanup and preservation.
We are especially excited about supporting and improving Pig’s Eye as a wildlife habitat.
I lived above Pig’s Eye, on Mounds Boulevard and later Burns Avenue, from 1987 to 1993 and never visited the park. Back then, it was seen as a dumping ground — the city’s forgotten space. More recently, I have visited the park for foot tours with the Pig’s Eye Park Friends group or dog walks on my own. Each time, I have either gotten lost or felt intimidated in my low-riding Prius as huge dump trucks thundered past while I was trying to find the entrance. My car nearly got stuck in the mud once.
But once I finally did get to Pig’s Eye, I marveled at the natural beauty even amid the industrial uses around the park. We know so much more now about the healing benefits of nature: for the climate, for people’s mental and physical health.
Thank you for considering our strong support for the STAR Grant to design and create a safer entry point and parking area — for both bicycles and cars — for Pig’s Eye Park, so that more people can enjoy and help rejuvenate this natural resource.
Photo on homepage by Wolfie Browender
