Michael Wilson (At Large)
Candidate questionnaire responses
The Hiawatha Golf Course Area Master Plan (aka Hiawatha Links) was approved by MPRB in 2022, calling for 9 holes of golf and the ecological restoration of Lake Hiawatha. As commissioner, will you support the master plan and work actively to move forward implementation of the plan?
I support the Hiawatha Golf Course Area Long Term Plan (formerly referred to as Master Plan), and as commissioner I will work to ensure it is implemented in a way that is equitable, transparent, and responsive to community needs. This plan represents an overdue investment in environmental restoration, and is the product of years of environmental studies, analysis from engineers, and robust stakeholder engagement. The ecological restoration proposed in the master plan is an opportunity to repair harm to the most biodiverse lake in Minneapolis while expanding access to nature for all. I recognize that the golf course has historical and cultural significance, particularly for black golfers in Minneapolis and around the country. That’s why I support the long term plan honoring that legacy and ensuring a resilient and playable 18-hole gameplay golf experience for future generations.
How will you work to ensure that the new parkland at Hiawatha honors the lake’s history as Rice Lake / Bdé Psíŋ with the Dakota people who have stewarded this land since time immemorial, and ensures safe access for Native lifeways?
Honoring the lake’s original name and its significance to the Dakota people requires more than symbolic gestures. It requires structural commitments to indigenous visibility, leadership, and access. The most recent MPRB budget reduced funding for an indigenous parks liaison position, and from what I understand, it has been a hard position to fill. I think cutting funding for this position is the wrong direction because it is clear that our park system has a long road ahead when it comes to truth and reconciliation. As your park commissioner, I will work in partnership with Dakota leaders to ensure enduring structures are in place, including indigenous parks liaisons, that the restoration of this land supports Native lifeways, cultural practices, and historical truth-telling. This could include measures like formal consultation on topics such as design and use of the restored parkland, as well as culturally informed interpretative signage and other forms of public education that center Dakota people and their relationship to the land. Most importantly, it requires a firm rejection of any parkland use that erases or commodifies indigenous history.
How will you work to ensure that the new parkland at Hiawatha honors the history of Black golfers and the course’s legacy as a social hub for Minneapolis’ Black golf community?
The golf course’s history as a site of black excellence and resilience in the face of exclusion and discrimination is deeply important, and deserves to be preserved. This means working with black golfers, historians, and community leaders to create public art and interpretive installations that celebrate the course’s history, and ensuring that golf remains accessible and affordable, particularly for residents of color and working class Minneapolitans. It will also be essential to engage young athletes and park-goers in learning about and participating in this history with the 18-hole gameplay experience that can still host events, tournaments, and youth programs that celebrate and extend its legacy into the future.
A recent Star Tribune article covered the problem of stray golf balls from the course hitting houses along 43rd St. What would you do as commissioner to address that issue prior to the projected 2030 course reconstruction?
This is a real and unacceptable safety issue. As commissioner, I will prioritize immediate solutions to protect residents along 43rd Street well before the 2030 reconstruction of the course. While it is important to legally protect MPRB from reckless individuals misusing park amenities to cause damage, it is also the responsibility of MPRB to create the conditions for safety under normal use in each neighborhood where park programs are taking place. When a drive slices to the right, that is usually not the intentional personal failing of a reckless golfer. While no one hopes for a drive that misses the fairway, that is not outside the realm of normal use, and MPRB should mitigate this dangerous situation with more thoughtful tee placement (and diligent replacement if golfers move the tee). The situation calls for more thorough oversight ensuring safe tee placement, not merely limiting liability through blaming the victims and unskilled golfers.
In addition to tee placement, the park board can and should work with residents, course users, and MPRB staff to implement short-term protective measures such as signage explaining liability, netting, fencing, or tree buffers in high-risk areas. If these protective measures are ignored or not achieving an improvement in safety, I am in favor of playing restrictions on particularly dangerous holes to reduce risk.
Living near a Minneapolis park should always improve someones livability in our city, and I take it very seriously when living close to a park becomes a safety issue for Minneapolis families. No one should have to live in fear of damage to their home or injury to their family because of a public amenity. We need responsive leadership that listens and acts quickly, and will push for interim investments in safety improvements, rather than turning a blind eye to harmed community members as a long-term capital project takes shape.
What role can the new parkland at Hiawatha play in expanding foraging opportunities for Minneapolis residents?
Foraging is about more than recreation – it's about sovereignty, sustainability, and connection to land. As commissioner, I will support expanding foraging opportunities in this space as part of a broader vision for food justice, environmental education, and ecological restoration. I envision expanded foraging to include planting and maintaining more fruit trees. There is a lot we can do to grow our urban tree canopy in a way that grows produce for community members, and possibly seasonal neighborhood harvesting events!
Throughout the Minneapolis Park system, I support indigenous and other cultural foraging rights. I want to learn from indigenous leaders how MPRB land management practices relate to treaty rights and how MPRB as an organization can honor these treaties. It is also an incredible opportunity to create educational park programming around ethical and sustainable foraging practices!
How should we balance coexistence with other species in urban green spaces, even when doing so might cause challenges for humans? For example, beavers are native to the area and restore degraded streams, but can inconvenience us when they cut down trees.
Coexistence with other species in urban green spaces isn’t a nuisance, it’s part of repairing our relationship with the natural world. Beavers, birds, pollinators, and countless other species are not just “visitors” to our parks – they are residents, and in many cases, ecosystem engineers. I support the MPRB’s halting of trapping and killing/removing beavers in 2015. As commissioner, I will advocate for an approach to urban ecology that centers coexistence and reciprocity with nature, even when it challenges perceived human convenience in the short-term. In the case of beavers, their tree-felling may be outside of our current plan for the urban tree canopy, but it is also something to be celebrated as a successful moment in reconnecting urban settings with native inhabitants. From an educational standpoint, MPRB youth programs should be able to see, wonder, and discuss what the beaver is up to, and why. And I envision an urban management plan that factors in a beaver population that helps restore wetlands, improve water quality, and increase biodiversity.
There is a phrase I heard a lot when I lived in Alaska: “Alaska always wins”. Our job is not to “win” nature, but to work with it. This calls for a shift in park management culture from a focus on domination and tidiness to one of relationship, reciprocity, and resilience. If we’re serious about climate adaptation, environmental justice, and healing damaged ecosystems, we have to recognize that sometimes nature’s solutions don’t fit neatly into our plans. And that doesn’t mean that our intention for planning was wrong or that nature is wrong. It simply means we are on a dialectical path of learning how to see and incorporate the gifts that neighbors like beavers can provide us. The laborious hubris of attempting to always do beaver-work ourselves is expensive and inefficient. A just park system is one where all life, human and non-human, has the right to belong, and is incorporated into our management plans.