North Minneapolis park gets big upgrade with help of Lucy Laney students

Colorful fall leaves and chilly, rainy weather greeted students from Lucy Laney Elementary School on Tuesday as they celebrated the completion of improvements at Cleveland Park in north Minneapolis.

Students joined the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board for a ribbon-cutting ceremony, marking the culmination of years of planning, community engagement and construction that brought new recreational opportunities to the neighborhood.

The improvements include new basketball courts, outdoor fitness equipment and the park system's first Bankshot court, an interactive basketball activity that challenges players to make shots using angled backboards.

Michael Schroeder, assistant superintendent for planning services at the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, said the project began taking shape in 2019, with community input playing a major role in determining what the park would eventually look like.

"It takes us a couple of years to go through the community engagement, put plans together and actually deliver this," Schroeder said. "It's taken us a little bit longer here, but we're actually really glad to be at this point."

The park board gathered feedback through community surveys, meetings and conversations with local students to ensure the improvements reflected the neighborhood's needs.

But the students at Lucy Laney didn't just help shape the park's recreational spaces — they also left a lasting artistic mark.

Whitney McLaughlin, an art teacher at the school, worked with students through an after-school mural program to create artwork that now decorates a building at the park. The project introduced students to painting techniques, including spray paint and aerosol art, while allowing them to work alongside local artists.

McLaughlin said the murals were inspired in part by the idea of creating something beautiful from difficult circumstances, drawing on Tupac Shakur's "The Rose That Grew from Concrete."

"This is what art can do for you, you know, you can actually put your handprint on a community," McLaughlin said.

She also painted additional artwork near the park's entrance over the summer, helping welcome visitors to the newly improved space.

For McLaughlin, who lives on the north side and is raising her own children there, the project represents an opportunity for students to take pride in their neighborhood and see the impact of their creativity.

"To come over here and wrap a beautiful image around the building that they had their hands in, they just feel something bigger than themselves or doing something good for the community," she said.

Principal Lisa Pawelak said she appreciated the park board's efforts to include students throughout the planning process. She recalled children remembering conversations with park officials who visited the school years earlier to ask what they wanted to see.

The park, located next to the elementary school, also provides an additional recreational space for students when teachers organize extended recess or outdoor activities.

For Pawelak, the improvements represent more than new equipment. They are another way to show north Minneapolis children that their community values them.

"I think giving new things and showing that from a community standpoint really just adds to that feeling that we're trying to put inside of them that they are brilliant, they are beautiful," Pawelak said.

The Cleveland Park improvements are part of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board's ongoing efforts to invest in neighborhood parks across the city, with funding priorities informed by community needs and equity measures.

With the ribbon officially cut, the new recreational areas are now open for neighborhood families and the next generation of north side children to enjoy.