Van Cleve Park home to unique activities, events

After ending a worker’s strike of more than three weeks, park workers to receive raises. 

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By Jelani Howard / The Hubbard School

Van Cleve Park is a Minneapolis centerplace for all with a variety of amenities, team sports and learning opportunities each day.

Van Cleve Park, purchased in 1890, is one of the oldest parks in the state, according to the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board. The park was a part of the first set of three parks in the state to acquire a playground set.

Nowadays, the nearly nine acre park is home to eight different fields, courts and sets, as well as a wading pool.

What makes the park truly special is what you can learn and acquire at the park. Van Cleve offers various permits, including scuba certification and food truck permits, The park also offers rentals, such as bike rentals and winter equipment rentals.

Former University of Minnesota alum Theresa Lieser has only brought her daughter, Logan, to the park twice but used to spend time there with her friends when she was in school.

“My friends and I always explored campus a lot, so it felt like a natural thing,” Lieser said.

Lieser wasn’t the only former student still making use of the public park. 2024 graduate Liam Edgar, who utilizes the park once or twice a week, appreciates the small patch of foliage in the concrete jungle that is Minneapolis.

“It’s nice to have a little piece of, obviously it's not crazy nature, but some nature, something that’s real and not man made around the city, it’s great,” Edgar said.

The park recently went through a rough patch, dealing with a 22-day worker’s strike. The strike, which was the first in the park’s history, was led by Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local 363, according to the Star Tribune.

The strike ended with Local 363 agreeing to raises of 10.25 percent over the next three years.

Summer seasonal park maintenance employee Seth Dolandson was apart of the few who stayed at work despite the strike.

“We tried to focus on being efficient, making sure we were hitting all of the parks,” Donaldson said. “Instead of worrying about the little details, we were worried about the big stuff, like picking up trash and making sure the park was clean.”

Donaldson added there were only 10 employees to handle maintenance over the 185 neighborhood parks under the Minnesota Parks and Recreation