Lakes & Parks
Every Lowry Hill News story tagged Lakes & Parks.
Events
Free Lake Harriet Orchestra Concerts Set to Return Later in June
The Minneapolis Pops Orchestra's free summer run at the Lake Harriet Bandshell is scheduled to begin late in June and continue into July.
Events
Music in the Parks Returns, With 95 Nights Booked at Lake Harriet
The Park Board's free summer concert season opened May 25, and the Lake Harriet Bandshell is scheduled to host 95 performances before fall.
Neighborhood
Crews Replace an Aging Sewer Line Along Lake of the Isles
The Metropolitan Council is replacing an aging stretch of sanitary sewer along The Mall in East Isles this season, swapping the existing pipe for new, larger pipe to add capacity.
Neighborhood
East Isles Settles Into Its Season of Porch Visits and Park Picnics
The East Isles Neighborhood Association holds its free Summer Social on Wednesday, June 24, anchoring a season of neighborhood gatherings near Lake of the Isles.
Neighborhood
Paddling Season Opens on Lake of the Isles and the Chain of Lakes
Paddling season is underway on Lake of the Isles, the sheltered lake that links by channel to Bde Maka Ska and Cedar Lake to form the heart of the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes.
Events
Neighborhood Groups Team With the DNR for Free Park Fishing
Lowry Hill, Kenwood and Cedar-Isles-Dean associations are partnering with the Minnesota DNR on a free Fishing in the Parks event.
Neighborhood
Monthly Shoreline Cleanups Return to Lake of the Isles
The East Isles Neighborhood Association resumes its monthly Lake of the Isles shoreline cleanups this summer, with the first set for Saturday, June 13.
City
Along the Isles, the Planted Shoreline Does Its Summer Work
The native plants lining much of Lake of the Isles are at full height this month, the result of a Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board approach that treats native vegetation, rather than mown lawn, as the default along the Chain of Lakes shoreline.
Neighborhood
A Tale of Two Neighborhoods, One Hill
Lowry Hill and Lowry Hill East share a name and a founder but sit on opposite sides of Hennepin Avenue as a mansion district and one of the densest neighborhoods in Minneapolis.
Neighborhood
Biking the Lakes: A Loop Worth Building a Day Around
The Kenilworth and North Cedar Lake trails reopened in March 2026 after nearly seven years of closure for light-rail construction, restoring the bike link between the Chain of Lakes, downtown Minneapolis and the western suburbs.
Opinion
Letter: Keep the Lakes in the Conversation
A resident urges that the health of the lakes stay a standing item on neighborhood agendas, not an afterthought once school budgets and development are settled.
Neighborhood
The Wedge Within the Bde Maka Ska-Isles Community
Lowry Hill East, the Minneapolis neighborhood known as the Wedge, is home to more than 9,000 residents packed into a triangle of dense blocks between three of the city's busiest commercial streets.
Neighborhood
The Cedar Lake Regional Trail, From the Suburbs to Downtown
The Cedar Lake Regional Trail is whole again after nearly seven years, with the last closed stretches of the Cedar Lake and Kenilworth trails reopening over the winter of 2026 once Southwest Light Rail construction cleared the corridor.
Neighborhood
Birdsong Returns as the Banks Go Native
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board's plan for Lake of the Isles calls for replacing eroding turf banks with native sedges and grasses, work meant to hold soil, filter runoff and return wildlife to the shoreline.
Neighborhood
The Walking Loop as the Neighborhood's Living Room
The loop around Lake of the Isles is where many Lowry Hill residents actually run into their neighbors, which makes the Park Board's upkeep of it as much social maintenance as environmental.
Events
Uptown Art Fair returns in 2026 as 'Art on the Isles'
The long-running fair is reimagined along Lake of the Isles Parkway, a scenic new setting on the East Isles edge.
Neighborhood
Sailing Out of Bde Maka Ska, the Chain's Wind-Catching Heart
A study has steered the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board away from moving the Bde Maka Ska boat launch and sailing center across the lake, and the board is now studying a renovation of the existing northeast-shore facility instead.
Events
The Uptown Art Fair Plans Its Return After a Reinvention
One of the nation's most celebrated art festivals comes back to its Uptown home in 2026.
City
Reduce the Chloride: The Winter Salt Problem Nobody Talks About
Road salt spread on streets and sidewalks in winter washes into the Chain of Lakes and stays there, because chloride does not break down once it dissolves.
Neighborhood
Fishing the Isles Without Leaving the Neighborhood
Lake of the Isles holds bluegill, crappie, largemouth bass and northern pike, and decades of restoration that cleared the Chain of Lakes have made the urban fishing better.
Neighborhood
Why Lowry Hill Tops the City's Most-Upscale Lists
Lowry Hill's standing as one of Minneapolis's costliest neighborhoods traces to a streetcar-era boom that filled the ridge with mansions, most of which still stand.
Neighborhood
Canoeing the Chain, From Isles to Cedar and Beyond
A paddler can launch on Lake of the Isles and reach Cedar Lake and Bde Maka Ska through connecting channels without ever loading the boat back onto a car.
Neighborhood
Lowry Hill's Boundaries, Drawn by Freeways and a Lake
Lowry Hill is bounded by Interstate 394 on the north, Interstate 94 and Hennepin Avenue on the east, 22nd Street on the south, and Lake of the Isles Parkway with Logan and Morgan avenues on the west.
Neighborhood
Winter on the Isles: When the Loop Belongs to the Walkers
A grassroots petition with nearly 3,000 signatures saved the Lake of the Isles skating rink from closure in late 2025, and the fight showed how much the neighborhood prizes its winter season.
Events
Winter Party Doubles as a Food-Shelf Drive in a Hard Season
Neighbors brought donations along with their skates.
Events
Lake of the Isles Winter Party Draws Neighbors Out Into the Cold
Pit fires, hot cocoa and skating brought six neighborhoods together on the ice.
Events
This Weekend in the Neighborhood: Winter Fires and a Frozen-Lake Skate
A lakeside winter party and a coordinated food drive headline a cold weekend.
Events
Winter Markets Move Indoors at the Mill City Museum
The farmers market keeps going through the cold on select Saturdays.
Neighborhood
The Canoe Rack Lottery: Storing a Boat on the Isles
A seasonal canoe or kayak rack on Lake of the Isles costs Minneapolis residents $325, and demand routinely outruns the roughly 600 spots the Park Board awards each year by lottery.
City
Elizabeth Shaffer Takes Ward 7 Seat, Bringing Lowry Hill a New Voice at City Hall
Elizabeth Shaffer, a former Park Board commissioner, was sworn in as Ward 7 council member on Jan. 5 after unseating one-term incumbent Katie Cashman in the city's most expensive council race.
Neighborhood
A Walk Through the History Written on the Shoreline
The shoreline of Lake of the Isles records more than a century of decisions, from the late-1800s dredging that turned a marsh into open water to recent shoreline restoration.
Events
New Year's Eve Skate Planned for Lake of the Isles
Three neighborhood associations team up for a free evening on the ice.
City
Inside CIDNA, the neighborhood group for 3,000 lakeside residents
Cedar-Isles-Dean, a neighborhood of about 3,000 residents ringed by three lakes, is represented by the volunteer-led CIDNA, which has focused heavily on the Southwest Light Rail project.
Events
Kenwood Pitches In on the Winter Party and the NYE Skate
The neighborhood north of the lake co-hosts two cold-weather staples.
City
Address the Runoff From All Hard Surfaces
The Park Board treats stormwater running off streets and rooftops as the main threat to Lake of the Isles and the Chain of Lakes.
City
Park Board Adopts 2026 Budget Focused on Caring for Aging Park Assets
The Park Board adopted its 2026 budget in December, built on a property-tax levy of $95,524,537 and focused on caring for aging park assets.
Neighborhood
Stabilizing the Bank With Native Vegetation, Almost Everywhere
The Cedar-Isles plan adopted in 2023 makes native shoreline vegetation the default along Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles, except at formal access points.
Events
Joyce Uptown Food Shelf Becomes a Focus of Neighborhood Events
Donation drives are folding into the area's gatherings.
City
Grit Chambers and Constructed Wetlands: The Lake's Hidden Plumbing
Grit chambers and treatment wetlands strip sediment and pollutants from stormwater before it reaches Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles.
Neighborhood
A century of shoreline: how Lake of the Isles got its shape
Lake of the Isles owes its shape to decades of Park Board dredging, a 1919 ban on landing canoes on its islands and Depression-era stonework still visible from the parkway.
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