Capital city turns to St. Paul guy to lead Parks and Rec

It's not an exaggeration to say that Andy Rodriguez grew up in the St. Paul Parks and Recreation system that he now leads. His dad was a longtime park security officer. As a child, Rodriguez played at city recreation centers. In 2000, at age 15, he was hired as a rec aide to hand out T-ball bats and set up equipment.

Now leading a system considered one of the nation's best, Rodriguez sat down with Eye On St. Paul to talk about how someone who's "St. Paul through and through" keeps the city's 182 parks and open spaces and 26 recreation centers moving into the future.

This interview was edited for length.

Q: You're a St. Paul lifer. Where did you grow up?

A: You know where Buffalo Wild Wings is now? [on Snelling Avenue near Macalester College] I went to Central High School and Horace Mann in Highland Park. My kids go there now. I've always just kind of been around.

Q: Why is it that you've stuck with Parks and Rec for your career?

A: The work is so dynamic, it's not the same every day. There's always a fresh set of things to do and a new problem every day, which I like. I'm a problem-solving person. How do we figure it out? How do we get to a solution?

Q: Tell me a little about your priorities as director.

A: For me, it's taking the time to learn the job. Even though I've been in the department a long time, this chair is very different. I'm taking some time to establish what our priorities are going to be, but I can say that making sure we make the investment and that we have the resources to maintain our infrastructure. We have to find a way to keep up with our investment in our park spaces, with deferred maintenance. If we are going to continue to grow, that will require some creative solutions.

Q: St. Paul has ranked highly in annual park system rankings — most recently, second in the nation. How are you able to keep doing that, despite the fact that resources can be tight?

A: I would 100% give it to the frontline staff. They just constantly keep up with what they can — through the current labor shortage and limited resources. I think that is a huge credit to them, especially with the last couple of years of challenges, coming out of COVID and everything else.

Q: The city keeps adding new parks, including four that are being added at the new Highland Bridge development. But that also means there is more park space to maintain. How do you handle that?

A: It really starts with the creation of those spaces and the design/budget process for them. Forecasting what those sources are going to be. As we open Gateway Park [at Highland Bridge], what are the funding needs? What are the maintenance needs going to be? We need to budget that into the future, so we aren't just adding things without adding resources too.

We have 26 rec centers that we are operating, but we have several that are operated by nonprofits, like the Sanneh Foundation. There are partnerships that work very well, like JK Movement. They've been great. To reinvigorate that space and get it back to a high level of programming has been very cool to see.

Q: So that's a way to keep up with operations, to partner with other organizations?

A: Yeah. There was a time we were really strapped financially, and we started closing rec centers — in 2008 — or repurposing them. So, there's so much value in partnership.

Q: It seems the challenge for rec centers is how do you keep those hours going after school and on weekends, so they're a place that's available when young people need it?

A: The doors need to be open. And we need to build programs that are of interest to our teens and adults, too. Mayor [Melvin] Carter and his administration and the City Council have all been super supportive with funding to expand those hours.

Q: In 2030, looking into your crystal ball, what does the Parks and Rec system look like?

A: I would say we look a lot like we do now. In 2030, I think we're still trying out new things that other park systems are not. I just had a conversation this morning about adding a dirt bike course. We just opened in Gateway Park a skateboard park there. There's no space like that in the metro area. It's about responding to the community. I get calls weekly about pickleball courts.

It's measuring what's a flash in the pan trend versus what's here to stay.

Q: Are you going to keep doing the Movies in the Parks this fall? I thought showing "The Blair Witch Project" at Hidden Falls last Halloween was brilliant.

A: That was a little bit of a test run. But we'll do that [free film program] again in the fall. It'll be cool.