The Minneapolis Park and Rec Board is pushing to secure more funding to make improvements to the 55 miles of parkways.

The Park and Rec Board believes that if nothing is done, the parkways will become largely unusable in the next 15 years.

“They’re part of what makes our city beautiful,” said Ann Thureen, who lives along a parkway.

Navigating many of the parkways has been a struggle for many because of all the potholes.

“The potholes have been so bad that a lot of the traffic has gone down the middle of the road,” said Jim Dew, who lives along a parkway.

“They are deplorable right now,” said Meg Forney, President of the Minneapolis Park and Rec Board.

Forney and the rest of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board are asking for more funding from the city, $6 Million annually, to be exact.

Current funding for paving and maintenance work sits at about $750,000 a year, and Forney says it’s been like that since 1999 and only allows them to make upgrades to one-third or half a mile of the system every year.

“It’s a tranquil space when you go through our parks, and to be hitting potholes nonstop is jarring,” Forney said.

The Park Board believes if nothing is done, these parkways will fail and become unsafe and undrivable in 15 years.

“There’s no doubt about it, and it needs to be attended to,” Forney said. “We want the mayor to belly up and say, yes, I am supportive of this.”

Thureen and Dew, who live along a parkway, hope getting around these areas becomes a whole lot easier soon.

“It’s something we should be proud of, and you can’t be proud of it when you can’t drive on it,” Thureen said.

The Office of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey responded in a statement saying, “We love our parks and want to make sure they continue to be world-class. The mayor is open to exploring additional funding options for the Park Board. Before we make any budget commitments for next year, we need to know the full picture of what all priorities and needs are for the city. We are currently at the start of the budget process, and the mayor looks forward to working with the Park Board over the next few months to hone in on their requests.”