Letters From Our Readers

Restore City Park, Don’t Develop It

February 20, 2005

I attended the February 22nd public hearing about City Park’s proposed new master plan, and I left concerned about the park’s future.

This is a development plan, not a restoration plan. It includes adding a miniature golf course, a skate park, an RV park, a dog adoption center, a rock climbing course, two new museums and streetcar tracks.

The revitalization of New York’s Central Park was mentioned by several speakers as a model to follow. In the 25 years that the Central Park Conservancy has worked to revitalize Central Park, no new buildings have been added. Rather there has been an extensive effort to restore the landscaping and the existing buildings and infrastructure. This has received great support from the public.

City Park should follow this model.

And as was brought out at the hearing, the City Park board must become more accountable to the public, instead of being the mostly self-appointing board that it is today. Then with a master plan that restores the park, it could go to the public in the entire metro area and seek a tax increase to fund park improvements. I think the voters would support this.

There’s a saying, “The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost”. If the City Park board goes ahead with this proposed development plan, I predict strong opposition will develop. There was loud applause at the hearing whenever a speaker supported preserving the park’s green space. We want the park restored, not developed.

There are many good facilities that could be located in the park, but to add them all would destroy it. It has been reported that if every project proposed for Central Park had been built, there would be no green space left today.

Let’s restore City Park before we even consider adding any new developments.

—Leo Watermeier