I just recently learned of the city’s proposed Pine Tree Park sale. I would like to play devil’s advocate for a brief moment if I may.
The photo of the sign is at the main entrance to the park and is on a dead end street with no public parking. The only other access point goes through the Pine Tree Elementary School which is not advertised per se until you come right up to the gate, which is locked during much of day during school season, and oddly sometimes even in the summer. There is also very little street parking on the school side, with the school parking lot completely closed off during the summer.
So the point to all of this is that unless you live within walking distance of the park, the odds of someone even knowing of the park, let alone being able to access the park, is nearly zero. As someone who has enjoyed the park myself nearly every day for a decade, I can attest first hand how little the park is used.
All of this by definition makes this more akin to a private park that is funded through public funds. They claim this is a city park, but in practice it is not. Has nobody ever questioned why we the people need to be funding what is essentially a private park? After all, the only persons that even knew or paid attention to the sale of the park are the ones living next to it. I find this problematic on the highest level and even questionable on a constitutional level. Would be great if we could hear exactly what others in the city think of this.
– Neil Dressler
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