If we build it, please don’t come
I had never attended a community forum until last week. It likely stems from the fact that I’m Canadian and nobody really cares what a foreigner has to say.
Unless we end our sentences with a cute little “Eh.”
But this time I was invested: It was the third and final meeting about a neighborhood park near my house. My city has a glorious thing called a land development code that requires developers to donate to a fund. Our neighborhood’s nest egg has $1.7 million and they plan to build a park on 15 acres of undeveloped land.
The city planners had carefully implemented suggestions from the previous two meetings and overall, people seemed pleased. The park will consist of tennis courts, basketball, horseshoe, an inline skate park, a custom rock feature for climbing, playground equipment, small picnic shelters and a pot at the end of the rainbow.
Sorry, no leprechauns. That would be too good to be true.
Construction will likely begin in the fall and the park will not be completed until summer of 2010.
Watching the city’s PowerPoint Presentation was fascinating but the Q&A that followed was a lot like NBC’s Parks and Recreation.
Except a lot less funny.
Q: What do we do about the den of coyotes that live above the park?
A: Don’t feed them. They are not your pet. Look menacing and they will leave you alone.
Q: Have you considered putting in a Fitness Course? (This question was posed by my beloved fitness-queen neighbor.)
A: This is a neighborhood park, not a large community one. We will have lots of benches and shade. Just sit down and chill out.
Now, let me be clear: this is our park and not yours. I made the mistake of mentioning the possibility of writing about it and I was burned at the stake. “If you write about it, people will come” my neighbors seethed.
Evidently, they did not see Field of Dreams. All that is required is for us to “build it.” There is no writing clause whatsoever.
But consider yourselves warned.
Have you been involve in your community’s public forums?
More from Mile High Mamas
- There is no vaccine for fear, and it’s contagious
- It Takes a Village
- Battling it Out at Denver’s Marriage Ref Auditions
Mile High Mamas Recommends
- Don’t mandate nutrition (eLetters)
- No, we don't need more people on food stamps (eLetters)
- Where’s the humor in “Fiddler on the Roof”? (eLetters)
Mile High Mamas Marketplace
- The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick – And What We Can Do About It (Amazon | Books)
- Walk It Out (Amazon | Toys, Kids & Baby)
I know of several small neighborhood parks that have solved the “too many people” problem by not providing any parking. That way, the part is truly only for those within walking or biking distance. (How many parking spaces are they building, I wonder?)
There will actually be great access from the neighborhoods but parking will be far enough away that it will dissuade the lazier folks!
Our neighborhood park features a swimming pool. There are always a ton of people at the pool, but nobody at the playground. There were days this past summer when our family was the only one playing on the rather nice playground. Weird. I don’t think your neighborhood has anything to worry about.
Nobody goes outside if chlorine isn’t involved.
I’m amazed at how many great parks we have in the area! Now that I think about it, very few have easy parking, and that must be why. It’s never stopped us from visiting, though.
If we visit your neck of the woods, we’ll be sure to try to blend in with the locals.
Believe me, I would have loved a pool. In fact, we had a pool committee going but didn’t work out.
And JoAnn–I’ll totally bust you if you encroach upon us.
Ummm, we are suppose to go to that stuff but I know every time my husband went, he came back annoyed saying all he heard was arguing and no one got anywhere.
There is a sign in our elevator to the people who are re-doing Writers Square at 16th St. Someone here is PISSED they didn’t ask US what WE wanted in our neighborhood. It just made me laugh!
I wouldn’t mind if they got rid of the whole thing and just put a park in though… That might keep the hooligans away!
It’s okay, Amber. If I’m approached by the Park Wardens, I’ll just tell them that I read about it on some crazy Canadian lady’s blog. LOL!
What has been nice about this park project is they allegedly listened and implemented feedback from the residents. I say allegedly because I missed the first two meetings when everyone battled it out. Those meetings scare me.
Wow… No.. I have not been to a neighborhood meeting. Heck.. I don’t know if they have one.
But now.. .if they do… I’m going!
Who knew suburbia could be so contentious?
I am going to invade “your” park and tell everyone you sent me.
You are too funny. People will come to an awesome new park even if you hadn’t written about it.
No one goes to our HOA meetings and they can’t even get enough people to mail in ballots to vote for new members! Apathy abounds here, until they don’t like the results. Then they have PLENTY to say!
I think you should post a map to where the new park will be located! LOL!
Ahhh yes, the beloved HOA. How could I forget that delightful neighborhood forum? I wanted to run for the board.
Until I attended the first painful meeting.
That shut me up forever.
We purposely looked for a house that WASN’T in an HOA. Thankfully we found one. Yes, the odds of us living next to a purple or orange house someday are slightly greater, but we don’t have to deal with the HOA. Ha!
It sounds great. My sister lives in NOLA and she often feels unappreciated politically as well.
The park sounds fabulous. My town has a similar policy. We have great parks, bike paths, fitness trails. I love it.
Uh, I am on our HOA board. It is pretty much a thankless job. Other than a few diehards who are actually nice, sane people, the folks who show up are the angry ones. Every time someone starts to yell, I want a big neon sign that flashes “I am a volunteer, why don’t you try this job” or “I’m about to quit!”
That, and I wish more people knew what parliamentary procedure is. Yes, I will address your issue. See the agenda? See that line about your issue? It’s about 10 minutes away. Hold your horses.
Ah, now I can breathe. It’s so nice to have somewhere to vent…
The whole community forum thing. . . Suburbia is a whole different world. Let’s just say I’ve been burned at the stake before and it didn’t feel too good. Hope it works out better for you!
I once did the whole community meeting thing for my HOA, as the board tried to decide what to do with a falling-apart tennis court that no one used. Since there were about 50 kids in the very small neighborhood (about 35 houses) I thought, hey, let’s put in a playground and some actual grass! The thing is, the HOA board was all the child-less people, including the couple whose property backed the tennis court. “We do NOT want to have to LISTEN to SCREAMING CHILDREN! And the LIABILITY issues!” You’d have thought I’d suggested using the space to grow a large marijuana crop from the look I got. We moved about 15 months later, and when I drove by a year ago, the tennis court is still there, mostly weeds.
So much for community input.