Friday, August 10, 2007

Circling Wolves

The wolves are circling. So says the latest The City's Pulse opinion piece regarding Person Park. Considering it a "little sister" park compared to some of the larger, more elaborately appointed ones, the columnist writes "Citizens, beware: There are some wolves looking to take dubious advantage of this little sister."

Bear in mind I do not live within the Coeur d'Alene city limits nor do I know the columnist. A few questions, however, have come to mind and if any one from the city, the parks department or the school district can answer them it would be helpful.

Who are these wolves and what dubious advantage do they want to take of this park?

Okay, Person Field is on a neighborhood locked street corner half owned by the city and half owned by the school district. Who maintains it or is the maintenance split?

It is said the city gave half to the school district. Since the school district's plans for the use of it's half did not come to pass, could they not give it back?

"But now the wolves are circling again." Again, who are these wolves?

"The city has new federal money for low income housing and Person Field is being labeled as "underutilized,"...
Has it been suggested by the city this parcel of land be considered for low income housing or is this conjecture? How many units could be built on the city's acre and a half?

"The current city budget has no money allotted for the acquisition of the other half of Person Field or for any improvements to the park at all." If true, would they want to build low cost housing on just their half? Or is that conjecture?

Someone needs to wave a magic wand, get city ownership of the other half of Person Field and spruce her up a bit." Who would you suggest to wave the magic wand? Is this not an issue for the people of the neighborhood to take up with the city? And the school district?

"Where is the Fairy Godmother?" Fairy Godmother's don't make things happen. People do. If the people in the area care as much as is stated, should they not be the ones leading the movement?

These are but a few of the questions that came to mind as I read the column. It occurred to me that if anything is dubious it might be the presentation of the actual state of the park, neighborhood opinion and city intent. The insinuation about circling wolves seemed just that - insinuation.

We live in an area that is in some places remote and overflowing with wild life. Boy do we. We have the CAVE people. We have the Wild Goose Chase gang and now we have Circling Wolves.

I know who populates CAVE and Wild Goose, but I haven't a clue who the Wolves may be. C'mon now, fair's fair. Who are the Wolves? Or is that too just conjecture?

2 comments:

Word Tosser said...

Maybe the columnist should get up a group of people and clean up the mess. If indeed there is a mess.
After all if Bette Midler can do it for New York.. MS surely can do it for good old CDA.

Anonymous said...

Wordtosser...I love you darlin', but you are way off the mark here. Yes, there is indeed a mess in CDA. Many in fact. And people are working to "clean things up" and make much needed changes. I believe the "fairy godmother" comment was a description of those who step forward and volunteer to work for change...in many areas.