Sunday, April 08, 2007
Planning and taking recreation space
From the RoundTable blog
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Valerie Garner
Garner, of Roanoke, is chairwoman of the Countryside Neighborhood Alliance.
The March 11 news story "Northwest Roanokers want more park areas" mentions nothing about the recreation space being destroyed in Northwest Roanoke.
Roanoke purchased the Countryside Golf Course to pass to developers for commercial and residential development so as to increase the tax base to fund pet projects like an amphitheater for South Roanoke. The city again gives lip service to Northwest's lack of parks and recreation.
"It is troubling," Councilman Alfred Dowe said in the article. Excuse me, but Dowe seems to have no trouble destroying the tranquil recreational space we now enjoy in Northwest. Dowe, along with the rest of city council and city administration, refuses even to give this Northwest recreational space a study on keeping and improving the golf course.
There is a competition-size pool here now in disrepair. There is an indoor tennis court here, and it will be torn down for development. I am stunned by the hypocrisy of our city government. Dowe says he wants the council to commit to building a multigenerational recreation center in Northwest "soon," yet has no trouble destroying this existing recreational space.
We don't need a multigenerational recreation center. We just want to keep what we have.
Martha Anderson pointed out in a March 10 news story, "Balancing act," that you don't build trust in your taxpaying citizens by ignoring them. How true rings this statement. She also wondered about neighborhoods that can't afford the money to fight city hall. Our community certainly does not have $200,000 to protect our home values and quality of life. On the proposed Wilton in South Roanoke project, I do wish the Peakwood Drive residents success in their battle against the city's blatant injustice.
The well-intentioned exercise by the dedicated, underfunded parks and recreation department to revamp its comprehensive plan will contain only council's pet projects, not those of the citizens. The citizens who attended these workshops expressed many ideas that would cost the parks and recreation department little. Most citizens just want a tranquil space in their own community to enjoy -- nothing fancy, just someplace to be on a beautiful day with their families.
At the end of parks and recreation workshops last year, citizens could vote on what was most important to them by placing colored dots on citizens' wish lists written on the flip charts. Keeping Countryside Golf Course was the top vote-getter every time.
On the one hand, the workshops emphasized the lack of available land for recreation, while on the other, the city is destroying valuable recreation space in Northwest. Not one person could understand this reasoning. A television camera zoomed in on the dots covering "keep Countryside," as it was barely visible under all the dots.
I say to city council and city administration, "Don't agitate our dots."
