THE TIME TO ACT TO SAVE WILLIAM LAND PARK IS RIGHT NOW!
Last week, the City proposed a budget that calls for the firing of 43% of all full-time park workers, as well as hundreds of part-time and seasonal park workers. If these cuts are approved by the City Council, Land Park will face: (1) a reduction in mowing from once a week to once every 3 weeks; (2) park trash cans, which are now emptied daily, will be emptied just once each week; and (3) all 7 park restrooms will be closed.
The direct impact of these cuts on the park will be devastating. With heavy summer use, garbage cans will quickly overflow, spewing garbage everywhere. Overgrown grass will make the park unsafe and unusable for children to play soccer and baseball. The closing of park restrooms will make the park a health hazard, as park goers will be “going” in nearby bushes and neighbors’ yards. With the volume of visitors our park receives, Land Park will smell like a sewer on hot summer days.
This does not have to happen!
The Land Park Community Association has been energetically organizing to fight these cuts. On Thursday night, we convened a "Community Summit" and launched a new coalition of neighborhood groups called "Rescue Sacramento Parks" which is mobilizing support for our parks and will be advocating against these irresponsible cuts before the City Council.
But it is we, as Land Park residents, who really have the most to lose if these draconian cuts are approved. Our park is currently the jeweled centerpiece of our community. If the proposed cuts are made, our greatest community asset will become our greatest community eyesore.
Several years ago, we stayed with a friend who lived in Brooklyn, in a large home located directly across the street from a major park. Most of the homes in the area were large and very stately. I took my then 3-year old son David across the street for a walk in the park. First I noticed that the grass was overgrown and neglected, with grass rising above my ankles. Within the first 3 minutes, we had come across used syringes, used condoms, countless empty beer and booze bottles, overflowing garbage cans and the unmistakable and inescapable stench of urine.
The borough of Brooklyn just didn't have the money to maintain the park regularly, my friend told me while we were sitting on his back patio. As I pondered what he had said, I gazed at his high backyard fence topped with long rolls of razor wire. We cut our visit short and left the next day, saying to each other: “How could they live like that? How could their community have allowed conditions to deteriorate so much?”
Do not think for a moment that it could not happen here. That neighborhood in Brooklyn was once just as lovely and its park was just as beautiful as Land Park is today. It CAN happen here. And if we do nothing, it WILL happen here. As any law enforcement expert or urban planner will tell you, it is a lot easier to take early steps to arrest blight before it sets in than it is to reverse blight once it takes hold.
We have spoken to local police, realtors and other experts and asked them what impact a deteriorated park would have on our community? Their answers were blunt and stark.
The police tell us that the park will quickly become further trashed as responsible families stop using it and undesirable elements move in. As Mayor Giuliani demonstrated in New York, a broken window begets more broken windows. Similarly, a trashed park will beget more trash, more vandalism, more gang members and more crime, making the park even more unattractive and unsafe for responsible families and local residents. Blight is not a static condition. It is a cycle that begins when people stop caring and stop looking after its public places.
Our local realtors tell us that the beauty of William Land Park is one of the chief draws of prospective home buyers, and a key factor in our neighborhood's relatively stable property values while prices in surrounding areas are crashing. But our realtor friends also tell us that if the park deteriorates and becomes blighted, we will all pay the price in lower property values. What is now our greatest asset will become perhaps our community's heaviest liability.
It is now time for each of us to take the easy, early steps to keep blight at bay in Land Park. Do not put it off. Do it now. Turn on the computer and send e-mails to the mayor and each member of the City Council:
Mayor Johnson 808-5300 mayor@cityofsacramento.org
Ray Tretheway 808-7001 rtretheway@cityofsacramento.org
Sandy Sheedy 808-7002 ssheedy@cityofsacramento.org
Steve Cohn 808-7003 scohn@cityofsacramento.org
Robert Fong 808-7004 RKFong@cityofsacramento.org
Lauren Hammond 808-7005 lhammond@cityofsacramento.org
Kevin McCarty 808-7006 KMcCarty@cityofsacramento.org
Robbie Waters 808-7007 rwaters@cityofsacramento.org
Bonnie Pannell 808-7008 bpannell@cityofsacramento.org
And on Tuesday night, grab a neighbor or two and come down to City Hall at 6:00 p.m., put on a badge identifying you as a proud resident of Land Park and show the City Council that Land Park says NO to blight, NO to the trashing of Land Park, NO to more crime, NO, NO, NO!
The LPCA’s "Park Budget Study Group" has offered the City Council not one, not two, but seven very well-considered budget reform proposals that will produce major savings from within the proposed budget for the Department of Parks and Recreation. These savings amount to several times the $2 million it will take to restore the cuts in park maintenance. (Review them at our web site: rescuesacramentoparks.blogspot.com/) The Council has no excuse for not fully restoring the park cuts.
Turn up the heat on our City Council members, including our own Council member Rob Fong. Let them know that this is a deal-breaker issue for you and your neighbors. Insist that they do the jobs that we elected them to do: deliver the basic services that we expect from government, while wisely cutting lower priority spending.
If you act today, right now, we will win this fight for our neighborhood. Turn on the computer ... and we will see you on Tuesday night!
Craig Powell, Chair
Parks Committee
Land Park Community Association
(916) 456-9839
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