An Open House

Last night Iain and I went to the final public meeting of Park Pride's South Fork Visioning process.  I didn't really know that Park Pride did this until I got an email from one of the neighborhood email lists about the May meeting which I ended up attending.  I had arrived a few minutes late at the May meeting, and felt like I never quite got caught up with the discussion, so I made sure to arrive on time for this one.  But this was more like an open house, with maps up on the wall, paper and markers for comments, and two fluorescent green dots that we could place on maps to identify the sections of trail or other areas that we thought were highest priority.

Without a speaker to react to, there wasn't as much drama this time, but the woman who was at my table at the May meeting who wanted the bridge in Herbert Taylor Park blown up to keep people out was there, and there were comments on the paper on the wall, that the whole process was biased because there weren't red dots to place on the maps for the sections we didn't want built, that the so-called "pond" was only a mosquito-breeding facility.  Absent group discussion, we had to eavesdrop, and someone said -- correctly, I think -- that everyone attending the meeting was probably really for or really against the proposal, that everyone else was home eating dinner.  There was the statement that the entire South Fork project had been dreamed up by a small group of people, who were trying to force it on everyone else.  An the maps from the June meeting were posted on another wall, with "subject to approval by the neighborhood" and "no connectivity" written on them in colored marker.

According to the information sheet we got when we signed in, "Park Pride will publish a project book which will include a conceptual master plan," but "the community and community groups are responsible for moving projects forward or preventing trails where not desirable."  Certainly Park Pride was trying hard to get comments in writing, either on the paper posted on the wall or by a more private written message, and it will be possible to summarize them, as has been done for the previous meetings.  As we were leaving, the young women at the registration table asked if we had written any comments.  I said I hadn't yet, but I would -- and here they are.

A linear park through intown Atlanta, along the South Fork of Peachtree Creek, would be a wonderful gift for future generations.  And I have no doubt that increasing access to the area would drive advocacy to clean up the water, which would also be good.  There may be very good reasons why some sections should not be built.  But property values?  What makes this neighborhood so desirable -- and so expensive -- is walkability and diversity.  It's not our houses that are so valuable, for the most part, it's our proximity to interesting places to go and things to do.

So I wish Park Pride good luck in imposing order on a very disorderly collection of bimodally distributed opinions.  It's true, the people who came to the meeting are the people who care, one way or another; the others stayed home.  But there will be a project book; I can't wait to see it.