This was taken from the UCD enews. One million dollars was the estimate for minimum maintanence needs for the 75 Rec centers found to have serious basic problems. Note the city contribution in the last line below.
"On June 14, Mayor Michael Nutter, Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, Mike DeBernardinis, Secretary of the Department of Community and Economic Development, Commissioner of Recreation Susan Slawson, State Senator Anthony Williams, and Representative Jim Roebuck joined Frank Chance, President of Friends of Clark Park, Lewis Wendell, Executive Director of UCD, Joan Reilly, Philadelphia Horticultural Society, and other community notables, at Clark Park for a very important occasion. In addition to cutting the ribbon at the new basketball court, there was a presentation of $1,000,000 for projects at four West Philadelphia parks, $225,000 of which is earmarked for Clark Park. The City will match the funds, for a total investment of $2,000,000 in area parks and $450,000 in Clark Park! " This is just like the school district issue. The "winners" are to have everything and the rest nothing. In 2001-2002 when Clark Park was informally secretly placed under the control of Penn, the Dept of Rec funds were cut by 20%. (Rec was a good department some years ago and it has become complete garbage now) I've already heard misinformation about this Clark park money. It's like the myth of the microsoft school. (Remember, the FOCP leader tried to claim on the list that the taxpayers subsidy of microsoft, paying for an international sales model, was really a gift to Phila children by Bill Gates. This was a common myth around the city.) The anointed try to pretend that UCD is just bringing in "outside money" What they are usually doing is demanding an unfair share from the city taxpayers. If the city doesn't reallocate resources for the corporate agenda, there will be hell to pay as they take their bat and ball and go back to campus. Penn wants Clark Park completely stripped and redesigned to support real estate marketing. The community and real park leaders told them loudly in 2001-2002 that Clark Park was a great place with mostly a need for dedicated maintenance. That it should not be destroyed and redesigned, that it was a jewel in the community. But as you may have already heard, the Clark Park "UCD master plan" was moth-balled for several years because of the intense opposition. As honest park users are banned from participating with any planning, as they were in '01-02, we have no idea what designs will be imposed to replace our culture with the desired, homogenized, upscale, suburban culture which is coming. Six years ago, Penn wanted all sidewalks dug up, volleyball and chess areas destroyed, a plaza around the war monument, a dog park, and to move the Dickens Statue. Today, we only have the FOCP leaders as a source of misinformation!!!! Are we that selfish that we demand this secretive destruction of our park while the rest of the cities children go without basic safety? Please think about this, Glenn
