Josh,
Your questions are all reasonable and well presented.
No website can give you the skinny on what the contractors will finally
do this fall, before they do it. It's an inherently fluid planning
process. We know generally what the design is, and we know the designer
is a neighbor who is good at talking with his neighbors. But when the
rubber hits the road, the contractor is given a grant for $X, which he
spends to cover as much ground as possible. After that's done, you know
how much you got for it!
Avoid, please, the delusion of total control! This is a City park and a
City job. It'll get done the way it gets done. Only local buffoons think
local masterminds are secretly controlling every twitch of a decision in
this process.
Your question about tree loss is sharp and pertinent. The ultimate
decision about preserving or removing City trees is, obviously, made by
the City after consultation with tree experts and park experts. FoCP
pushed back fiercely for years, and spent thousands of dollars, to
minimize tree loss. The current plan is in part the result of that
tree-preserving impetus we got from our community.
But "the community" can't say how many years a given tree will live. It
lacks the credentials. It needs to consult with real tree guys before it
issues Diktats on a $27 million public space that it doesn't really know
any of the relevant business facts about.
This has been going on for 9 years now. Which part have you missed out
on? If you can tell me that, I can fill you in and bring you up to speed.
-- Tony West
On 9/7/2010 11:43 PM, Josh Marcus wrote:
Hey Anthony,
I'm very grateful for the work of you and the other volunteers who do
the work of FoCP -- I know it's a labor of love. I don't mean to jump
on a critical band wagon here. But ... to be fair, I don't think
Friends of Clark Park have clearly and publically made clear what is
going on. I've been following the revitalization plan (from a
distance) for a lot of years off and on, and it's not at all clear
from the public website which of the smörgåsbord of documents and plan
online describes exactly what's going on. The website is *not* very
current and does *not* have a lot of information that seems up to date
and detailed. What is the specific URL that provides the detailed
action plan of the work being done? Where is the document that
describes the decision-making process? Stop and start dates, that are
current and up to date?
For example, the flyer that says that construction starts August 9th
is up there front and center, but obviously that didn't happen. Are
there documents about exactly what work is being done now? Where are
those documents? When is the work scheduled to be done? There are
blog posts on the front page that seem extremely outdated at this
point. The press release is scarce on details and describes the key
goals of the work as being water balance management, which is
important, but not what was discussed as the key goals in previous
public discussions.
For example, there was an initial plan regarding which trees were to
be cut down, and after a public outcry, there was a second plan
involving different experts. Who determined which trees are going to
be cut down? How does that relate to the previous plan that was
announced?
When I previously asked privately how the work planned to be done
related to previous public announcements, I was told -- very
reasonably -- that it was complicated and depended on what money came
through. But now those questions must have been resolved. Again,
where are those resolutions made public online: where is the clear
document that describes what work is being done, when it will start
and stop, how it relates to what was publically discussed, and what
the process was?
As someone who lives in the neighborhood, I think it's reasonable to
expect the information to be public and clearly shared -- I don't
think it's fair to just criticize other neighbors who very reasonably
have serious concerns because they don't have access to clear
information about what's going on, even if we're not members of FoCP.
Again, I've read the website, and I don't think it clearly or fully
describes the current plans.
Again: where are the current plans, in detail? (E.g. where are the
actual plans that are directing the work? Are they public? Why are
they not public, if not?) How do they differ from what was
previously discussed in public? What was the process?
--j
