From: Duane De Witt
To: Rogers, Natalie; Smith, Maraskeshia; _CityCouncilListPublic; City Clerk Subject: [EXTERNAL] South Davis Park comments for record.
Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2023 12:45:38 PM
South Davis Park comments for record.
Unable to attend in person these comments for the record are submitted. The project is NOT cost effective, or reflective of Roseland needs, with less than a third of the participants in the city process from Roseland. Even less were from the Davis St. neighborhood. One neighbor a block away has stated the outcome was a forgone conclusion of what the city wanted rather than what the neighborhood needed.
With this in mind the very expensive stipulations keep park development fees from use on building more Neighborhood Parks desperately needed elsewhere in Roseland.
Rather than pursue this very expensive full rebuild of the existing park, tearing out walls and trees filtering air pollution and noise, leave well enough alone. If it is not broke don’t fix it. Use the park development fees saved to purchase land for other parks on Barham Ave., Corby Ave., Rose Ave. and other streets in our under parked area. The dispersal of Neighborhood Parks throughout Roseland will help us.
Of particular note, veterans living in Roseland have asked for the park to be named in honor of George Maybee who lived nearby before being killed on the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor starting World War II over 80 years ago. Such a recognition of a Roseland resident who sacrificed his life for our country should not be too much to ask of our local government to perform honoring our Roseland Veterans.
Sincerely, Duane De Witt