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City council: hands off our green spaces
Letter to the Editor
On May 27, City of Cranbrook council endorsed a plan to build a daycare on Gyro Park, essentially slicing the park space in half; this park has been in existence since 1956 – almost 70 years.
Though we are aware of the importance, and need for daycare in our communities, and in Canadian society, we in Cranbrook, are also well aware that parks and green spaces are finite. And once they are gone they are never replaced.
In recent Cranbrook history, we have the examples of the Baker Park Ball Diamond and Terraces, (that gave way to affordable senior living in 2011), and the Balment Soccer and Ball Diamonds that became the Rec Plex and parking lot in 1997. Park and green space lost forever, and never replaced. We did receive, Moir Park in trade, but it is not in the City of Cranbrook proper and is not usable green space in our day-to-day lives.
Previous councils have spent countless hours planning and adopting bylaws to create parks and green spaces for the betterment of the citizens of Cranbrook for now and in the future. This council should take lessons from the past, both right and wrong. Do not act with a short-sighted, narrow -minded view, for our city!
Parks and green space are not free space! They are not barren lands that the city needs to develop. Hands off!
I believe for expediency, city council took direction from a consultant who provided them with six potential sites, five of which were on city parks and one that is a vacant piece of ground once designated for a park.
I suggest that the consultant get back to the work and provide council with other, more suitable sites, that do not negatively change the quality of life for the citizens of Cranbrook. Maybe the old Murial Baxter School ground, a piece of the Rec Plex parking lot, or one of the many other under-utilized city-owned parking lots in Cranbrook? Not our parks!
Council please, now and in the future, stay away from our parks and green spaces they are important, vital places of city life, that can never be replaced.
(Cranbrook Tourism file photo)
Charlie Wales,
Cranbrook
