Protests over Park closures Mon June 28...

[urbanoutdoors]

So far 3 protest are scheduled throughout the city for Monday June 28th from 5 to 6PM.

Rouge Park at the Brennan pools

Riverside Park @ the extension with the softball Diamonds

Palmer Park @ the Tennis Courts on Woodward...

For more event details contact me @ Josephrashid@gmail.com or go to the Facebook event http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=104934546225879
additional info @ http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-D...03347906382838

Below is a message to the Palmer Park group that explains things more in depth...







As you may know by now the City of Detroit is planning on closing 77 parks including Palmer Park, a vital piece to one of our core projects, “The Park District”. This is NOT a closed issue for the city and your voice can be apart of the movement to keep the park open. Below is a call to action emailed to us by the Palmer Park Conservancy. To make your voice heard the group is asking that you do the following:
1. Know the facts:
- city council cut an extra 31 million in appropriations which means that specific line items must be reduced including 4.5M from facility and ground maintenance and 3M from vehicle maintenance
- in response to cuts general services department [[GSD) must cancel 1.5M in vacant lot cutting contracts.
- cut security contracts and layoff 40 grass cutters leaving 45 for the 200+ open parks to be cut on a 2-3 week schedule
- 99 parks will be closed meaning no grass cutting and barricades to all roads . For Palmer Park, that will include no access to the pool, walking paths, tennis courts
- large acreage parks must be closed since they are so labor intensive. These include Henderson, Farwell, Patton, O'Hare, Rouge, Palmer and Fort Wayne
- parks with surrounding homes and youth programming will not be closed

2. Budget cuts and layoffs will begin on July 1st when the new fiscal year begins - contact city council and urge them to create an amendment to the budget. Council must reverse their own decision - it cannot be overridden by mayor's office or the departments. Those who voted for additional cuts were Pugh, Brown, Tate, Spivey, Cockrel. Contacts follow:

Pugh
313.224.4510 [[office)
313.224.0230 [[fax)
CouncilPresidentPugh@detroitmi.gov

Brown
[[313) 224-2450
CouncilMemberBrown@detroitmi.gov

Tate
[[313) 224-1027 [[office)
[[313) 224-0372 [[fax)
councilmembertate@detroitmi.gov

Spivey
[[313) 224-1027 [[office)
[[313) 224-0372 [[fax)
councilmanspivey@detroitmi.gov

Cockrel
313) 224-4505 [[office)
[[313) 224-0367 [[fax)
CockrelK@detroitmi.gov

3. Spread the word about the situation. .

4. Join the tennis players at Palmer Park who are planning to meet this upcoming Monday, June 28 and have reached out to local press. Here is a message from Leonora King:
"Hello, my name is Leonora [[Lee) King. The tennis players of Palmer Park are organizing a rally at the tennis courts which are located on Woodward between 6 and 7 Mile on Monday, June 28, 2010 beginning about 5-6pm along with Kim Fracassa of the Green Acres Community organization as well as other community organizations to show our opposition to the proposed fencing in of Palmer Park, as well as other parks in the City, including Farwell, River Rouge, etc., due to budget cuts.

[Fnemecek]

I got the same note from the Palmer Park people. I should point out the one factual error in it.

Their note said that "parks w/ surrounding homes will not be closed." That's not true since Rouge Park is scheduled to close and there are 427 homes that surround it.

Oh, and since I love throwing out numbers, those 427 families whose homes look out onto Rouge Park collectively pay $1.1 million in property taxes. As for the homes that will be immediately impacted by its closure [[i.e., within 500 ft. of Rouge Park) the total climbs to a little more than 3,000 homes and $7.8 million in property tax revenue.

http://warrendale.blogspot.com/2010/...ark-again.html

[Retroit]

Bring your lawnmower.