http://cityparksblog.org/2009/11/21/detroits-parks-struggle-in-an-increasingly-spread-out-metro/ A Chronicle of the Urban Parks Movement Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:31:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://cityparksblog.org/2009/11/21/detroits-parks-struggle-in-an-increasingly-spread-out-metro/#comment-833 Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:09:22 +0000 http://cityparksblog.org/?p=1296#comment-833 I disagree. The issue is not about Detroit or its development. And Detroit is not turning into a suburb. This article is about the predatory behavior and arrogance of a developer trying to illegally grab public parkland for his own private purposes and profit. If every park were declared “not a park” due to maintenance issues, or crime for that matter, we would no longer have any public parks. Human activities like picnicking, sports, protests and marches, concerts, and crimes of all sorts are going to happen in parks and do all the time. All of which is totally irrelevant to its definition as a park. The level of maintenance or lack of maintenance also does not define a park as a park. Now when it comes to things like putting cell phone towers, nuclear power plants, water treatment plants, oil rigs, Salvation Army Kroc (worship) centers, and big box stores inside parks, those are not park purposes and are in fact, conversion or loss, of parkland. Eliza Howell Park is on the Rouge River and is definitely used as a park by sports teams, dog walkers, church groups, and many others in the community. The “heir” is looking for a way to take from the public what is rightfully theirs. And how is his company, “Howell Park Properties LLC” an “heir” anyway?

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