At the halfway point of the planning stage for the Bushnell Park Restoration Plan and GreenWalk, the iQuilters held another public forum on Tuesday evening; the skepticism that had subsided during the last session has reemerged.
In March, there was a lengthy public discussion about ways to improve Bushnell Park. (You can read all about that here, here, and here. ) A few participants wondered if those steering this plan were perhaps steering a bit too hard. Upon the release of the Programming and Pre-Design Report and the recent so-called public forum, this question might be asked even louder. One might also ask whose interests are being served by this plan.
For the time being, let’s set aside the factual inaccuracies that can be found in the report– we will get to some of that later. First, let’s do a compare/contrast between what people (the public, of that public forum) thought were great ideas and what the iQuilters have decided to run with, even if these concepts were not popular during the meeting.
On page 13 of the plan, they list “Possibly Recommended Uses” for Bushnell Park: volleyball, ping pong, basketball, bocce/petanque, horse-drawn carriage rides around the park, biking, skateboarding, farmers markets, book loaning/book carts, weather station, puppet theater, barbecuing, and a Christmas market. It seems as if planners are pushing these ideas, even when the public at the March workshops had not gravitated much toward any of these. Skateboarding, for instance, is silly to promote as a possible activity when the City is currently hashing out funding for a skate park in an already established skating area of north Downtown. Nobody even knew what a weather station was at this previous meeting and only one person seemed to be fascinated by the book loan idea, which would again be redundant, as the library is in very close proximity to the park. None of the ideas on that aforementioned list really resonated at the March public workshop. Reading the Programming and Pre-Design Report before attending Tuesday evening’s public forum was a warning of what was to come.
In that document, it is stated “all agreed that the park has sporadic use during the weekdays, some use during the weekends, and little to no evening activity” (13). There is no indication as to who was in this group of “all,” and as someone who travels through Bushnell Park on weekdays, weekends, and evenings, I find it to be inaccurate. The characterization, for instance, of the western side of the park as getting little use except for during concerts is false. During the school year, gym classes have regularly used that side for major parts of the day during the week. This inaccuracy was not the only one presented in the iQuilt documents and presentations. The Programming and Pre-Design Report erroneously states:
Bushnell Park Café, which is open only in the summer months, occupies the building’s southern wing, and offers drinks and dining on an outdoor patio. (15)
This establishment has not been in operation for several years. Though it is expected that designers and planners from out of town might make this error, it is astounding that nobody has corrected this mistake during their dozens of meetings. Continue reading 'Whose Quilt?'»
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