Park Pride released the following statement about visioning for Candler Park:
In May 2011, the Candler Park community applied to Park Pride to participate in the Park Visioning Program. Candler Park was chosen as one of two parks that would be offered the services of Park Pride’s landscape architects to participate in an extensive community engagement process to develop a master plan for the park.
Park Pride’s role in Park Visioning is as a facilitator and resource to the community as they take ownership of their own visioning process. For Visioning to be successful, it is critical that the community drive the process and trust Park Pride as a neutral facilitator and unbiased sounding board. From the beginning, misaligned expectations, politically charged issues and concerns about Park Pride’s objectivity presented challenges to the process and limited our ability to complete the goal.
Both the community and Park Pride believe that a master plan needs to be developed for Candler Park. But due to the previously stated issues and concerns we feel that it is in the best interest of a successful park vision, that Park Pride removes itself from the process. Our hope is that this will allow the community time to continue its dialogue and lay the groundwork that ultimately will lead to a successful community driven planning process.
Park Pride and the Candler Park community have a long and successful history of working together, and we will continue to work together on a plan for Candler Park after a period of laying groundwork. We believe that taking this important step to ensure that the right pieces are in place before engaging in a master planning process, will lead to a successful community framework on which to build in the future.
Candler Park Movie Nights are FREE and take place in Candler Park at dusk. Movie night is produced by Friends of Candler Park and funded by CPNO. 2013 schedule:
Visioning
I don't think the CP "community" believes that the Park needs a master plan or is somehow "broken". It was the Parks Commissioner that wanted the visioning process. There may be some CPNO Board members who want that, but the CPNO membership is a tiny portion of the CP neighborhood. It was never clear what the options were for this process -- except that the Commissioner had some interest in using the golf course for some other purpose which was never communicated to the neighborhood.
If its a public process that the Commissioner wants, I think its time for the City to actually spell out the options for the park -- nature preserve? Music venue like Chastain? What? And then have meetings with the neighborhoods. That's how other governments work -- the political and appointed leaders lay out some ideas and then have public meetings.
In the first meeting where the Commissioner stated that the golf course was losing money ($40K? $50k?) he also admitted that just keeping up the park would cost $6,000 an acres and that the golf course is 40 acres. When someone pointed out that the golf course as a park would then lose $240K a year the Commissioner said "its not about the money." OK, then what it is about?
Given Atlanta's recent history of privatizing parking (ParkAtlanta anyone?) and now the pools (SwimUSA -- jury is still out, but those nice folks at SwimUSA are mighty confused so far) is it any wonder that some citizens are skeptical when the City says it wants to "change" the park but won't say what it really wants to do?
I'd like to understand what
I'd like to understand what "misaligned expectations" means in this statement. Anyone care to offer thoughts? Thank you.
Also - the city of Atlanta is
Also - the city of Atlanta is not "losing money" on the Candler Park golf course. The city of Atlanta has management agreements with American Golf Corp to manage five public courses in Atlanta (including Candler Park). Overall, the city makes about $400k annually from these agreements. Yes, it is true that the Candler Park Golf Course technically operates at a loss, but the city is *making money* on the package deal with American Golf Corp to manage the five courses. This is my understanding from the AJC article dated April 15, 2012. It's misleading to look at the Candler Park course in isolation and claim that it's somehow "costing" the city any money.
What Is The Explanation?
I admit that I am puzzled by this announcement. If there was a time for the community to hash out a future for the park, this was it. Certainly, the recent discussion about the golf course, the continuing murmuring about whether the park should be a periodic venue for large music events, and the recent past battles over the pool and the proposed cell tower suggest that a continuing discussion and a long range plan are in order.
I think any past bashing of Park Pride in this has been counterproductive, in that they have not done anything to suggest that they would have been anything other than facilitators. I do think this decision is unfortunate, because it suggests that no plan can be discussed in a visioning process until there is no disagreement between neighbors. As long as all factions are represented on a body tasked with the visioning (a process that was to be public), why is additional dialogue and groundwork required, before a process designed to incorporate dialogue and already well-formed visions of the park gets underway?
The future of the park appears to be an important issue. If Park Pride cannot carry on the visioning, should CPNO, as the voice of the neighborhood, take on the task? Maybe this is something we can discuss next Monday.