I used email as you can read below if you are so inclined. Yes it is the same rant against the way the City (one employee in charge of this project) pushes its plan against the will of the community. I invite you to visit the park as it is now a really inspiring place that the city plan would largely destroy. Enough public protest can still kill it, as we did for Grow Avenue.
My name is Philippe Boucher
I'll start by noticing that I could not even find a mention of this hearing on the pages the city devotes to the Strawberry Plant Park project: I find it a typical example of the way the community is kept out of the loop by the city administration.
The meeting with the Hearing Examiner that is taking place today is not listed in the City's agenda for today nor anywhere else on the city's website: what type of outreach is that?
I could not deliver my remarks in person as I could not attend and I wonder how many people are in position to attend a meeting on a Friday morning.
This choice certainly limits the participation and the input from the citizenry.
I think this is a deliberate strategy by the people in charge of this project at City Hall: from my own experience there has been a deliberate attempt to keep out of the loop most of the people who disagreed with the plan devised by the City bureaucracy.
I have expressed my criticisms of the lack of real due process and public participation: only one private charrette on invitation only whose results were completely distorted to make it look like the people were in majority in favour of an "ecological" restoration while they were/are not.
The reasoning of the bureaucracy goes like this: we got a grant to implement an "ecological" restoration so let us do that, even if it goes against the wish of the citizenry. Provided we confuse them enough we'll get our way. We defeated this strategy when the public works department had decided to destroy Grow Avenue because they had received a grant to create paved sidewalks that would have done nothing to control the speed of vehicles and would have cut down most of the trees.
We are seeing the same process in the case of Strawberry Park: the City got a grant to do something so this is what needs to be done and it has to be presented as the will of the people. This is not the case.
My feeling is that most people would prefer to keep the shoreline as it is now without destroying most of it under the pretext of habitat restoration. People want to be able to launch kayaks and small boats. They want to be able to enjoy a space that is the biggest park in downtown Winslow even if it remains largely unknown. They want to enjoy the view as it is without destroying all the front of the park.
I hope the city plan is defeated because I think it has not been democratically discussed and approved and it is a very bad solution (once more) for our community.
The citizenry should make the proposals and the final decision, within a much broader process than what has been happening until now that was essentially public relations efforts to make people believe they were consulted and they had their say.
I invite all people who have to be part of the decision making process to go and see for themselves.
I am sure they'll be instantly charmed by the beauty of the place and will return in favor of touching it as little as possible.
Thank you for your attention.
Philippe Boucher
www.voiceofbainbridge.org
you'll find on my blog several posts related to Strawberry Plant Park
and the bureaucratic dance to confuse the community about what the
city's intentions were/are.
PS: I would appreciate if you can send me an email confirming this email has been received and will be part of the official comments.