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closeI don’t know whether to call it chutzpah or courage under fire, but I have to hand it to the county Parks and Recreation Commission for not hiding meekly behind a shrub merely because the county coin purse has nothing left in it but moths.
Here we are in the middle of a recession, talking about how much money to charge at which state park, and fretting that some parks may close. And along comes the commission with its 20th annual report, warning the Board of Supervisors to stop “nickel and diming” them.
“Parks are more than a swing set for little kids,” the report says, opining that “the county has never made a serious commitment to parks — perhaps seeing them as frivolous.”
“If you want to meet your communitywide goals, you will have to make a real financial commitment to parks, not just give lip service and attend ribbon cuttings,” the report states.
Yow! Them’s fightin’ words!
However, when Pandora Nash-Karner, chairwoman of the park commission, elaborated on the report to the Board of Supervisors last week, she was all sweetness and charm. Nash-Karner and fellow Commissioner Rick Mathews assured supervisors that the commission was not asking for money. Not yet, anyway.
They just wanted the board — and the public — to understand the importance of parks.
It’s a good point, especially these days.
How often have you heard a variation of “gee, we’d like to support the parks, but when we have to choose between parks and kids or parks and the poor, well, we gotta go with people.”
The parks commission and longtime director Pete Jenny have long argued that parks are more than trees and trails, and that the “parks versus people” equation is a false one.
Jenny officially retired in June, but he is still around helping out, “slowly retiring under our very eyes,” Mathews told an amused Board of Supervisors. Jenny’s fingerprints are all over the parks report.
Here are some of the ways parks can help the larger community, according to the commission:
• By getting people off their duffs, they can help make our obese children as well as their sedentary parents healthier, through exercise and activity. That, the commission says, will “reduce health care costs and increase workplace productivity.”
• Parks can bring in money to the county through tourism.
• Where there are parks, property values rise.
• By giving kids a place to go and something to do, they can help fight crime.
• Parks increase family interaction.
• There is a — for lack of a more precise word — spiritual aspect to parks and the outdoors. This advantage, the commission has made clear repeatedly, is ineffable but real.
• Parks can “instill a lifelong love for nature.”
Commissioners did not stress the spiritual side of parks in this year’s report, emphasizing economics instead. That seems like a wise choice, given the state of the county’s budget.
Commissioners went on, citing accomplishments and backing up their assertions with statistics.
But the impressive thing in the commission report was the tone and the attitude: Times are tough now, commissioners are saying, and we understand that. But we are here, and we are important. Please don’t forget that.
Supervisors seemed receptive. They said they will meet with commissioners individually and asked the commission to come back with an action plan that includes specifics.
Supervisor Chairman Bruce Gibson said there is “no doubt” about “the compelling value of parks.”
Amen, brother, but you have to keep saying it or that message gets lost. The county parks commission remains highly vocal on the subject.
That can only be good.
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