Building a park on Morse Ave

The city already owns the land there to build a park, but it hasn't gotten its act together to kick out the businesses, tear down the buildings and build the park. At least the bike bridge is almost done.

Columbia Park already exists on Morse, but it is only open to the public after school hours.

There's a green belt that already exist there and is hardly ever used or cared for at best. Dog owners refuse to clean up after their dogs, hardly any children play on the facilities and at night, there seems to be a gathering of young kids, mostly teens to do whatever. There also seems to be gang activity that's been observed. To put in another park is a waste of money that the city is making with the buildings up renting to businesses that not only need the space to provide for their families but also to provide services to the community. Just to make a small area pretty to appease a few people versus the livelihood of established businesses that are useful to our economy as well as the city, seems to be, at best, a waste of money. If the green belt has proven to be useless to most people in the area, why waste the money, which I believe, we'll be paying for anyway, to build another park. We need to promote small business growth for the community, for our economy and to let big business know that small businesses are still needed and do the better job, but I regress, we do not need to do a TV make over with a park because someone thinks it would look pretty. A park is not conducive to a needing economy.

Can you be more specific on the location? Cross street? Morse between 101 and 237? Which established businesses are you referring to? Has the city council taken this up on the agenda? Helps to know so maybe the citizens that would be truly affected by this could be more informed. Thanks

I can't agree that a park would be a waste of money. Parks contribute greatly to making a city a desirable place to live, a place to be proud of. A neighborhood park can be a focal point around which community develops as well as providing space for healthy, outdoor recreation and convenient connection to nature. As our population increases, I bet we will be happy to have had the foresight to set aside green spaces.

I don't see business and parks as either-or, rather both-and. Our new city manager has elevated business development into his office. As I understand it, the City is making a concerted effort to attract and retain businesses. Yet the staff, with the support of the local neighborhood association, recommends funding for Morse Park in next year's budget,currently under consideration.

Morse Park would be on the North side of town, an area of increasing population which has fewer parks than other parts of town. Developing a park in that area with "park dedication fees" paid by developers to the City expressly for parks seems fair to me. I'm sorry. I don't know the exact address of Morse Park, but I believe it would be between 101 and 237.

The park is to be built just north of 101, behind where the new church is. There are some single-story buildings there now. You can see it here: http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=h&lat=37.398563&lon=-122.016508&zoom=18

It sounds like Glen is a business owner there. I'm sorry for him, but frankly I think the taxes paid for by all the new housing in that area pays a lot more than the small businesses that will be displaced. The hundreds of condo units built up over the last few years were built with the presumption that there would be a park nearby soon.

The greenbelt gets a lot of use from my experience and so does the playground. I've never seen any gang activity there. The playground is quite a bit away from all the condos around Fair Oaks and Morse though, especially for a kid to walk, so a playground on Morse would be very welcome to the residents around there as this area continues to transform from a commercial to residential area.

Biking around, there seems to be more than ample vacant office space in the surrounding area.