Dear Editor,
Re: Au chides council’s closed-door decision, Letters, April 1.
I would like to respond to Councillor Chak. Au’s letter dated April 1.
Well said, sir.
I have lived in this area for a long time and have seen this park space being systematically destroyed piece by piece. This was a very busy park and very well used by families from the surrounding Rideau School area, all of my grandchildren played all summer in this playground. Now all that remains is a mud hole. And it seems, according to what was said at the closed council meeting it will remain a mud hole until 2017.
First, let me give some background. The first adventure toy to go was the balance pole. It was broken by vandals and was never replaced. The tire swing, it just disappeared. All that was wrong with it was the universal joint that the chains were attached to squeaked — nothing some WD40 or some white grease would not fix.
The rest of the play apparatus — three slides, climbing ropes and pipes, and monkey bars all went a couple of months ago and left, as I said, a mud hole.
Since the adult learning school opened, we have lost a box hockey rink that the local kids played in, five large, mature maple trees, a basketball court and green space. All the shrubbery and annual plants at the front of the school were uprooted, and these areas were black-topped for parking.
I am certain there are plans for this area, and I don’t think these plans include a children’s playground. I am sick to the teeth of city council, the park department, and the school board paying lip service to the child obesity problem as they allow an area where kids can get a bit of exercise to be destroyed.
Robert Bulloch,
Rideau Area
