It’s budget-hearing season, that exciting time of year when City Hall department heads make their cases for funding for fiscal 2013 before the mayor and his fiscal staff. The hearings begin tomorrow and run through next week; city councilors and the public are invited to attend. (Get the complete schedule here.)
Among the people who’ll be keeping a close eye on the budget process: residents of the Armory/Quadrangle neighborhood, who are frustrated by the lack of investment in their section of the city in recent years. Specifically, they’re calling for restored Parks Department funding for Armoury Commons Park, at Pearl and Spring streets—“one of the prettiest little parks in the city,” in the words of Carol Costa, president of the Armory Quadrangle Civic Association.
Earlier this month, Costa sent out an email to neighborhood residents pointing out the hard times that have befallen the park, which not long ago was spruced up with new benches and lights, replanted grass and a working fountain. “It became a great resting place for many of our wonderful residents,” she wrote.
But more recently, thanks to cuts in the Parks budget, “the park became an undesirable location—overgrown, littered, and filled with undesirables,” Costa wrote. “Conditions became so bad that the park was locked to the public and has remained that way for many months. It looks terrible and reflects badly on our neighborhood. This is simply unacceptable.”
And, she added, the shabby state of the park fuels unfair negative perceptions about the city. “Unfortunately, untended and locked public spaces feed the now-popular public perception that Springfield is a bad place,” she wrote. “Well, it’s not.”
Costa went on to make the case for city parks, noting, “An urban population has less access to outdoor space—places where people can gather, young people can play, and families can picnic. Urban residents deserve beautiful parks more than anyone. The speed with which government officials will cut park budgets in times of economic challenges is an insult to the good people of the city.”
The Armory Quadrangle Civic Association is calling on residents to contact their elected officials and voice their support for better funding for city parks. The budget hearing for the Parks Department is scheduled for tomorrow—Thursday, May 10—from 1 to 3 p.m. in City Hall, Room 310.
