In the near future our Metro Council will be discussing whether or not to turn over 700 acres of public park land to 21st Century Parks, the group headed by Humana co-founder David Jones and his son Dan Jones.
The meetings of 21st Century Parks are not open to the public. Furthermore, while there’s two representatives from the Mayor’s office (Mike Heitz & Mary Lou Northern), there’s no seats/representation for any Metro Council members.
Our local newspaper and community leaders have expressed the need for “transparency” and “public accountability” in regards to our public park lands, which I find rather odd, because currently neither exists.
I would like to see someone try to explain the transparency and public accountability that currently exists within Metro Parks. Currently Metro Parks decides, with no public input, the activities allowed in any given park. It’s only after-the-fact that the input of recreational users is sought out (especially if the user group can provide funding and/or free labor to support their sport).
Earlier this year 21st Century held a series of meetings, actively seeking community input, before deciding on how best to proceed with developing the Floyds Fork Park area. When was the last time that Metro Parks held a public meeting seeking public input on park uses? When Metro Parks holds a meeting, their mind is already made up, and the meeting is simply to announce their decision.
This closed-door decision making process helps to explain why mountain bikers were simply booted out of Jefferson Memorial Forest years ago without any public input. Or, to look at it in another way, when was the last time Metro Parks solicited public on which user groups should be allowed in the forest?
To give you an idea of just how open and transparent Metro Parks is, when a group of naïve pro-parks mountain bikers where having a series of (ill-fated) meetings with a representative from parks, that very same representative was stabbing all mountain bikers in the back by not cooperating with a fellow city agency trying to complete the Bike Friendly application!
The same can be said for Olmsted Conservancy. Chartered to raise funds for our Olmsted designed parks, they’ve dominated the decision making process concerning these public park lands. This helps to explain why they simply booted mountain bikers out of Iroquois Park, without any public comment or review.
How much openness and transparency existed to allow horse-back riding in every major piece of parks property, here in Jefferson County, while relegating mountain biking to only two parks? That’s anti-populist/anti-democratic decision-making at its worst.
Mountain biking supporters should contact their elected representatives and the Mayors office and point out that Metro Parks is anything but transparent and open in their decision making. Their Elitist Trail Policies don’t support the Mayor’s Healthy Hometown Initiative nor Metro Louisville’s Bike Friendly efforts.
