Soccer, Little League & MTB
I’ve been following the recent announcements by Metro Parks that Little League and Soccer teams will now have to start paying the utilities bills for their sports leagues.
Last time I dealt with Metro Parks we paid out $650 to hold a three hour bike race at Otter Creek Park (how do you think soccer moms would react if they had to shell out that much per game?).
As soon as Metro Parks made the announcement looked at what happened, unhappy parents showed up at the Mayor’s Meetings, holding signs, and gave the Mayor an earful on how they felt about the new policy.
The second step was to take their story to the media, and then on to their elected councilpersons, being as vocal and public as possible. There’s now a growing groundswell of support for the leagues and council members are asking Metro Parks to rescind the policy.
Compare the situation above to what’s been experienced by mountain bikers over the years. We’ve been kicked out of Iroquois Park, out of Jefferson Memorial Forest, nearly had the trail system shut down at Waverly a few years back, and more recently almost got booted out of Cherokee Park.
Yet, the only response of recent local “leadership” is to heap praise on Metro Parks.
Why is our local leadership looking out for the best interests of Metro Parks and not the best interests of local mountain bikers?
When is our local leadership going to mount a public campaign to challenge the Elitist Trail Policies that Metro Parks has in place?
Do you think if the Soccer and Little League parents and leadership just heaped praise on Metro Parks that the new policy would be rescinded?
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Congratulations to our local
Congratulations to our local Little League teams for getting some local banks to provide monies for utilities this year.
To top things off, the Mayor held a news conference with representatives from the banks and Little League teams!
Compare their situation to the plight suffered by local mountain bikers, we've been kicked out of two parks, and nearly two others. Metro Parks refused our efforts to secure an RTP to benefit the local parks, Metro Parks Director of Propaganda refused to cooperate with the city on the natural surface (dirt) portion of the Bike Friendly application . . . the list goes on and on.
And mountain bikers response??? Nothing . . . that's right . . . our local mountain bikers are simply the nicest people. Even though the club desperately needs the funding from the RTP grant, and our local Metro Council requested us to submit one, the local club refuses, because Metro Parks didn't want them to submit one.
Nonetheless, don't despair, sometime during the next decade there's a chance that we'll gain access to our some more of our public trails.