You may wonder why so many people are protesting the changes to parks that have been unexpectedly included in Article 7 of the new CZO, changes that "permit", without question or debate, commercial uses and developments in our public parks that are currently not allowed or are "conditional" uses, meaning they require both public notice and consideration by the City Planning Commission and the City Council for approval. You may think that the people who are in charge of our public parks are "park professionals" and can be trusted with the responsibility of maintaining these precious assets for the pleasure, rest, recreation, and enjoyment of the citizens of New Orleans, as they were intended. You may think that the citizens who have risen up in protest over commercial development in our public parks over the past 15 years are misguided in some way because they question the motives and actions of these "park professionals".

However, the people in charge of New Orleans' public parks act more like property developers than people charged with maintaining parks, and like property developers everywhere, they approach these natural green spaces as if they were no more than undeveloped and underutilized land ripe for construction of whatever their latest money-making project may be. And they have shown themselves capable of telling the concerned public whatever story they think is necessary to further their plans, whether true or not.

 

Take for example the "professionals" in charge of Audubon Park: they spent $6 million public dollars in 2001 constructing a new golf course and "golf clubhouse", claiming loudly in the face of protest that (a) the old golf course was unsafe, (b) they needed the income the new course would generate in order to help support the beloved park, and (c) the new clubhouse was solely intended for the use of golfers, and was not in any way intended as a restaurant and party rental venue (since the existing CZO didn't allow such uses in Audubon Park). They have remained silent ever since about the fact that the new golf course facility has lost an average of $465,000 (http://saveaudubonpark.org/web/index.asp?mode=full&id=101) every year since it opened—even despite the fact that the clubhouse WAS turned into a wedding and banquet rental facility in early 2008, five years after a 2003 deposition in which an Audubon official repeatedly insisted it would not be available for such events (see attached pdf).

And as for the "professionals" in charge of City Park: they have made repeated claims to a concerned public that the Couturie Forest in the middle of City Park, lovingly restored by hundreds of volunteers after the damage of Katrina, would not be impacted by the new golf course. In a presentation submitted at a public meeting in March 2011, they claimed "the new [golf] plan did not include the police horse stables or any part of Couturie Forest, Scout Island or the Marconi sports fields." All subsequent printings of their City Park 2018 Master Plan, even as recently as 2014, show no changes to the boundaries of Couturie Forest. But guess where the bulldozers started rolling in February 2015 when they finally began construction on the new golf course? Yep, you guessed it: as shown on maps published in the Times-Picayune comparing their published plans in 2008 with the reality of 2015, a huge section of Couturie Forest has been sacrificed to the new golf course—and voilà, the citizens of New Orleans have been betrayed by these "park professionals" yet again. Shifting a name on a map of the park does not fool anyone, yet they continue to insist that Couturie Forest has not been impacted by the new golf course.

Clearly, the people in charge of our public parks need MORE supervision and accountability to the public, not less, as they have repeatedly shown themselves to be underhanded, untrustworthy, and irresponsible. Please do not exacerbate the damage they have already done by giving them carte blanche for the future, in which they will continue to commercialize our parks. Please amend the new CZO to restore the "conditional" use designation to all commercial development in our public parks, so any proposed changes would have to be aired to the public and heard by the City Planning Commission and City Council.

1-Audubon-Stastny-2003Deposition_NoWeddings1.pdf