In my opinion vicious tricks have discouraged the crusade of one woman representing the five hundred North Admiral residents trying to save our teacup park from a group of preschool parents and a commercial daycare operator who are backed by the mayor Greg Nickels and his wife. They want to desecrate our tiny park in North Admiral between Hill Street and Ferry Street.

A committed neighbor stands in the rain, cold and wet almost every morning representing those of us who have signed petitions to save our teacup park from a small group obsessed with digging a hole in its center, filling it with boulders and calling it a children's playground.

Today I witnessed the husband of the daycare operator viciously tear down the small 8 1/2 by 11" information forms that the "Save Our Park" proponents have posted to explain our fight to keep our tiny park safe from what we consider destruction. He claims we are told, that he is removing "graffiti" when confronted about his actions. Please feel free to contact us regarding him. We would be happy to relate the number of incidents of information removal.

This committed citizen is not a one-woman protestor!

She represents those of us who must commute to work, those of us that are caretakers, all of us that cannot stand with her each morning to provide evidence of our protest. All of us that love, cherish, and want our teacup park to remain as one of the last open spaces with its lovely trees and green grass.

At meetings we have been dismissed, scorned and ignored. We have been told to "move" if we were repulsed by their actions.

They want to remove the sheltered bus stop used by residents of six apartment houses and adjacent town houses. That shelter is so necessary to folks facing Seattle's inclement weather. Most often rain, wind and storm are common in Seattle.

They want to put up a children's playground with no toilet facilities. They have beautiful children's playgrounds at Hiawatha Park and Alki Playgrounds, both with toilet facilities. They have miles and miles of Alki Beach for recreation. Yet this daycare operator and some preschool parents have decided they should take the tiny park, dig a pit and fill it with boulders and call it a childs community meeting place and playground. Seattle's rainy weather would soon preclude its use as it could become a muddy pit. Seattle's weather is not conductive to daily public meetings in a hole in the ground.

Sex offenders have been housed just one block from the park. But when informed of this the encroaching parents of preschoolers and the daycare operators ignored our cautions.

The needs of the residents of the six apartment houses and eight townhomes have been disregarded in their quest to have the bus shelter removed.

We need the multitude of North Admiral residents that are so against this small group takeover by the preschool parents and the commercial daycare operators to unite and fight against the invasion.

"Save Our Park" backers need to protest in every possible way to override the politicians, stop the persons who have funded this park takeover, and stop this incursion by those hell-bent to destroy one of the last open spaces in our neighborhood.

Please contact the city council, the Mayor's office, the park department, the local TV investigative stations, your neighbors, and any other agency or person that can stand with us to stop this small group from destroying a tiny park.

Laura V. Baxter

Admiral