(Editor's note: This letter was addressed to Mayor Greg Nickels. A copy was also forwarded to Stella Chao, Timothy Gallagher, Tom Rasmussen, and our office.)

Dear Mayor Greg Nickels,

Your aide Wayne Lemon called me to tell me that my letter dated March 16 was forwarded by the mayor’s office to the parks department. A Christine Millins wrote me for his/her boss Timothy Gallagher and Mayor Nickels explaining how neighborhood groups apply for Neighborhood Matching Funds administered by the Department of Neighborhoods.

In our most recent meeting on April 16, 2009, a Mr. Steve Grey stated that “a bunch of neighbors applied for funding for possible improvements to a California Place park.” This is a direct quote as I was at the meeting.

Six hundred eighty five people signed a petition to leave the park as it is without change to the park. Six hundred eighty five people is not “a bunch of neighbors.” Six hundred eighty five people do not want to change the park. So why did the parks department ignore all these signatures?

At the first meeting I attended at Hiawatha In November, at least 75 percent of the people who spoke were for “No Change to the Park.” Why did no one listen to these voices? Is the parks department deaf to our voices and blind to the seething anger of 685 people who did not want change to our park?

A lady at the last meeting asked the question, “Why are you not listening to the people who do not want to change this park?” She was told that this was a design meeting and she should not have come to a workshop for designing the park if she opposed it.

The next three meetings were held on Alki and we were not permitted to speak. The meetings were presentations by the architect for the designs she planned.

In the last meeting (April 16) she gave an estimate of how much the job will cost. The estimate is $159,000 to $239,000 plus another $80,000 to $118,000 to develop the north side of the park.

What kind of insanity is this? To listen to 685 signatures will cost NOTHING! To do what a “bunch of neighbors” who applied for a grant will cost $300 to $400 thousand. We the people are going to spend this money to destroy our park!

Is this issue a microcosm of what the parks department in particular and the government in general do? Spend hard-earned tax dollars to destroy a beautiful existing park? No matter where the money is coming from, it is still taxpayer’s money.

Mayor Nickels, you are responsible for this insanity. You cut the budget for the parks department and many other departments, but the California Place park project keeps moving on. Why? Why is the government spending this kind of money? Why are we not listened to?
Mayor Nickels, stop this insanity.

Annie Tigtig
North Admiral