Are having parks important? Of course, they are!
The more people and denser the area you live in, the more important parks become. Green spaces in big cities are indispensable to the residents living there. Most people who think of New York City parks have scenes of Central Park in Manhattan or Prospect Park in Brooklyn in their minds.
The vast majority of people that live in New York don’t use those two parks. New Yorkers could go years between visits. Most residents, especially kids, use the playgrounds that dot every neighborhood in the city. A quick google search reveals that there are 1700 parks in New York City.
Stuart’s density is much lower than probably 95% of New York’s neighborhoods. Most residents have some sort of open space such as yards or private common space around their homes. Stuart has a panoply of different open areas, such as 52- acre Haney Preserve, Memorial Park, Kiwanis Park, and a number of vest pocket street-end parks.
The recent hubbub about Sailfish Ball-fields and the emotions surrounding it piqued my curiosity as to the amount of use these public areas have. I decided to look at the use that Stuart parks were getting and who was using them. I have been going at different times of the day and on different days of the week to see how many people are actually taking advantage of these fabulous open spaces.
Here is what this very unscientific study found:
Memorial Park, the crown jewel of our park system, had no one at all most of the times I visited. The exception is the tennis courts, which are used. Several times in the past few weeks I strolled the park area and was completely alone in my thoughts. What Memorial Park has become is a great event space for something like ArtsFest or a jumping off point for various races.
Flagler Park, which is next to City Hall, had strollers and occasionally some kids on the courts playing ball. Shepard’s Park was the recipient of a FIND grant a few years ago that allowed the City to invest in new playground equipment and a sun shade. During several visits, I never observed any kids playing on the equipment, and, in fact, the only users of the park at all were several homeless people around the picnic tables.
I have also visited Smith-Turner Park and Martin Luther King Park where, on one occasion at each, I saw a single person sitting on the park table. There was use of the Stuart Rec Center playground on 10th Street but only as part of the programs that are offered there by the City. No children were there after hours. There was also use of the fields at Guy Davis, but again it was part of the city recreation program. Unless there was an organized game or practice, the ball-fields at Sailfish were empty.
The two parks that had activity were Kiwanis Park where I always saw children and their parents. The Dog Park on Central Parkway had a few dogs on two occasions and on the third visit there were at least 20 dogs and their owners. No one was ever at Haney Preserve or Mangrove Park, which was recently created on Palm City Road.
I didn’t survey the smaller parks such as Scott or the Hospital. Nor did I drive around looking at the street-end parks like the one next to my house. Unfortunately, the one next to my house is frequently used after dark and not used as intended.
I also did a highly unscientific survey of Stuart residents. Each believes that the parks are an asset and couldn’t imagine the City without the parks. When I asked when the last time that anyone went to a park, not one said that they could remember outside of a special event such as July 4th or Sunday at the stage downtown.
Like so many things in government, we want what we want regardless of whether we can afford to have it. Florida, and especially local cities, are unique in how government pays for things. There is no income tax (thankfully), but that means people who have income are not proportionately charged for services such as parks. Our real estate tax system is only partially based on the value of a property. With all the exemptions, homestead and caps, it is a broken system that is fast turning into a local government crisis.
For the vast majority of Stuart and Florida residents, there is no relationship to what amenities cost and how government pays for them. This is unfortunate because if every person paid his/her fair share of taxes, then parks or police or whether even to have a water amusement park would totally be citizen driven. But it is not.
The next time you hear elected officials pandering to their constituents because they want something, we need to ask how it should be paid for. It is no different than when you decide how to pay for your groceries or electric bill. It is irresponsible of politicians to continue to spend without a dedicated source of payment, but it is also irresponsible of you, the voter, to allow it.