Critical of Glendale News Press Spin

The Glendale News Press editorial of 8/8/14 stated in part the following: “our city leaders must keep seeking and acquiring property in those places where it makes the most sense to create new public parks. (Ref. new Maryland Ave. Mini Park). There’s a long tradition in our country to preserve public land for the benefit of everyone. Let’s build on that tradition here”.
Our council members like to take credit for all new and improved parkland, but according to city documents, since the “great recession”, approximately 90% or about $33 million of all park funding has come from grants from the State of California and not from the local taxpayers…
Where has all our park improvement money gone? Why does our council chose to underfund city parks?
According to the California State Park Department’s Office of Grants and Local Services, the area chosen for the grant money had to be in a park poor area or a low income area, with a median income of less than $43,000.
The money for the Maryland Ave. Park did not come from the city’s General Fund, but from a $5.4 billion bond approved by California voters in 2006. To qualify for the grant money from competing cities South Glendale’s abysmal proportion of park space, combined with the area’s comparatively high number of low-income residents, made the Maryland Mini Park a very competitive proposal, city officials stated in 2010.
What a City honor to be so designated by the State of California!
The need for soccer fields, the most popular sport in South Glendale, would have been a better editorial story, rather than a “spin” story by the GNP praising council.