Riverside Files Part One

Campaign season is almost over and, like many others, I am still waiting for many of the candidates to stop talking about downtown and public safety and attracting tourists and the same old things and start talking about the people and places in our city that have been consistently overlooked - like the residents of East New London and the Hodges Square business district.

About the only time that any elected official in this city pays attention to that end of town is when there’s a problem and right now the biggest problem is Riverside Park and whether or not half of the park should be sold to the Coast Guard Academy which has already taken half of the original park for their exclusive use.

Those of us who want to save what we have left of Riverside Park are more than a little tired of hearing things like “The park‘s a wreck.”, “The city doesn‘t take care of it.” and “Nobody ever uses the park.” from people, most of whom don‘t seem to live here, obviously haven’t been to the park lately and continue to talk about the past.

But when Ocean Beach had reached such a point of deterioration that residents formed a group, SAVE OUR BEACH, to restore it to its former glory, we didn’t hear those types of complaints.

I think the reason should be pretty obvious.

Because the people who live in the south end of town, the sixth district, are the ones who hold the power in this city - socially, economically and politically.

While the residents in East New London do not.

That is where many of our poor, our underprivileged, our disenfranchised and our minority citizens live.

So it seems to mean little or nothing to too many people who don’t live in that end of town to think of selling Riverside Park because they have little or no idea what that park could mean to the residents of that end of town.

Those residents, elected officials and candidates in favor of selling Riverside Park seem more concerned over what officers from the Coast Guard Academy say they need or how much their students volunteer in this community or the appeal to patriotism than what the residents of our own city are telling us they want and need.

I think that the too many of our elected officials have failed the people of East New London consistently and miserably.

And always there’s been what seems like a logical reason, if our representatives have bothered to explain at all.

This time the reason is that our “Good Neighbor” the Coast Guard Academy NEEDS half of Riverside Park.

No they don’t.

The Coast Guard Academy, through the years, has taken over half of the original Riverside Park and now wants to take half of what remains.

But the Academy has almost 28 vacant acres - let them use their land before they take any more of ours.

We need our land, the people who live in East New London need that land, their children need the open space and recreational area but I think, most of all, the people of East New London need to know that their representatives have not forgotten them-once again.