It was announce a few days ago that the city would "shut down" 77 parks. That's a lot of parks, a lot of green space, and a lot of activity to take away from the city of Detroit (when so much has already been taken away). According to reports it was a reaction to cuts City Council had made to Mayor Dave Bing's own budget. Well, a few days later, and a lot of politicking, more than half of the parks might not be closed after all. Still, it's not concrete, and Detroiters took to rallying today in various parks across the city.
Facebook page was thrown up to get the word out and Joe Rashid from the Detroit Parks Coalition jumped to the WDET-FM airwaves to discuss what this could mean to the city of Detroit.
Visit the Detroit Parks Coalition on Facebook
here and check out another page asking you to save the parks before they close them
here.
Here is an excerpt from the
Detroit Free Press stating that the parks might just be saved (for the time being):
An 11th-hour agreement between Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and members of City Council is expected to spare 77 city parks.
Dueling budget proposal amendments crossed Bing's desk today, but both would restore the $4.5 million in funding needed to maintain the parks' grounds and facilities.
Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh proposed today to return $12.7 million to Bing's 2010-11 budget but also supports another proposal, negotiated between the mayor and five other members of the council, that would return $17.8 million back into the budget. The latter is expected to be voted on by the council Wednesday.
"My hopes are restored," said Detroit resident Jennel Proctor, 60, upon hearing of the possible compromise.
Read the entire article
here.
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