Another Voice / Olmsted Conservancy
Art Klein: Without organization’s role, parks will deteriorate
I read that Buffalo may resolve the parks problem by having the city assume control and perhaps even replace the Olmsted Conservancy. The city expresses agony but terms it necessary. The county obviously just wants out.
My introduction to Delaware Park occurred about 60 years ago, when my uncle took me ice skating on Hoyt Lake. Since that time, I annually have enjoyed this magnificent jewel four seasons of the year.
It was sad during the 1970s, when the park generally deteriorated. Trash, branches and trees littered the ground for weeks, occasional cardboard habitats warned us to avoid the place after dark and the lake itself was a cesspool. The city budget had been pared in response to lost revenue, and there even was talk and speculation of selling sections of the park to cut costs.
I joined a few committees and tried to bring some viability and support to several park issues. City fathers occasionally appeared at our meetings, but they had too many problems to pay much attention. Luckily, when things were really bad, various state and federal elected representatives helped obtain funding to renovate the casino and construct a tunnel bypass of the lake. Hope dawned.
Errors in design in the tunnel work and lack of a business plan for the casino created problems and left promises unfulfilled, but at least a decent casino has emerged into the 21 century and the lake is not a sewer.
In the 1980s, the park had conditions nearly as bad as I’ve ever seen. For the first time since the 1950s, I was not able to skate or ski on the lake. Open stretches of water along the north bank and an opening in the center of the lake mysteriously appeared each winter through the later terms of Mayor James Griffin. One winter, I encountered a truck lodged in the ice about 30 feet from the north bank near the Statue of David area.
I later learned that these actions were meant to embarrass the councilman whose district the park was in. This should serve as a warning what a political disaster a park can become.
Once the Olmsted Conservancy began professional park management and the improvements became obvious, I relaxed into my seventh decade and thought my park was in safe hands.
Now I see a possible return of the park to the chaos of the past. We all must realize that parks are fragile places wherein just a year or two of poor management can destroy all the investments of the past.
I hope the county and the city can find a way to preserve the parks and continue the important role of the Olmsted Conservancy. Returning the parks to any political appointee/patronage pool would insult the really noble and professional efforts of the past decade or so. The truly fragile areas that are our parks require complex professional management.
Art Klein is a member of the Sierra Club, the Adirondack Mountain Club and the Niagara River Ecological Committee.
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