Psss ?EUR??,,????'??? Wanna Buy a Pocket Park?

 

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick proposes selling 92 city parks. The mayor here is at a General Motors event that kicked off the 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January. Michigan native Mitt Romney, who won the Republican presidential primary in Michigan, said the state was once the ?EUR??,,????'??pride of America,?EUR??,,????'?? but is now in a ?EUR??,,????'??one-state recession.?EUR??,,????'?? Photo by Tom Pidgeon, for GM.

As this is our Parks issue, we keep our eyes out (yes, that?EUR??,,????'???s uncomfortable) for park-related news. We came across an article from the Detroit Free Press (DFP) that Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has proposed selling 92 of Detroit’s 367 parks, both for revenue and to position the pockets of land for redevelopment. The parks are the smaller ?EUR??,,????'??most worn-down parks?EUR??,,????'?? and comprise only 124 acres of the city’s 6,000 acres of parkland. More than half of the 92 parks are less than an acre.

The mayor has said he plans to build 40 new parks and commit hundreds of millions of dollars in commercial and retail development.

Could this be one of Detroit?EUR??,,????'???s pocket parks up for sale?

Finding those funds seems highly unrealistic, or as surfer dudes in California like to say, ?EUR??,,????'??Get real,?EUR??,,????'?? given a $300 million city budget deficit, the closing of rec centers, benefit and job cuts of city workers and possible layoffs off 612 police officers and 120 firefighters.

The DFP reports the mayor says he?EUR??,,????'???ll run for re-election in November?EUR??,,????'??+ and predicts he’ll win.