My WPA walk this weekend was held in conjunction with Friends of the Allentown Parks, a city affiliated organization. Although I could organize and publicize the walks without
Friends, we have a mutual interest. It's director, Karen El-Chaar, appreciates my knowledge and advocacy for the WPA, and I appreciate her potential influence to move the stone structures to a higher priority in the city's budget. This year, as we moved from site to site on the tour, I was rather blunt about the city's failure to maintain or appreciate the various structures. On each occasion, Karen politely rephrased my words more diplomatically. By the end of the tour, I was referring to her as my translator.
MM
ReplyDeleteThis is the problem that many have with the Friends group.
Instead of Friends of the Parks, maybe they should be renamed Friends of the Mayor.
@12:03, i have been working with Friends for a couple of years, both on WPA issues, and raising money for trees lost in the storms. nobody ever confuses me as a friend of the mayor. Friends functions as an independent organization. pawlowski even put the edition of Park Pick, announcing my tour, on his facebook page. Not everything is politics.
ReplyDeleteShe does the very best she can under difficult circumstances.
ReplyDeleteMM
ReplyDeleteThen maybe you could clarify as to what she was translating your words to.
The impression given in your post was that she was apologizing for the level that the city has allowed our parks to fall to.
Maybe I'm misreading your original post.
@2:58, the post is quite clear; i'm very blunt in my criticism of the city's priorities. el-chaar is more diplomatic, but she wasn't apologizing, or negating anything i said. the conditions of the structures speak for themselves. with the destroyed and buried sites, such as the island and boat landing, the damage was done 40 years ago.
ReplyDeleteGreat job! Wish I had been there!
ReplyDelete