Duke Park-ing: The craziness continues
March 30, 2007
News flash: Franz Kafka has been hired as the new director of Durham's Park and Rec department, while Joseph Heller will be taking point at Planning.
Well, not really, but the following recollection on Barry Ragin's blog sure makes it sound like it could have happened. For those not in the loop, the powers that be have stalled and forestalled on plans to allow the Duke Park Neighborhood Association to take over the bathhouse, all while converting part of the park to a storage and parking area for city vehicles.
Now, this. Figure this one out if you can:
Apparently, the Planning Department is concerned that the number of parking spaces [at Duke Park] may be inadequate if the bathhouse is renovated and put back into use. Let me see if i understand this. ... As many as 200 people will be using the playground on a weekend afternoon, most of them arriving in cars. There is no place to park within two blocks of the park. [There are only 45 parking spaces surrounding the park despite its huge popularity. -BCR]
Part of the problem is that the city Parks and Recreation Department has closed off the parking lot in the north end of the park and converted it into a storage area. Now, the Planning Department is raising a red flag about parking for a building which it has allowed to sit abandoned and deteriorating for nearly 14 years?
Read more about this over at Barry's place.
just to be clear, Kevin, it's not the *Planning Department" which has allowed the building to sit abandoned since October 1993. That would be the city of Durham, through, i assume, the Parks and Recreation Department which actually owns the building.
What the Planning Department is saying is that parking in the area may be inadequate for the uses which we would like to put the building.
You know, like, neighborhood potlucks, birthday parties, Girls Scout meetings, maybe an occasional lecture on the history of the Duke Park or the ecology of the Ellerbe Creek.
Those uses might create a parking problem.
Unlike the general attraction of the new, and spectacular, playground at the park.
I'll post a picture of the parking situation on Sunday.
By the way, i've gotten an email from Rhonda Parker, interim Parks and Rec Director, addressing the bathrooms and other issues. I'll be posting that on my blog over the weekend with some commentary.
Posted by: Barry | March 30, 2007 at 07:03 PM