We were happy to see the Ithaca Journal's piece today about the decline of Stewart Park and possible remedies. A similar piece ran in Ithaca Blog on 29 June ("Stewart Park: Big Park, Lean Budget").
The Journal noted, as we did here, that the park's decline is largely a matter of fiscal priorities.
We bet that the city pays a lot more maintaining parking areas, for example, than Stewart Park. The park runs on an annual budget of less than $100,000. That's labor, materials - everything.
Of course, it you don't maintain parking lots and garages, they get run down, and more expensive to fix, eventually. But the same is true with the park.
If there was insufficient money in the budget to maintain parking areas, we would simply raise their budgets so they wouldn't fall into disrepair. We should do the same for Stewart Park.
The time, it would seem, is now. We look forward to the Journal following this story in the months leading up to city elections, as we will in Ithaca Blog.
Stephen Burke
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