Get Angry! Don't Let Rose Gowen and Tony Martinez Sell Lincoln Park!

City Commissioner Rose Gowen

Rose Gowen salivates when she thinks two parcels of land including the city's irreplaceable Lincoln Park could yield $6 million dollars she could use on pet projects.

If Gowen had the slightest awareness of what it means to be a green city, she would not push for the destruction of a nature center, children's garden, nature trails, an outdoor amphitheater or two ball fields and two ball courts.  If Gowen and her cohort Tony Martinez have their way, all of Lincoln Park's natural, green-friendly amenities will be bulldozed, paved over and replaced by buildings for the satellite campus of UT-RGV.

Those buildings could be built on any number of properties along University Boulevard, even on the  parcels already owned by the UT system across the interstate.  To destroy a precious, irreplaceable city park for buildings is not only beyond dumb. but grossly undervalues such green spaces in urban environments.  It is a decision made in ignorance.

A study by the Graham Foundation published in 2009 measured the value of a city park in an urban environment, gauging or quantifying the park's effect on property value, direct use value, health and pollution control.  Those values cannot be measured in dollars per acre.

Lincoln Park sits in District 1, represented by City Commissioner Ricardo Longoria. Longoria must know how much his constituents use city parks, especially those parks close enough to Southmost to be utilized for family outings, barbecues, b-ball and teaching the kids and grandkids how to scooter or bicycle.

It would be a crime for District 1 to lose Lincoln Park for dollars, especially since those dollars will likely NOT be used for quality of life issues for District 1, but be siphoned off to Rose Gowen's pet project, the Belden Bike Trail.