Whilst I was doing my Ghost Walking I was pondering something I had read via website links emailed to me by Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason.
The website links were to articles about Maiben Park in my old hometown of Burlington. I grew up across the street from Maiben Park.
When I lived by Maiben Park it was a peaceful, safe place, always with a lot of kids playing.
Last year a teenager was murdered in Maiben Park. Homeless people were using Maiben Park as a residence. There were drug use problems. All sorts of problems none of which existed decades ago when I lived across the street.
The articles Jason sent me detailed what Burlington is doing to fix the problems of Maiben Park. This struck me as such a contrast with how things happen in my old home zone and how things happen in Fort Worth. For years now downtown Fort Worth has had a boarded up, cyclone fence surrounded eyesore, a park formerly celebrating Fort Worth's heritage, called, appropriately, Heritage Park.
Fort Worth's Heritage Park had very minor supposed problems which led to its closure, including homeless people using the park's water features for bathing purposes. Supposedly people felt there were security issues. It's been years now that Fort Worth has been unable to figure out how to restore its Lost Heritage.
So, what is little Burlington, population around 9,000, doing to fix the problems in Maiben Park?
Security cameras are being installed which will cover the entire park.
LED lighting is being installed to illuminate the entire park, including the area we always called "The Woods". Apparently The Woods had become popular with homeless people. The Woods is one of the few remaining stands of old growth forest on the floor of the Skagit Valley.
The restroom is being moved to a more open location. And redesigned. Yes, unlike most parks in Fort Worth, Burlington's parks have modern restrooms. Prior to the new one being built several decades ago, the previous modern restroom was built way back early in the previous century. Yes, modern plumbing has existed that long in other parts of America.
Those are just a few of the improvements being made to Maiben Park that I read about in the Burlington Leaders Propose Changes to Maiben Park article Jason directed me to.
Til reading the articles Jason directed me to, I did not realize Maiben Park now has a water feature for kids to play in. And that the Little League field is no longer used, with Little League, and other types of baseball, now being played in Burlington's complex of ball fields which have made the town a mecca for regional baseball games.
Reading the articles I learned that there was a lot of public input into the Maiben Park fixes. How is it little Burlington can bring about fixes to a park's problems, while a big city like Fort Worth dithers and dawdles unable to fix simpler problems in a park celebrating the town's heritage?
Very perplexing....
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