In answer to the question of what you can do to help the Olmsted Conservancy maintain a role in the upkeep
of the parks, David J. Colligan, chair of the Olmsted Parks Conservancy
Board of Trustees, announced several "call to action" items the community can
join, in an effort to encourage Mayor Bryon Brown to complete park contract
negotiations.
Colligan,
who held a presser in in Martin Luther King, Jr. Park this morning, said there
is no new contract information to report because there have been no face to
face meetings with the Mayor.
Colligan
said that the Conservancy's trustees met in special session yesterday and
drafted a community action plan that includes the following actions:
· A
Public Rally in support of the Olmsted Parks to be held this Sunday, December 13
at Noon in Martin Luther King, Jr. Park. Everyone is invited to attend, meet at
the large statue of MLK by the Fillmore and Best entrances to the park.
· Sign the Olmsted petition at www.buffaloolmstedparks.org, endorsing your support of the Conservancy's work over the past 5 years.
· Call
the Mayor's office and voice your concern.
· Write
letters to the media endorsing the Olmsted Conservancy's work and sharing your
park memories.
"Since 1978,
when the Conservancy was formed as a "friends group" to advocate for the parks
- through today, our mission, as a not-for-profit, independent, community
organization has been to promote, preserve, restore, enhance, and ensure
maintenance of Frederick Law Olmsted-designed parks and parkways in the Greater
Buffalo area now and for future generations," Colligan said.
"Frankly, it
is challenging to follow through on that important community-based mission
because we have not received any paperwork from the Mayor's office indicating
he wants the Conservancy to continue as stewards of these historic landmark
parklands."
· Continue
the maintenance and restoration of the parks and to keep them as one of Western
New York's jewels. The Conservancy raises as much money as possible to help
keep our parks beautiful.
· Negotiate
a contract with the city so we can continue to serve the people of Buffalo and
Western New York.
· Maintain
a diverse and skilled staff of landscape architects, arborists, and zone
gardeners, some of whom began on public assistance and have worked hard at the
Conservancy to create careers for themselves and are now independent tax paying citizens
of our community.
The
conservancy asks you, the public, tax payers, park users, businesses, tourists,
and foundations - those who have supported our efforts and those who truly care
about clean, safe and beautiful parks, please help them to keep their role as
park stewards of these treasured green spaces. "Our partnership is one of
the best things in Western New York because it has worked so well,"
Colligan says.
For more information on how to support the Conservancy: www.BuffaloOlmstedParks.org
Ok, I get it now - the public should demand that the city government writes Olmsted a blank check for anything Olmsted asks for. Anything less is evil.
Nice spin: "because there have been no face to face meetings with the Mayor"
No one is asking for a blank check. How about a check with any number, so Olmsted, their employees and their families know whether they still have a job in 3 weeks.
Chenango>"How about a check with any number"
Are you saying the city hasn't offered "any number"?
If at this ppoint in the negotiations the city and Olmsted are $2M apart (as the Olmsted chair said yesterday in the Buffalo News - linked in previous BR articles), then doesn't that mean the city did offer "a number" - just not as much as Olmsted wants?
Obviously the two sides haven't agreed at this point, but how exactly do the facts that are publicly known prove the city is being 100% the bad guy and Olmsted is 100% the good guy?