Your Comments: Triangle Park

Your thoughts and comments about a meeting held November 10, 2008 by City of Asheville Neighborhood Coordinator Marsha Stickford and surrounding business owners regarding Triangle Park in the Historic Block District of Downtown Asheville.

Triangle Park Issue

I think that park is very important to the community. I have often seen people lounging within it. It is also in good proximity to the buildings up on Market Street and the street below it. I haven’t seen any dealing there… maybe some alcohol, but then that is legal.

I think the city needs to protect that park for the people as well as it does Pritchard Park or any other park in town. Flowers need to be planted, murals done. It needs to be reseeded in grass, maybe some place for kids to hop-scotch, a chess table, horseshoes, etc. The city has brought in performers to show their stuff in Pritchard Park. Maybe the same needs to happen at Triangle.

I also support a new name for it… after a notable person of color from
around here. I would like to see a local group adopt the park and keep
the litter picked up. It needs to be a place of pride, not a place
where the addicted sleep it off, if that is the case.

Rachael Bliss,
Asheville, NC

Let’s Work Together to Preserve Triangle Park

For over a decade, I worked one block from Triangle Park. In the early
1990s I was frankly uncomfortable near the park, as occasionally men
would call out rude things or ask for money. But, in my experience,
things have improved significantly over the years. Now I am
self-employed and appointments downtown often cause me to pass the park
on foot or in my car.

Rarely does anyone in the park speak to me, but when they do, it is
always a respectful greeting, and I return the same. Not once in the
past five years have I been approached by a panhandler on South Market,
yet it happens often on Biltmore Ave. and Haywood Street.

I hope city officials will honor the cultural history of Triangle Park
and its importance to many of our citizens. If there are problems, we
should work together as a community to try and solve them, rather than
obliterate a gathering place where folks can sit and talk with friends.

Wendy H. Outland,
Asheville, NC

Games People Play

Obviously we have special interest groups advocating for the closure of
triangle park. It is not hard to single out the hidden agenda for such
a ‘sudden’ decision as this. As African Americans we have seen this
type of ‘Gerrymander’ mentality before and we know it all so well. On
the surface they tell us that the problems which led to this decision
are drug use, panhandling, fighting, public urination and open
containers. Certainly, this could be any number of parks in the
Asheville area. Yet there seems to be a push, by unknown people, for
the closing of triangle park.

However, I hear no mention of closing other parks, which seem to be
experiencing worse problems. In one of our public parks there was, just
recently, a dead body hanging from a tree. However, authorities quickly
ruled it a suicide, another way of saying ‘there’s not going to be any
investigation’. In addition there were a lot of the same things going
on in this park as in triangle park.

Nonetheless, they have begun major renovations to this park, perhaps to
make it more user friendly. This is what they do to parks when they are
not used exclusively by African Americans, this is how Gerrymandering
works. It always accommodates the privileged few. Which brings us back
to triangle park. While it may be true that those indiscretions may be
going on, why hasn’t anyone spoken out before now. Furthermore, what
does that say about the police whose headquarters are a few feet away?
Yet we know that shortly the park will be within site of new condos, as
well as, the building site of the new hotel where the Hot Dog King, on
Biltmore Ave., now sits. Could there possibly be some early posturing
going on?

When the park was first developed its purpose was to be a place to keep
certain people pacified and out of site; no one foresaw a development
of a high priced condo’s and hotels. Now the problem is-where can we
move ‘them’.

There are a lot of good things that go on in the park, from preaching
to singing to community gatherings. The park is a symbol of the old and
new, a place to chill and or freeze, if that is what one chooses to do.
Don’t take it, just clean it up. And besides, we do not want to go to
Pritchard park… it’s too dangerous.

Rev. Wayne K. Purcell,
Asheville, NC

Triangle Park vs. Merchants of Greed

I’ve just always considered the park to be an integral part of the
Block that should be preserved for the community at all costs. It seems
like a no-brainer. But of course the power of economics could care less
about the needs of community.
Whenever I pass by I make sure to go in and talk to whoever is there.
I’m sure there are some characters hanging out one should be careful
with, just like every other park in every other city I’ve lived [in].
But you don’t just shut down a park because of a few unsavory elements.
You have to focus on the kids and families who need the park to meet
and exchange the story of their lives. I don’t know the answer. But
it’s not a new dilemma.

There were times you couldn’t safely walk in Central Park in NYC, or
Boston Commons either. But now these giant parks are safe, so there
must be a way that it’s done to satisfy the public. Heavy police
presence would not be the answer. But some form of protection for the
people who just want to enjoy the park to talk seems necessary, a
citizens watch perhaps?
The problem is: if developers want it, they’ll say and do anything to
get it. Here I have few ideas in stopping these merchants of greed.
They have high priced lawyers who seem to be able to snowball
everybody. Our job is to just keep telling the truth, so they’ll know
that WE know.

Stack Kenny,
W. Asheville

A Park For All People

Triangle Park should remain a park for use by all the people, with a
special focus on the African American community and the history of that
part of the city.

Jackie Simms,
Asheville, NC

Lines of Legality – Triangle Park

Regarding the harassment of Triangle Park goers, it appears that City
representatives have crossed the lines of legality, of propriety, and
perhaps even of common sense.

The City should acknowledge past acts of excess and a failure of
imagination in the implementation of the urban renewal process, and
that this park represents a significant part of that failure.

If you can place two people in the same park at the same time, or if
you can show that they converse, share a cup of coffee together, then
you have demonstrated that they share ideas, outlook and, especially
responsibility for each other’s behavior. Rather than demonize
immediate dialogue is needed.

Catherine Mitchell,
Buncombe County

We Have a Serious Problem

I attended the meeting on November 10, 2008 and was surprised
to witness such tension,arrogance, and disrespect in the room. Then
again I should not have been so surprised based on the information I’ve
gathered in the midst of a research paper, The Impact of Urban Renewal
and City Planning.

As most of the time when there is no connection or understanding
there is division. Certainly division based on position and authority
between the ‘haves and have-nots.’ Some of the comments displayed a
complete lack of respect. Also, the lack of an attempt to understand
the thoughts, feelings, and history of others, and the lack of a
willingness to realize that we all (in spite of our unique differences)
share something common — the freedom to enjoy the public resources
throughout Asheville, without being unfairly targeted, or pre-judged.

Of course there are rules and laws to be followed in doing so — and
rightly there should be. But when I heard some of the “park’s regulars”
attempt to discuss the situation, things deeply troubled me, especially
when the officer so arrogantly responded.

When an officer is accused of misusing her authority by writing
citations that banned the “wrong” individuals from a city park, and her
perceived attitude is “oh, well,” we have a serious problem. When you
have individuals who work with the development team that openly comment
that “the area is just part of leftovers” without considering that
there is a group of individuals that value that “leftover area,” we
have a serious problem.

A thought that makes you seriously wonder whether “It’s a Park Thing…
Or is it?” I am an Asheville native, and I have made a concerted effort
regarding any biases towards the meeting, which (by the way) ended
without a resolution.

Nonetheless, I did leave the meeting wondering if
there was a hidden agenda, which is what I’ve discovered during my
research on The Impact of Urban Renewal and City Planning.

One thing is for sure: through lack of trust, lack of respect, and lack
of understanding, there cannot be unity. Those are the very things that
keep the communities divided. In my opinion, for there to be a
triangle, all points must be connected, so why not come together and
allow Triangle Park to be the “leftover” Historical Block District that
starts the connection among the Asheville communities? The fact is that
Triangle Park is one of the very few things left of Asheville’s
African-American Urban Trail.

Priscilla Robinson Ndiaye,
Asheville, NC