For a number of years, the park officials put on a special Halloween event which, until recently, consisted of rides through the park at night. It was scary and a great way to show off the park. In the past few years, however, the event has been gradually moving down the street closer to where the houses are than to where the park entrance is. This year there are kleig lights across the street from the first house down from the park and another series of kleig lights a little further up the street, pointed in the direction of the houses. It is as if there is not this 640 acre park up the street.
Now, I think it is great that the DCR has functions for the public that draw attention to its great resources, but that is not what this event has become. In addition, it would be so easy and resonable to do this event by moving it back up to the park where it originally was so there would be less disruption to the neighborhood. But the DCR apparently is clueless or do not care.
This may seem trivial to some people out there, but to the people who live in this neighborhood, it is not. Like I said, IT IS WHERE THEY LIVE. In addition, what I have described is just one of a long series of actions by the DCR in this neighborhood that seem to ignore what effect their actions might have on the people who live here. The residents have complained, but their complaints get nowhere. So much for the grassroots and so much for the little people mattering.
The neighbors’ concerns sound reasonable, as you have described them. As they told me at a statehouse orientation session for legislative aides years ago, however, there are at least three sides to every story.
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p>It sounds as if you have ongoing concerns about specific issues in the parks in your area. How many DCR sessions have you attended to express your concerns directly to the parks managers, instead of just posting your concerns on this political website? Have you gotten in touch with a legislative aide at the office of your state Rep. or state Sen. to see if they can shed light on the issue?
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p>When I was at City Hall, I remember that a local woman had a chronic complaint about a carnival that took place at a municipal park every year. She had an apartment in an old high school that had been converted to residential units. The park – known as the Common – had been used for public functions for decades, and the carnival was massively popular, drawing tourist dollars and local families. This woman’s issue could never be fully addressed – the carnival was not going to be rearranged in a way that would suit her, even though she felt she had more rights as a person living adjacent to the site.
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p>I hope you and the other neighbors can work out some ground rules with the DCR. Or maybe your local selectman have guidelines for outdoor events (we set up a packet for our City with permitting info, crowd control and parking regs., rules about lighting and noise, etc.) they could provide to the DCR. Local rules aren’t binding on a state agency, but they would probably respect local practices.
I would suggest that you get the neighbors to make another concerted effort to make DCR aware of their concerns. Here are some contact ways…mass.parks@state.ma.us or probably the best way by phone calls at 617-626-1250. The more of the neighbors to express their concerns the better. I would also suggest that people be encouraged to express their feelings in a non-confrontational manner.
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p>But as always probably the best thing to do is to have the neighbors contact their state rep and let them know that they would like the issues to be addressed. Whatever the name, the agency is still much more likely to react to legislator pressure.
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p>I also want to point out that if this is the park I think it is, this event is probably the brainchild of the Friends group and not DCR employees. This particular friends group is very influential. Perhaps the neighbors could join the friends group to help influence future activities and represent the neighbors’ concerns.