Whiff of fresh air for downtown parks

It's time that Seattle got serious about transforming its neglected downtown parks into clean, green areas that can be enjoyed by hurried residents, tired tourists and caged office-tower workers.

Mayor Greg Nickels should be applauded for creating the Downtown Parks Renaissance Task Force. The committee's charge is to transform Seattle's 10 large, downtown parks, seven small parks and seven squares, which are overrun with the homeless, defaced with graffiti or abandoned. The committee has come up with good suggestions, such as having unarmed, uniformed security guards called "Park Rangers" enforce park rules; creating a division in the Department of Parks and Recreation to run downtown's parks, and putting fencing around some parks.

The City Council should take the committee's suggestions seriously if it wants to create a livable downtown. The mayor and the council have visions of a family-friendly downtown, replete with a school. Families will not come if there aren't clean and safe parks for children.

Parks are more than just places for families and lunchtime getaways for suits. Parks are a city's reflection. Too often, ours are a grim vision of Seattle. Too many downtown parks have deteriorated to the point of being littered lots devoid of anybody but the homeless. Public parks should not substitute as shelters.

The state of some Seattle parks also gives the city a whiff of indecency. When parks are abandoned, any modicum of decency evaporates. Try having a picnic at Victor Steinbrueck Park with goods bought from the adjacent Pike Place Market. Tough to do while being panhandled as the smell of alcohol permeates the air.

City parks are downtown's oxygen. Seattle will gasp for air until these respirators are allowed to become vital points of civic life.