Keep our public parks public

Have we forgotten the role of parks in our democratic society? Public parks are the best humanitarian expression of a free people. Preemptive privatization and commercialism of public parks is the "taking" of public land for private gain.

Gas Works Park was designed for free, spontaneous recreation. The park challenges us because it's unconventional and enigmatic, stimulating the imagination. The open prospect from meadow and hill offers the best view of Seattle's skyline and yet curiously serves as a place of refuge. In this unique setting, we feel close to both nature and machines from our industrial past — yesterday and the moment.

The original gas plant was the primary source of Seattle's energy from 1906 to 1956. Today, the giant towers preside over an assemblage of recycled structures. The park and its master plan were unanimously approved by the 1971 City Council. Gas Works Park pioneered the public reuse of industrial sites. To save something is equally important as it is to create.

From this city and state historic landmark, people view the interplay of the Independence Day fireworks and the towers. The Peace Concerts held there allow us to express our views and celebrate in a different way. Friends of Gas Works Park and the coalition of citizens for the Gas Works Park legal fund have always encouraged free, open public concerts and festivals at the park.

A recent incident, however, has reminded us that the same city that established this unique urban recreation place has drastically changed its notion of how it and other parks should be managed.

The proposed Summer Nights concert series there would use the park as a semi-permanent, intrusive, extensive and long-term venue. The city parks department scheduling brochure for 2006 stated that space for event reservations other than the concert series would "be limited" from May through September, adding:

"When planning your event, please keep in mind that the concert venue will consist of fences and other large equipment that will remain in the park during the entirety of the summer."

Is this how we want to utilize our precious open space? There are better locations in our city for a summer concert series.

The decision to site the Summer Nights series in Gas Works Park was made without public process or an environmental review. Citizens, notified after the deal was struck, were outraged.

What city officials kept from the public is now out in the open. The interagency correspondence obtained through the state Public Disclosure Act shows that the considerations given to public involvement were perfunctory, if not illegal. There was no serious or responsible review of environmental, community or park impacts. Friends of Gas Works Park and the coalition of citizens for the Gas Works Park defense fund filed a petition in King County Superior Court for an environmental review that the city would not perform voluntarily.

The manner in which the city made its decisions was wrong. City officials now have an opportunity to do it right. If city officials value open spaces, an environmental review should be a required procedure to provide checks and balances that would ensure long-term environmental protection for the common good.

Seattle is a city of neighborhoods and communities. Citizens, through patterns of pleasure and time, often over generations, become invested in and bonded to their park or parks. Just the awareness that a place is set aside for planned or spur-of-the-moment outdoor enjoyment nourishes our collective well-being.

The public is a primary, not a provisional, guest of our public parks. We are the donors and taxpayers who made our magnificent park system possible.

At the Feb. 25 parks rally in front of Woodland Park Zoo, citizens from all parts of the city protested the Seattle Parks Department's enterprise policy. This is the time to reset these misguided policies. We must ensure that parks are free, open public spaces and acknowledge the democratic role parks play in our society.

Richard Haag who founded and is professor emeritus in the University of Washington's Department of Landscape Architecture, designed Gas Works Park. He is married to Cheryl Trivison founder of Friends of Gas Works Park.