SHOULD CITY OF SHREVEPORT CONSIDER SELLING SOME OF ITS PARKS

Shreveport’s Parks and Recreation Department (SPAR) maintains 63 parks—yes SIXTY THREE! These include 16 recreation centers, 5 swimming pools, and 46 playgrounds. Some of the parks contain all three of these features.
 
The parks range from small green spaces to large multi-use areas with a wide range of activities and equipment.
 
But not all of Shreveport’s parks are created equally in terms of actual usage by residents. Nonetheless SPAR crews must maintain all the parks, cutting the grass, litter pickup, etc.
 
The Recreation and Park Commission for the Parish of East Baton Rouge (BREC) will introduce an ordinance next week to sell a roughly nine-acre Industriplex Park located off Siegen Lane. To approve the sale, BREC must determine that the park has low public value, is in a non-residential area and is in an inaccessible area.
 
This park has been the site of a homeless camp with substantial litter and drug use. BREC must rule if the park is obsolete. If that is determined it can be sold for the appraised value.
 
Many of Shreveport’s parks are grossly underutilized and some of these are in residential areas. Any move to sell a park will require the approval of the Council that the park is, in effect, surplus property.
 
The mention of selling a public park to a private owner will most likely cause an uproar by adjacent property owners and local tree huggers. The city already owns too many buildings and, in all honesty, too many parks. The sale of a park will generate income and reduce maintenance costs.
 
But next year is an election year. One cannot expect the mayor or the council to voluntarily bring up a controversial issue like selling a public park no matter what the reality of use is considered. Politics, practicality, and good reasoning often do not go hand in hand, and this will be the case this year and next when even the thought of selling a public park is mentioned.