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Dont Shut Us Out!
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A letter of support for SaveAudubonPark
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Dear SaveAubdubonPark:
You have my support. I've seen Audubon Institue swallow up and re-create,in their corporate image, all the natural history institutions in New Orleans. And create a few more very flashy ones on their own. Not saying they don't do some good---just saying it pays to know what it is they are about.
So yeah, you've got my support. Tell-em don't dress up Audubon Park like a
cheap whore. Just take care of the Live Oaks, mow grass every so often, and
replant the ones that fall over. Keep the gum off the benches.
Audubon Park is a need for the common New Orleanian. Not a want.
My husband and I were poor struggling young professionals living in Irish Channel over 20 years ago, and found strolling through Audubon Park with binoculars, looking for nesting Parula Warblers and migrating songbirds something thrilling, relaxing, and something we could afford. (it was free).
Don't shut out people like we were, the struggling college students, and locals who work hard for a living, any more than they already are, please.
Frederick Law Olmstead, the Father of American Landscape Architecture, created Audubon Park (I think he designed it???) for the people who live in the city all the time.
I'm talking about the people who fix broken pipes, spray for termites, counsel drug addicts, teach school, operate the water system, police the streets, and keep the grand old city of New Orleans alive. They use the streetcars and buses to get to and from work and making groceries. The people who breathe her moist earth, musty wood old house and auto exhaust smells day in and day out, 365 days a year. The people who know every bump in the sidewalk, take the whole family to the corner bar on Friday nights, only eat Bananas Foster when their backyard banana trees have a bumper crop and rum is on sale at KB, and can't seem to get completely away from the waft of sour garbage and the rumble of delivery trucks. Except for a walk in the park.
They need Audubon Park---it's not a luxury for them. Don't cordon off even
more of it exclusively for tourists, and wealthy New Orleanians who can
pick up and leave for the Rockies or Europe if the city gets too claustrophobic and hard to bear.
Hope this helps.
Miriam Lane Davey
Baton Rouge, LA
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