McEuen a 'place making' opportunity

McEuen Park's waterfront location between Tubbs Hill and the city center provides a unique chance to shape its character and features so it can be a special place for the entire community to use and be proud of, for everyone, young and old, in the whole area to enjoy. This is an opportunity not to be taken lightly or left to chance, but to be viewed creatively and with enthusiasm. While being phased in to allow fund-raising efforts for the different elements and features, this park's promise is its unsurpassed potential that can be a legacy to the community's future, not for us as much as for our children and grandchildren, from now on.

As a Coeur d'Alene native who has been a boater on our lake practically from birth and actually lived as a child in the apartments at Mullan Park, which became McEuen Field, I have been looking forward to the opportunity of community park "place making" the McEuen property presents since even before the 1st Walker-Macy planning sessions resulted in the city forming the Urban Renewal District. One of the long-stated aims has been from the beginning to allow redevelopment of the city's McEuen property into a vibrant community park, allowing "the greatest number of uses for the greatest number of people."

The question has long been how to best use this amazing place for our kids and grandkids. This space is now blocked off by ballfield fences and crumbling asphalt parking lot.

Certainly, removing the asphalt car and trailer parking from the waterfront and giving the very best lakeshore pretty much anywhere to the use of the people has been a goal of every study that has been done over the past 20 years or more for revitalizing Coeur d'Alene, once proudly known as "The City by the Lake."

Concerns have been voiced about the timing of the proposed McEuen Park project when folks are strapped financially, many are out of work, and times are tough for almost everyone in one way or another, businesses and individuals alike.

However, doing this project and doing it now makes all the sense in the world. Creating jobs and bolstering existing companies today, or as soon as possible when the work is needed, will not only put people and equipment to work, but the cash flow from those paychecks will run through the community. The paychecks spent on construction will turn over many times as the economic spinoff surges from store to store and business to business, cash register to cash register, and on to more paychecks as the money circulates again and again. The multiplier effect of new dollars being spent numerous times throughout a community when introduced into the system is a well-known principle of community dynamics. It also makes all the sense in the world for the community to do that kind of self starting at a time when our companies and people need the work the most.

Beyond that is the clear benefit of doing a project when prices are down for materials and contractors are willing to put people and equipment to work at lower costs because they need the jobs and are glad to have the chance to do a project in their own hometown. I know of several earthmoving and equipment contractors that are working out of the area wherever they can to get the jobs and keep their people and equipment productive. You can get a lot more done for the same dollars in a down economy, and, if the funds are available, it just makes sense to put people and companies to work when they need it the most.

... And, ... the end result is ... the community gets a park that can be a new legacy not only for us, but for the youth of this great community into the future.

We know it will all depend on the projected costs being covered by the planned funding sources before moving ahead, and some elements will have to be done in stages as funding becomes available, but I just want to say thank you to not only the mayor and council but to the supporters for doing the right thing to move this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity forward now. Doing it as soon as we can will benefit not only us, but our kids and grandkids for generations to follow.

The stunning new library and the Kroc Center are some of the best examples of how good this community can be, and, like King Cole and other community leaders in Spokane long after their vision of Expo '74 transformed an old rail yard into Riverfront Park, our mayor and City Council will be looked back on as visionaries in our own time, and this Lake City Park will be a legacy for us all.

Please take this opportunity to move this beautiful hometown park opportunity forward right away, when the people and community can best benefit from it.

Sandy Emerson is a Coeur d'Alene resident.