Check out the Feedback page of the July issue of D Magazine ~ they published my letter to the editor! #publishorperish D magazine doesnt post links to the Feedback page, but here is the letter nonetheless: Eric Celeste’s article is a snarky piece of pablum—calling the Old Lake Highlands town hall meeting a witch-burning, calling White Rock Lake “crap”—and was designed to draw me and my fellow neighbors offsides with misleading statements. Also wrong was that the meeting was never about “smart growth and sustainable development,” because the idea of developing the people’s parkland is neither. The purpose of the meeting was to let the developers, Rick Kopf and Lyle Burgin, know that the park proponents were not going to take part in visualizing any development whatsoever on Boy Scout Hill, hence, there was negligible back and forth about the menu, view, amenities, parking, etc. The idea of the meeting was for them to leave thinking it is time to end their planned six-month-long tour of neighboring neighborhood associations and throw in the towel. Thankfully, we achieved those goals. The reason the Old Lake Highlands board decided to invite the developers to present their proposal at our spring general membership meeting, and open it up to the public “town hall” style, was because we felt like the homeowners and the developers had not had a chance to meet face to face for civic discourse in a proper public arena. The groundswell of opposition to the proposal was passionate and proliferating, much more than the “vocal minority,” as Kopf labeled those of us in attendance. The two gentlemen needed to see what I was seeing: the citizens opposing them are the type who would chain themselves to trees and lie down in front of bulldozers to stop that particular spot of earth from being turned. Kopf and Burgin are fine fellows, and I’m sure they will do well in their future endeavors, thanks in large part to the free three-page advert (with photograph) you, D Magazine, gave them. But if Celeste wants a rational reason why we rowdies, not bullies, shot down the plans for a development in White Rock Lake, I will give him one: because we, the people, said so. CHARLES WICKER President, Old Lake Highlands Neighborhood Association
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 20:17:53 +0000