Re. Community rallies to rebuild ‘Purple Park’ after suspicious fire at Edmonton school playground,” July 14 Read More
Re. Community rallies to rebuild ‘Purple Park’ after suspicious fire at Edmonton school playground,” July 14 The devastating fire at the St. Pius X Elementary School playground and the subsequent fundraising efforts to rebuild it highlight the inequity of playground funding in the city of Edmonton. Many don’t realize that playgrounds on school division land
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The devastating fire at the St. Pius X Elementary School playground and the subsequent fundraising efforts to rebuild it highlight the inequity of playground funding in the city of Edmonton. Many don’t realize that playgrounds on school division land receive no guaranteed funding and rely on parental fundraising for hundreds of thousands of dollars, whereas playgrounds on city land are fully funded, resulting in a massive disparity in play spaces across the city.
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Considering this playground required a decade of fundraising already, under no circumstances should parents or the community be fundraising for any portion of the rebuild of this playground. If this were a playground on city land, there would be no expectation for any fundraising or any dollars from the community to rebuild.
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Thus, the Edmonton Catholic School Division and Alberta Education should do the right thing; show respect for the parents and volunteers who already worked 10 years for this playground, and commit to fully funding any part of the playground rebuild not covered by insurance.
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Monica Marchand, Edmonton
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Get rid of dreamers on city council
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Edmonton’s city council is not an engine of economic growth. Its infrastructure projects often destroy economic value: 80 electric buses that mostly don’t work; 15-minute cities which are great if you’re not a senior or have to drive to work; open-season infill housing that reduces your net worth; quietly changing civic washrooms to unisex at great expense without asking the public if this is wanted; the war on cars; building civic buildings at three times the necessary cost; destroying smooth traffic flow on critical roads like 132 Avenue for a bike lane; giving buildings historical designations which makes it three times more expensive to rebuild historically, et cetera.
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Worse was the habit of accepting homeless encampments wherever and which degraded neighborhoods; essentially council was letting the indigent determine housing policy. The problem is this council’s starting mindset is to attain its social or ideological goals without thinking through all the consequences. We need a city council that’s an engine of economic growth, not one that destroys economic value in the name of ideology. It’s time to get rid of the dreamers and elect a council that can efficiently run a corporation with a $3-billion budget.
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Allen Boychuk, Edmonton
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