The government is facing massive deficits at federal, state, and local levels. Overall, the country faces financial turmoil and the housing sector is in crisis. Its time to think outside the box. Moon Tramp suggest legalizing mind-altering drugs to increase federal revenues but that seems like a health and safety risk that will ultimately hurt the US economy. I have another suggestion to increase City funds -- sell off land designated for parks.
We have tons of underutilized land in this country. For those of you living in Portland there is a prime example: Forest Park - the countries largest "urban" park. But we all know the truth - it sits empty and unused 99% of the time. You could get lost for days in there and not see anyone. I'm pretty sure some spots haven't been touched since my Dad flew in a few thousand years ago. Do we need such waste on what could be prime urban hillside real estate? I think not. You want a hike? -- drive 20 minutes outside the urban growth boundary. If this land was sold to the private sector not only would the City reap a huge windfall, but you'd have a housing boom and create construction jobs. A win-win.
And while Forest Park is the biggest culprit, its not the only one. What about Laurelhurst park? While it is clearly better utilized per square foot, its mostly just a glorified dog park/bathroom. People, we build sidewalks in this city. Your pooch will be just fine walking on them. You want to play basketball? Go to a gym and quit trying to milk the government. We could have hundreds of houses or donate land to enterprising businesses. It could even be an urban farm. The economic possibilities are endless!
But why stop at the local level? By privatizing "national" parks we can sell off the parts no one cares about or sees. Have you been to the grand canyon? Its massive! But 95% of visitors just hit the parking lot in one spot or maybe hike down. Well, how about we charge people more to go to that spot, let a private company run the thing efficiently, and instead of "funding" national parks, they can provide a perpetual revenue stream. And for all the excess park area that no one sees - it can be sold off to mining companies. Again, the economy benefits, jobs are created, and most people can enjoy parks just like they did before. You say "win" I say "win". Win. Win!.
So instead of watching a bunch of hippies joyously littering our streets with spliff butts and crowding our hospitals and increasing our medical insurance costs with lung cancer and emphysema, lets let everyone in on the CHANGE party. But I'm preaching to the choir here, none of you use parks very often, so they won't be missed.
May 7, 2009
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4 sucka ass fools had something to say:
I say get rid of the library system first. I used the park 20x more than the library.
And you wonder why I don't blog much here. All you liberals are too stupefied to respond to my ideas. Or maybe just too busy bowing to King Obama?
Ptera, since you have been around for so long, have you noticed a decline in the conditions of your natural habitat over the course of human industrial development? If not, then I say privatize everything and squeeze profits out of rocks. However, if types of economic growth irreparably sully the earth, then we should probably find a better measure for economic growth by including environmental losses in the %GDP change.
Decline. This word is up for interpretation. Ptera is down with change. I may not have the forests I once had but now I have a cellphone and interporks.
There is plenty of "natural habitat" outside of cities. Urban parks are bullshit in the USofA.
Moon Tramp brought up one way to raise revenues, and I brought up another because I see parks as one of the most inefficiently used resources available. That is the way we're framing this debate. For each potential revenue stream there are associated costs. Since I like humans alright, I'd rather see them ignoring non-parks (as opposed to the parks they currently ignore) than dieing off or wasting away under the influence of drugs.
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