Tuesday, May 17, 2011

It's quite a gem, but they don't care.


Thanks to wise land use decisions and careful stewardship, Rock Creek Hills Park is a success story of multi-purpose outdoor recreational space, a small park that succeeds in serving three distinct purposes:
  • Neighborhood park, with playgrounds;
  • Soccer park, with two regulation fields, used by youth and adult teams countywide, including the B-CC High School girls' soccer team;
  • Park setting for the Kensington Park retirement community (which was built on much of the former site of Kensington Junior High).
But more than just serving each of these communities separately, the park also brings them together, as neighborhood children, dog-walkers, Montgomery County soccer moms, and Kensington Park residents mingle & meet in that green kid-friendly space.

Tonight, three staff members from the Montgomery County Public Schools briefed members of the Rock Creek Hills Citizens' Association. One thing that was clear from their briefing is how much the Board of Ed cares about the varied important roles the park serves: Not at all. They just don't care. To them, our park is just a construction site in waiting. Indeed, at the meeting, Ms. Janice Turpin of the MCPS "Real Estate Team" described Rock Creek Hills Park as the "residue" of the Kensington Junior High School site, after the Kensington Park retirement community had been built, and explained that they were "targeting" it for construction.

Our cherished park is their "residue" for "targeting". Good to know.


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