Friday, January 28, 2005

Approve Booth Park upgrades

Next month, the Birmingham City Commission will be asked to spend approximately $750,000 to begin making major improvements to Booth Park. Booth, which was donated to the city many years ago by the Cranbrook Foundation, is located across the street from Salvatore Scallopini. Ten years ago, the park was torn up for a major sewer project, and it was never adequately restored.

Booth is a significant city park and serves as a gateway for visitors entering our city from the north. It is on a main street, Old Woodward, and borders the Gallery Row district, the Central Business District and the Mill Pond_Holy Name residential neighborhood. The Rouge River runs through it, and the Rouge Trail terminates in the park. Booth was identified for improvement nearly 10 years ago in our 2016 Plan, and more recently in the city's award-winning recreation master plan.

The commission will be asked to approve improvements to the interior of the park. Upgrades to the corner of Harmon and Old Woodward and a couple of bridges linking the park to Old Woodward and the CBD, are expected to be put off until Old Woodward reconstruction and the Bates Street extension come to the agenda.

A group of city residents has contributed significant time and effort to the plan and will contribute more time and labor building the playground component of the park. The group is soliciting tax-deductible donations for several of the park's new features, thus contributing approximately 20 percent of the cost.

Two years ago, when city voters approved a $25 million bond issue for parks acquisition and improvement, many of those voters envisioned just such improvements to Booth Park. They voted to increase their own taxes to pay for it. Booth Park would consume just 3 percent of the bond issue and cost little more than an affluent family spends on a single-family home in Birmingham. Amortized over a useful life of 50 years or more, the cost of the park is truly minimal.

The Booth improvements are long overdue. The City Commission should approve them without hesitation.