I recently read an article in the Columbus Dispatch called "Burns Bottom dispute continues to sizzle." Our Seminar in Community Based Planning attended a community design charette in Columbus, Mississippi in early September. The charette was designed to help the town citizens and leaders incorporate a number of elements, most notably a soccer complex, into a comprehensive plan for the city. Now a county supervisor is advocating for upgrades to the existing city parks to be included in the plan. Political grandstanding or responsible activism?
The article is about a meeting organized by last Thursday by Lowndes County’s District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks of African-American elected officials, ministers and community leaders. From the comments section below the article I gather that Leroy Brooks is an outspoken and perhaps polarizing figure in the community. He claims that the city parks have long been neglected and there is nothing in the article to dispute that. He sees some movement happening on the soccer complex and perceives an opportunity to generate support for improving the parks. At a recent joint meeting of the town council, county supervisors and Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority officials,he asked that the city parks be a part of the plan and got voted down. At that meeting, the supervisors voted unanimously to commit $3.25 to the Burns Bottom soccer complex and alleviate the city of any financial responsibility, if the city later pays to renovate the Trotter Convention Center. Brooks calls that vote illegal, because the meeting was considered a workshop. Included in Brook’s suggested improvements are a new building, a rubberized outdoor basketball court and a pavilion.
Brooks wants this all included in a comprehensive recreation plan. He says he supports the soccer complex, but that efforts to improve all the parks should be included with the effort to build this new park. He downplayed the racial aspect in his comments, but Rev. Larry Story of Turner Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church was a little more forthright. From the article:
“I think that’s just a way of saying no,” Story said of the decision to put off further consideration of the issue until a later date. “It seems like the board (of supervisors) has historically been locked around racial lines. I think unless the three-vote majority have hearts of compassion, nothing is going to change, except you’ll see an uprising of the African-American community. People seem quick to jump on the African-American community, as far as drugs and crime, but they don’t want to make an investment in the community. It seems like there’s constant division down racial lines.”
I don't know whether Mr. Brooks or any of the other people from the meeting attended the charette. The design team was very professional and seemed to have done their reconnaissance work well; it seems inconceivable that they would not have approached Brooks or the ministers ahead of time and tried to get them involved. Reaching out to minority communities is definitely in the charette handbook. As I recall, there was some discussion of the parks and it was an item on the flip charts.
The town needs a comprehensive plan about how to improve the parks. I don't think it has to be attached to the Burns Bottom project, but it should be addressed somehow.
It is disturbing to see how negative and even rude the comments after the article are. I guess it is a sign of the times, small-minded, short-sighted people emboldened by the rancor of the August town-hall meetings. One responder said “you stupid ass people…don’t blame anybody but yourselves for putting into office those selfish pricks who waste our taxpayers money on their silly projects.” I hope nobody uses language like that in my comments section!
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