Published on: 05/21/2004
PIEDMONT PARK
Responses to "Battle of North Woods,"
Metro, May 20

Property always 'usable' somehow
How can the director of the park "conservancy" speak in such utilitarian terms and suggest that the area under question is not "usable"?
Is there any value in a piece of forest if it is not "usable" by humans? Why assume that because we can't use it as a park that no creature finds it "useful"?
Maybe Mother Nature is using it to keep us from choking on carbon monoxide. What is not useful as a park becomes useful for parking.
JIM STREET
Duluth

No need for garage
In reply to Piedmont Park Conservancy Director Debbie McCown's words that the hill is not "usable" park space -- maybe not usable for human feet, bicycles, cars, etc., but what about leaving it alone because it's beautiful, it harbors other species and it cools and cleans the air?
Forget about trying to justify its existence by labeling it "historic." How about this: If you don't build it, they won't come. Since we are continually reminded of Atlanta's bad air quality, why is another parking garage even being considered?
DEBORAH WILKES
Cartersville

More imaginative thinking needed
About a decade ago, Piedmont Park lovers united to stop a badly conceived plan to put a sewage treatment plant on the eastern corner of the park. The result was truly innovative -- the plant was moved to an obscure location outside the park, designed so that it is hardly noticeable, and the eastern corner of Piedmont was left intact to take its current shape as a wide-open field for running, playing Frisbee, sitting and looking at clouds or whatever.
We need that sort of imaginative thinking now, and the last thing the conservancy should be advocating is anything that would despoil the increasingly important patch of green space called Piedmont Park. Why do the conservancy's conservation efforts always seem to involve a backhoe?
PAUL LEAVITT
Atlanta