This is in response to the Jan. 29 story, “ Residents review awaited park plans .” In the mitigated plan, Lincoln Park Drive was to be retained as a footprint as wide as the current road. Inside that width was to be an eight-foot-wide path from 10th Street down to Sixth Street. Smart planning.
It would have been a safe place for pedestrians to enjoy the very narrow confines of Lincoln Park. The drive would no longer become a river every time it rained, draining and eroding into Miller Creek. It would not then be a venue for loud, motorized traffic careening around the corner (with no shoulder for pedestrians) and reverberating down the canyon of the park. It would have cut down on all the problems vehicles can so easily spew in their wake.
My husband and I have picked up messes for the last seven years as Duluth park volunteers. We’ve labored, conservatively, more than 2,372 hours, at no cost to the city. Other residents do, too. Money used for plowing, repairing, police, fire, and ambulance calls on Lincoln Park Drive would be saved for other purposes if Lincoln Park Drive was closed to vehicles.
It seems, to retain funding, Lincoln Park Drive must remain a road. So be it. My positive solution was to close the gates to make it truly historical. Consider Mackinac Island as a good example. Perfectly and historically Victorian, it is used like it began: horse transport.
So, take your horse, walk, or bike down Lincoln Park Drive. Put up some historical photo signage and benches. Honor the ambience of a park.
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That was the real news at the meeting: 30 impassioned people working on a consensus.
Lynn Watson
Duluth
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