Future looks grim for tar ponds park

Letter to the editor from Leonard MacNeil
Cape Breton Post
Aug. 10, 2012

The park that will be built on the refurbished area we knew as the tar ponds should be called "Lifestyle Memorial Park."

What would a park that reflects today's society look like? All walking trails should have deep ruts from all-terrain vehicles and motor bikes. Each side should be littered with paper and Styrofoam cups and plates, with an occasional condom or syringe. Benches should be smashed. The light standards must be rusty and bent, with the wire removed. Garbage bins and shopping carts should be full, so the contents can blow around. Washrooms should be filled with water, with copper pipes removed and fixtures smashed. Statues should be overturned and broken. Sheds with siding should have burn marks. There should be vulgar remarks and swastikas on kicked-in doors; spelling need not be accurate. An uprooted tree is a bonus. A park is not a park without excrement on slides and see-saws, plus swings minus chains and smashed picnic tables.

Not only do today's societal norms not bode well for the park's future, the location is questionable. There should be a big sign with arrows on it that tells you what government financed the park and a little sign on the chain link fence in two official languages saying "this land may be contaminated."

The problem is not fixed, it's just covered over. But it's done by a group who are experts in the field, and I'm not referring to the contractors or workforce. And, by the way, who will own it?

Leonard MacNeil
Sydney