At the risk of attracting cyber-stalkers, I'm going to give away my location: I live on Arroyo, which runs off of Drake Street.

Some of you who have been around Fayetteville long enough may remember that Drake was supposed to have been an east-west transportation corridor. The city built about a half-mile of it here and then just stopped. The road just ends, with a pile of bulldozed deadfall at the end, and a small corridor of woods with heavy undergrowth (and a fair amount of illegally-dumped garbage).

I, and my neighbors, live within spitting distance to Gordon Long Park, along with the Scull Creek Trail. If we want to access this park, we have to get in our cars and drive all the way around to Gregg Street and fight through the construction.
But if we want to walk to the park - a distance of less than a quarter mile - we have to first climb around piles of deadfall, hack through the brambles and shrubs, then either go through a swamp of ankle-deep mud *or* climb up a hill and trespass on Lindsey property. For a normal family who wants to take their kid for a Sunday walk, this is not accessible; forget about anyone with even a mild disability.

There is street access from Gregg Street, a busy thoroughfare that's being widened as I write. Lindsey Properties has generously provided it's Appleby Apartment residents a paved path off the street to the park. But for the other residents living near the park, the city may as well put up a "keep out" sign.

I wrote to the Trails Committee, and the Parks Committee, asking for a short access trail to be built from the end of Drake to the Gordon Long Trail. Matt Hilhevich, from the Trails Committee, wrote me back and said the city just doesn't have the budget for that at this time. He suggested, in the meantime, riding down Bob Younkin to Appleby and accessing the trail there.

First, Appleby between Bob Younkin and the trail is a near-vertical hill, and the traffic is not safe for cyclists. More importantly, I'm not a cyclist. I'm a resident of the neighborhood this park is in, and I want to be able to walk to the park. Walking three times the distance is out of the question. If the city can make the Scull Creek Trail the top priority for this year, it can damned well make sure that the trail is accessible to everyone possible. And the park itself, regardless of the trail, is OUR neighborhood park. If the city can pay to make sure cyclists from other parts of town can access our park, then it can pay a little money to make sure the residents can access it.

If you want to send some e-mails to support this cause - the right of citizens to have pedestrian access to parks - here's who you can contact:
Connie Edmonston, Parks & Recreation 444-3471

Matt Mihalevich, Trails Coordinator 444-3416