It was with some irony that I read one of the featured articles in the May 27 Gazette regarding the oncoming tick season, which cautioned readers to avoid areas with high grass due to their propensity to host the disease carrying insects.
I had just returned from a bike ride through Central Park, which I assumed would be in top form for the start of the summer season and the Memorial Day weekend picnickers. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
The grass throughout the park was a foot high or more in most spots, including the picnic and lake side sitting areas.
The lake itself was teeming with garbage, including a broken cooler and an orange traffic cone that has been in there for weeks.
The fenced area behind the Music Haven was completely overgrown with weeds and is unrecognizable as the well cared for baseball field that it once was.
The Casino building and deck area continue to deteriorate; sitting unused and unrepaired for years. One wonders if City Parks Director Jeremy Howard ever actually visits the park.
The entrance sign to Central Park boasts that it’s “Schenectady’s Crown Jewel,” but once you move beyond the Rose Garden, it looks more like an abandoned property.
I shudder to think what the less prominent city parks must look like. The taxpayers of Schenectady deserve better.
Mike Carroll
Rotterdam
Categories: Letters to the Editor, Opinion
