A good letter to the Hour by Arthur Santella:
This is in response to Michael Mushak’s letter of Aug. 28, titled “Citizens entitled to more facilities at Vets Park,” and a previous letter of May 2007 telling us how much Norwalk needed a miniature golf course in Veterans Park. When Mayor Moccia reviewed the proposal and the plans, he decided it was not suited to be in the park. That should have given Mr. Mushak some clue as to how unpopular and out of place this proposal was.
Mr. Mushak, a landscape architect, portrays Veterans Park area residents as affluent landowners — recent purchasers of expensive real estate. He seems to have selective amnesia or does not even know or care about the fact that it was not always a park. It was a gar-bage dump, a wetland, and later, when it was filled with 10 feet of mud to make the park, we had the stench and the view of acres of rotting mud along with the problem of fighting off hundreds of displaced rats for years.
The next thing the residents had to put up with were problems with vandalism, drag racing, drug dealing, and drunks skidding out of the park at all hours, smashing into our cars and property located on Seaview Avenue. It was only after years of complaints from neighborhood residents that this problem was finally eliminated by the administration in office at the time and carried forward by the present administration. This was done by ordering increased police patrols, enforcement, and closing the park at night.
Regarding Mr. Mushak’s reference to manicured lawns and mansions with picture windows, my home was built by hand by my father and grandfather in 1947, which is a far cry from the mansion that Mr. Mushak suggests it is. The homes you see around Vets Park, like in any area of Norwalk, are a direct result of the hard work and pride that the residents have for them. Vets Park area residents, like all Norwalk homeowners, perform renovations as they can afford them. In many cases, the work is done by the homeowners themselves on the little time they have outside of their demanding jobs as is most of the landscaping. Certainly there is no one that I know that can afford the services of a landscape architect.
In his letter of Aug. 28, Mr. Mushak attempts to divide Norwalk into affluent Vets Park area residents and everyone else. These divisive comments could not be further from the truth.
I am a retired Norwalk firefighter living on a fixed income. For more than four decades I have been one of the decent, hard-working Norwalkers that Mr. Mushak refers to — one who often had to work three jobs to make ends meet. The Vets Park area neighbors I know are all trying to make ends meet as well. No one I know of from this neighborhood is hobnobbing around with Warren E. Buffett, Malcolm Forbes or the Hiltons. In this and a previous letter, Mr. Mushak makes references to New York City’s Central Park in an attempt to compare it to Vets Park in Norwalk.
Let’s examine the facts about his claim that the two parks have a lot in common.
* Veterans Park is 33 acres and Central Park is 843 acres
* Veterans Park has one or two police officers on patrol and Central Park has its own 500-man police precinct.
* You can see from one side of Veterans Park to the other. Central Park is larger than two of the world’s smallest nations. It is almost twice as large as Monaco and nearly eight times as large as Vatican City.
* Veterans Park is surrounded on three sides by open water. Central Park is landlocked.
* Veterans Park is surrounded by Norwalk’s population of 86,000 people; Central Park is surrounded by a city of 8.5 million.
Mr. Mushak makes this type of comparison to support his claim that it is necessary to hand over public-owned park land to private enterprise to hold down tax increases. A combination of simple math and open eyes would easily lead one to the conclusion that this is not necessary in Norwalk.
Norwalk’s Recreation and Parks budget is a relatively small 1.4 percent of Norwalk’s overall annual operating budget. If anything, Recreation and Parks has slightly declined relative to Norwalk’s overall operating budget over the past three budget years as compared to 2001-2004. Anyone who frequents Norwalk’s parks (including Calf Pasture Beach) can plainly see that the Recreation and Parks Department has greatly improved facilities and expanded programs and activities while taking up a smaller share of Norwalk’s overall budget.
If Mr. Mushak has such concern for Norwalk, I challenge him to use his time to keep a closer watch on such things as the Gault Tank Farm proposed for his area of town and for increased truck traffic in his own neighborhood from the new Route 136 truck ban.
Norwalk is not only a lifelong home to me and my wife but also to my children, grandchildren and many family and friends. Can he say the same holds true for him? I have a history dating back to the early 1960s of publicly expressing concerns and ideas on issues of interest to all Norwalkers — not just a single issue.
If Mr. Mushak spent more time in Norwalk’s Vets Park area, he would clearly see that the marvelous diversity in the people who live, work and play here is a true representation of all of Norwalk’s citizens. Please stop trying to draw an artificial line whose end goal would be to enrich the wallets of private business owners and landscape architects.
Arthur A. Santella is a resident of Norwalk.
