``We'd like to see our children treated as well as the other children in the city,'' said Priscilla Hawk, a resident of Country Club Estates. ``We'd like to see equal representation. Our children have no place to go.''
The dispute centers largely on a gymnasium that residents want to see in their community.
In August, council members turned down a proposal to buy vacant land near
the intersection of U.S. 441 and Sunrise Boulevard for the gym. Residents
wanted the gym as part of a $21 million capital improvement plan presented to
the City Council in June 1999. It was backed by a petition signed by 1,355
residents.
DIFFERENT SITE
Most council members want to build the gym on a piece of land at 46th Avenue and Fourth Street that the city gained in a land swap with the Broward School District.
Councilman Lee Hillier said residents have long been opposed to the 46th Avenue site, partly because of traffic and flooding concerns.
``It's like trying to put a round peg in a square hole,'' he said. ``It just doesn't fit and it can't work.''
According to a statement issued by Hillier, the neighborhood has only nine acres of park land for 14,000 residents, though 56 acres are needed to meet city standards.
Councilman Bruce Edwards said he questioned the accuracy of those figures and complained that the gymnasium dispute was getting lost in a larger improvement plan for the Park East neighborhood that went before the council for review Wednesday. The plan, developed with some residents' input, addresses several other issues such as signs, landscaping and traffic.
``I just think you've got a small group that has found some hot buttons, and they want to push them,'' he said.
Hillier said the neighborhood, which is largely minority, is being discriminated against. He said the city has spent $12 million west of the turnpike on parks and only $650,000 east of it.
``They don't care about the area,'' Hillier said. ``The expenditures prove the lack of concern.''
During Wednesday's City Council meeting, city officials disputed Hillier's
figures on Park East, saying the parkland acreage is far greater and the
population is less than he said.
EFFORT DERIDED
Councilman Ron Jacobs called the rally a ``scam'' by Hillier to force the council to do what Hillier wants.
``He's scared that he will not be reelected so he has to hit a home run,'' Jacobs said.
Jacobs said the city is planning to form a Community Redevelopment Agency to revitalize the area along 441 and that part of the revitalization would include more parks.
``It takes time to do these things, but we're going forward,'' he said.
But residents say they're tired of waiting. ``We've been fighting this for over five years; now we're fed up,'' said Dennis Conklin, who lives in Park East.