Dear Editor,

I am writing to express my frustrations with a recent opinion piece entitled “Why Renovate Monroe Park” that was published in your October 14th issue. I feel that while an opinion piece is just that, an opinion, it is extremely important to make sure statements made in that piece reflect fact and not fiction. “Why Renovate Monroe Park?” took an aggressive stance that completely dismissed the other side’s position.

The statement that the renovations of the park “are not gentrification” and that if it was, “it would be better than deterioration” of the park, is just offensive. The definition of gentrification is the displacement of poor residents conducted by more affluent groups of people. If this is the result of the renovations, then yes it is, by definition, gentrification. I would like to know when a park’s image became more important than human beings?

When did we decide that it was more important to have a nice looking park than to have a place where poor people can easily congregate without being harassed for being poor? This also assumes that the park is only occupied by poor folks and is in a state of total disrepair.

I challenge anyone who spends much time in Monroe Park to truthfully believe that the park is in shambles and that students and other people don’t frequent that park. I live in Oregon Hill, so I see the park pretty often. When I go through that park, I see a place of extreme diversity, probably one of the more diverse parts of the city. If there is an absence of middle class families, it is probably more due to the fact that VCU has built up and expanded so far around the park, that it is more convenient for them to go to one of the many parks in the Fan or the West End, than to drive to a park that is in the center of the city, which had its playground taken out years ago.

I still regard Monroe Park as the “heart of Richmond.” If that heart isn’t what we want it to look like, that should be a clue that we are doing something wrong as a community. If our heart is in poor health, maybe we should be spending time and resources on caring for it, not just trying to cover it up.

Nathan Stickel

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