Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward and Councilwoman Jewel Cannada-Wynn want to give the playground in Morris Court back to the Area Housing Commission. The playground has been closed for months.
Escambia County Commissioner Lumon May, who grew up in the Morris Court neighborhood and whose district includes the playground, doesn’t want the community to lose its playground. According to May, problems at inner city parks aren’t new. He believes the City needs to explore other solutions.
“I don’t believe we ought to close any park,” May said on “Pensacola Speaks” yesterday. “I think that we have to find other remedies. We have to increase patrols. We have to put up cameras and better lights. We have to allocate staffing for those hours in which we feel like we’re having a problem.”
The Pensacola City Council will vote on the mayor’s recommendation next week.
Other posts:
Next Pensacola City Hall headache: Morris Court playground – Rick’s …
Nov 14, 2016 - Commissioner Lumon May grow up in the Morris Court area and worries about the impact of losing the playground. He said that he would like …
It might be helpful in future reporting to remind us of what is broken or needs improvement at Morris Court Park and the cost. As I recall, much of the work needed is routine maintenance or small upgrades none of which would cost much money. There is money in the city budget for the park so it is hard to imagine that money is the issue. It really just “smells” as if Councilwoman Cannada-Wynn is involved with a real estate developer looking to get the contact to build the so-called “low-income” housing we do not need. Instead, the City Council should be trying to help raise families out of poverty to include by reducing the burden of city government on them. It is hard to imagine that Councilwoman Myers and Councilman Wingate would go along with this scheme. Councilman Johnson once told me that he is the Council’s strongest supporter of the city’s African-American community. I assume that Commission May has already talked to him. That leaves at least one or more Council member as key votes to kill this idea. Hopefully, if everyone shows up, the vote will be 6-1 in opposition. I have heard Mayor Hayward say that the city has too many parks and needs to sell off some. Councilman DeSorbo made a similar comment in 2008,. When he uttered that shocking assertion, it got so quiet you could have heard a pin drop on the carpet.