I am for preserving McIntire Park as it stands today. For almost four generations McIntire Park has provided the citizens of Charlottesville ‘a park and a playground’ for young and old alike just as Paul Goodloe McIntire wished when he donated the land to us to the point that grandparents who enjoyed park activities now bring their grandchildren to enjoy the very same activities. It is very much a location that ties the past to the present and, if we act, the present to the future, a community hub for social and recreational use or just a place to find solitude. Until the citizens of Charlottesville speak on this issue the committee I serve on, McIntire Park Preservation Committee, will have worked towards preserving McIntire for over a year. During that time, directly or indirectly, the question has arisen, ‘which is more important, a highway or a park?’ The answer, of course, is ‘both are important’. The problem arises when you want to take one to build the other, to take a public park, given to us in trust, to build a road whose time has come and gone. This is irreversible.

A highway is important primarily for economic reasons. To be sure occasionally there are safety or health reasons but in the case of the Meadowcreek Parkway the proponents’ argument is one of economics. The opponents’ argument is one of an irreversible loss of open green space and there is a legal argument of legal trickery to break the parkway into three segments whose sole goal was to skirt federal laws and procedures. It is not an advocacy by ‘environmental radicals’ or ‘tree huggers’ or by a man whose aim is to enrage his supporters. It is an advocacy of seniors, young families, single men and women, the ordinary citizens who make Charlottesville an attractive place to live and work. Indeed the entire argument springs from gifts from a man who spent his entire adult business life in the concrete canyons of New York and Chicago, two cities of very dense development – a man whose success in many ways depended on economic development and yet had the foresight to appreciate the value to the human spirit and sense of community that an open green space brings to a city.

In my efforts to save McIntire Park I was in the park in late March to video tape a deer herd that lives there. I did not get the deer on tape but surprisingly I did get an adult fox. This video tape is on www.stoptheparkway.com. A good friend suggested I name the fox and that gave me the idea for a short children’s story about wildlife in the park. The Coalition To Save McIntire Park is currently in a legal battle to save the park and to help raise awareness of the issues. To raise money for legal fees I offer this story as a fund raising mechanism to the coalition. One short story, one video presentation, or even a small group of men and women will not save McIntire Park. But a sizable majority of the citizens of Charlottesville in a very public demonstration of support will. City Hall is stubborn but it is our park. It is our right and responsibility to speak out and let our wishes be known. Please come out to the park, enjoy the activities and help us save McIntire Park!

Bob Fenwick

Backward

          Here begin the adventures of McIntire the fox, a young cub separated from his parents and having to find his own way in a world that is ever changing.  McIntire is a wild animal.  He is not a child.  But I am a parent.  My two boys are now young men.  And as I look back on their growing up I can’t help but recognize the similarities of parental nurturing and teaching and disciplining that all creatures share.  Like McIntire my boys learned to adapt and through their life will continue to adapt and like all children they experienced the opposite emotional poles that contribute to the spice of living.  Occasionally our human nature reaches a place that is difficult to understand and experience.  It is these times when there is something about enjoying an open, green space that touches a deep, distant place in all of us whether it’s the solitude of an individual or the sharing of two people or the community activity of a small or large group.  A public park, especially the wide open spaces of McIntire Park, should not be looked upon as vacant land to be developed.  That is how Charlottesville City Council views McIntire Park today.  Let the flowers and the trees grow, let the children run, let the wildlife roam and be thankful that in our city we still have a place to do this.  And, above all, hand the park down to future generations as it has been handed down to us.  Please, help us Save McIntire Park!

Bob Fenwick