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Timeless Beauty
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To the Times-Picayune - August 15, 2001
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To the editor:
One of the ironies of Ronald Forman's recent letter
("Renovation Will Help Park," Aug. 14) is that it gives credit for the timeless beauty of
Audubon Park to Forman's own Audubon Institute--the very company whose workers are now
busily tearing up the earth and hacking away at the park's graceful, centuries-old oak
trees to prepare for an unwanted expansion of the Park's golf course.
Truth is,
Audubon Park was a spectacular urban jewel long before the Audubon Institute ever existed.
Credit for the park's 100-year-old beauty in fact belongs to the design firm created by
Frederick Law Olmstead, the visionary landscape architect who created some of the most
celebrated and beloved parks in the United States. At present, there is a nationwide
movement afoot to restore many Olmstead parks to their original splendor, closely
following the firm's original plans. Ironically, our Audubon Institute is doing
precisely the opposite, moving the park even further away from the Olmstead vision
of a public oasis and turning it, by the Institute's own admission, a playground
designed for tourists and high-end conventioneers.
As a French Quarter
resident, I can say that these plans are depressingly familiar: both the Aquarium
of the Americas and the coming insect house on Canal Street are two examples of the
Audubon Institute chillingly ignoring the outcries of residents and preservationists
alike, and instead constructing tourist attractions wildly inappropriate for a fragile
neighborhood. Now that the French Quarter is finally cracking under the weight of tourism
-- the sector nearest the aquarium today has virtually no full-time residents and its
sidewalks are perpetually choked with tourists -- the Institute seems intent on more
fully moving the tourist industry uptown, with the St. Charles Avenue streetcar
essentially serving as a sightseeing shuttle between the Institute's existing
downtown attractions and those planned for Audubon Park.
Contrary to
Mr. Forman's letter, virtually all of the Audubon Institute's plans for the
park were developed in private, away from public scrutiny. The proof of this
is plain: most New Orleanians today still have no idea that the coming "improvements"
to the park include: destroying the Meditation Walk and replacing it with a parking lot;
permanently barricading the graceful old bridge that has spanned the lagoon for
generations; and demolishing the old Greenhouse and Conservatory, along with their
lovely grove of trees.
Over the past year, repeated requests by area residents
for details of the project resulted in nothing more than sketchy answers; most specifics
were not disclosed until late last month, when they were quietly posted in the park.
Not surprisingly, similar stealth tactics were quite successfully used by the
Institute in imposing its insect museum on the French Quarter.
Two decades ago
the Audubon Institute's improvements to the park's zoo were much needed and widely lauded
-- but its leaders appear to have long since forgotten their mandate
"to manage and maintain" Audubon Park on behalf of the city's residents.
Instead, they have almost single-mindedly set their sights on tourism,
steadfastly ignoring the protests of their neighbors and constituents.
They are now hungrily engaged in exploiting the very park they were once
entrusted to preserve.
I urge all New Orleanians dismayed by this
breach of public trust to join the effort to stop the Audubon Institute's
bulldozers by signing an online petition at www.saveaudubonpark.org
(Editor's note: To join our petition
Sign Here
)
Without unified public opposition, this sublimely graceful landmark,
loved by so many generations of New Orleanians, will be irrevocably altered,
and Ronald Forman's l985 book "Audubon Park: An Urban Eden" may well be followed
by a sequel aptly titled "New Orleans: An Urban Disneyworld."
Michael J. Deas
914 Governor Nicholls Street
New Orleans, LA 70116
(504) 524-3957
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© 2001, SaveAudubonPark.org
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