The City of Napa City Council is discussing dissolving the Department of Parks and Recreation
Why does the City of Napa's Parks and Recreation matter? Ask the park users at Westwood hills, seeking a connection to nature during the shelter in place order.
Ask the thousands who take their dogs to Alston Park to stretch their legs and run their pet, and those with small children who’ve had to explain to their kids why they can’t go to the playground right now.
Ask the parents who can’t take their children to preschool at Las Flores, the seniors who can’t play their weekly game of cribbage, the kids who can’t attend their programs, their fencing or swimming.
Go to the Oxbow on July 4th and feel the emptiness when the Independence Day celebration is cancelled this year.
Imagine if no one empties the garbage cans downtown, how quickly trash will line the sidewalks. Imagine if no one mowed the grass in front of City Hall or pruned the trees on 1st Street in front of your favorite restaurant. What if the grass in your neighborhood park was never mowed, the tree that had fallen never removed, and your family couldn’t throw a Frisbee, and no one pruned the shrubs on the sidewalk so you had to walk in the street?
Imagine if no one cleaned up the trash piles along the Vine Trail from the nearby
encampments or the 5-gallon buckets of human excrement left next to the ballfields at Kennedy Park. Who will clean up after the unsheltered resident who sleeps at Fuller Park—before your children play there?
Parks & Recreation is a close-knit department, and we rely on every part of our team to do our work. We get up at 4am to make sure downtown is ready for business. We open the gates at sunrise, and we make our community a home and a nice place to raise a family.
We do all of this for the citizens of Napa. And without Parks and Recreation, the City of Napa not only will be turning its back on the employees of the Parks & Rec, but the citizens, like you, who enjoy these public spaces, activities and invest in them in every dollar you spend in our community.
We must be ready for the families that will head to the playgrounds, return to the senior center, desire and look for recreation programs for their children - when this shelter in place is over.
Let the City of Napa Council know you care about these spaces, the services to provided to you and your family, and the importance of them by signing this petition.
