by Kevin de l’Aigle
Have you ever pondered the Masters’ green jacket or the green “Augusta” signs around town? For decades, Augusta has relished and cherished her tradition of green.
Consider the magnificent trees of our city – the great gingko at the Old Government House, planted when George Washington visited; the massive oak at the center of the May Park ballfields; the beautiful allées at Magnolia Cemetery.
These trees are sometimes twisted and crooked, but they reach ever upward, lifting their limbs to a constantly changing sky – filling our lungs with oxygen and shading us from heat and storm. Trees and parks are the lungs of our city.
However, those charged with keeping these lungs healthy over the last few decades have not been faithful stewards of this vital part of our quality of life.
In a recent meeting at the Municipal Building, city officials told us that many of the older trees on Broad Street are to be removed and replaced with smaller trees – including those in Bicentennial Park (Broad Street’s first green space).
We have not seen the final proposals for TIA projects that are slowly moving toward development and will impact downtown Augusta streets. I gather that the website that will show us the plans is still being developed.
The 2015 Cooper Carry plan that consultants developed for downtown is now eight years old. A new Master Plan for downtown recently authorized by the Commission is still pending.
We already have a patchwork of empty lots and minimally maintained green spaces downtown. The questions are many. How will these new plans and processes flow together? Where is the vision and oversight here? Moreover, where is the plan for maintenance?
As a child, I remember there were no trees at all on Broad Street – one of North America’s widest streets at the time. Augustans my age and upward may remember how, every summer, the newspaper featured a photo of someone frying an egg on Broad Street. Is that the kind of sizzling downtown we want to go back to as our climate continues to heat up?
Last year, taxpayers were outraged as we were told the City of Augusta was considering “downsizing” parks and facilities. We hear of hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funds allocated, then another $2 million to hire consultants to help improve Riverwalk, then $7 million to hire other parks consultants, but we see no action.
These are complicated problems, but every commission request for updates from Parks and Recreation is met with no clear answers and stalling for another 30 days to come up with something. Even commissioners have stated, “We keep hearing of plans to make improvements, but none seem to come to fruition.”
Thankfully, Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson says that it is time to remind both residents and visitors of why Augusta is called the “Garden City.” He has pushed for citizens to come out for cleanup efforts, but if taxpayer money were being used properly to maintain our greenspaces, the onus might not fall on citizens to rally for emergency cleanup just days before the Masters.
Go to other cities in this region, and parks are treasured, used and maintained. Look at Savannah, Ga.; Beaufort, S.C.; and Greenville, S.C.; or just glance across the Savannah River at our sister city. Taxpayers deserve better, and we all must demand better.
As we think about the present situation, it is easy to become frustrated and feel like that egg frying on Broad Street. Nevertheless, if we still care about the “Garden City” and what we want life to be like here for ourselves and for generations to come, let us consider the words of the prophet, Jeremiah:
We shall be like a tree planted by waters, Sending forth its roots by a stream: It does not sense the coming of heat, Its leaves are ever fresh; It has no care in a year of drought, It does not cease to yield fruit. Jeremiah 17:8
