The greatest improvement for our neighborhood would be for us to have the use of Forest Park for all of our families.
At present, the northern part of the Park between DeBaliviere and Skinker is used for a golf course and general automobile traffic moving for the most part into the county.
I propose to close what is known as Grand Drive between Jefferson Memorial and Skinker, the Forsyth cutoff, Laguan Drive and the Fine Arts Drive to the Art Museum and return this land to full park use.
The closing of the streets in this manner would give us new areas of park land and areas which would be safer because there would be no through traffic at our end of the park. The new mounted police would find the area easier to control with the elimination of the automobiles.
Access to the park would be through the entrances at Jefferson Memorial and Wells Drive at Clayton and Skinker Roads. “No Parking” on Skinker and Lindell should be enforced thereby insuring neighborhood use of the park.
The plan has several advantages: (I) Lindell and the Forest Park Expressway can more than handle the east-west traffic. (2) Mounted police will be far more effective with no thru traffic. (3) This land will once again be used by the people of this area instead of being used as a traffic artery and parking lot.
If we all work together as a community, as we have so successfully on projects in the past few months, we can save the park from the pervasive automobile and return it to the people.
Mrs. Jane Hart, 6256 McPherson
Originally published in The Paper, April 1971.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1971_04.pdf, printed page 6.
