[HX_Guy]

I attended the Patriot's Park meeting tonight and found it to be much better then the last one, very informative.

There still seems to be a feeling from the supporters of Patriot's Square that the developers are not listening to them and to the public, while the developers are pushing that they are listening and kept repeating themselves, almost pleading that they truely are listening and don't know how to show it and make people believe them.

Personally I do think they are listening from what they have said and presented. They created a list compiled from 94 pages of comments from the public and took out the key wishes of the public and put the in a list...

Events
Entertainment
Connectivity
Shade
Destination

The list is much longer but as was mentioned at the meeting, the park is only so big and only so much can be done with it.

They did state that it will not be a park with a softball field or football field.

It does seem like they are going toward a direction of a "destination" and from the pictures they presented of other spaces around the country, it looks like it will end up as a public space but with a hardscapes, fountains, art sculptures, etc...not large grass areas with huge trees where you can lay out a blanket and have a picnic. It will probably end up looking something like the center of Desert Ridge or the center area of Kierland Commons or the new Westgate in front of the AMC.

Personally I wish we could of had a large green area with grass and trees, I envisioned a mini Central Park NYC but there clearly isn't enough space.

They mentioned that a rendering has not yet been put together as they are still in the process of listening to the public and after the Feb 8th meeting, a rendering of the park will be put together sometime after that.

There were lots of comments, most, if not all, supporting the CityScape project. There was still some opposition to it becoming "high end" and that diversity need to be maintained which to me is a bunch of crap. I agree diversity is good...but what diversity is there now that it has to be maintained? There's homeless bums there and really not much else. Claiming "diversity must be maintained" sounds like beating around the bush from saying "We don't want the bums to be relocated" If there was true diversity down there now, we would see bums with the rich there together, but I definately don't see that many of one group living and shopping in the downtown area.

Alright...I think that's about it on the meeting and my thoughts.