Fully one third of our municipal parks lie in the towering shadow or flickering lights of a billboard.

From swings and sliding boards, from gazebos and flower gardens, the view exhorts us to eat, drink, buy, sell, visit and vote.

Friends of Rapid City Parks thinks the view within a municipal park should be framed by trees, clouds and the angles of the swings and slides. Our parks are a legacy for future generations. That means protecting the visual appeal and serenity of this green space in the midst of our busy and growing community.

On June 7, we hope you will join us in supporting consistent new rules that keep Rapid City scenic, and keep the beer bottles and bikini bottoms out of the view from first base, a comfy bench or the sandbox.

You can learn more about the two proposals that will be on the ballot, as well as what citizens are doing to clean up the view of our town, at Scenic Rapid City.

Ride your bike, bring the kids! Friends will have a booth at the Fat Tire Festival featuring games, giveaways, puzzles and more. We’ll be in Founders Park near the big fish from 1-4 on Saturday and Sunday, May 28 & 29.  Enter a free drawing and win a tote full of Friends of Rapid City Parks gear.

Win Parks Gear

An opinion piece pointing out continuing encroachment into the memorial greenway by Friends president Steve McCarthy appeared in the May 21 Rapid City Journal. You can read it here.

South Dakota Public Broadcasting will begin taping this June for a documentary on the 1972 Flood to be aired on the 40th anniversary next year.

If you lived in Rapid City during the flood and are willing to tell your story, SDPB wants to interview you. According to reporter Charles Michael Ray, the video documentary will also examine new USGS information on the major floods of Rapid Creek in the past 2000 years. The piece will also delve into current development issues in the greenway and broader flood plain.

Flood survivors who want to share their recollections can contact:
Charles Michael Ray
West River News Producer
South Dakota Public Broadcasting
2040 West Main #302
Rapid City, SD
57702
Charles.Ray@state.sd.us
(605) 394-3363 (office)
(605) 391-0475 (cell)
1-866-771-0162 (fax)

RAPID CITY—Friends of Rapid City Parks is asking the city council to reconsider giving the nod to construction of yet another building in the memorial greenway, an act the organization describes as “desecration of sacred ground.”

“We don’t object to another field house; we want the city to find another location that would serve the recreational needs of our community” said Steve McCarthy, president of Friends of Rapid City Parks. The organization was founded to protect, preserve and promote Rapid City parks and has fought development in the greenway, set aside as a memorial to those who died in the 1972 flood.

“In the years since then,” McCarthy said, “more than 60 structures have been erected in the park. If we don’t stop encroaching on this sacred ground, our park land will be nothing but a strip of bricks and pavement through the heart of the community.”
McCarthy pointed out that the city has community gyms at South and West middle schools, and  justified construction of a new Central High School gym on park land because it will serve as  a community recreational facility.
Friends objected to construction of the swim center and ice arena in the park in 2002, and has spoken against expanded parking lots that have paved over acres of greenway land along Rapid Creek.

“We understand the rationale of building the new field house in a central location on land the city already owns, connecting to existing buildings,” McCarthy said. “But that land is not ‘free.’ It came at a very high price. We are asking the city to keep its commitment to the memory of those who paid for it with their lives.”

A proposed $7 million field house that fits between the swim center and the ice rink, provides gym and recreation space for adults and kids, and was envisioned in the original plans for the swim center got a preliminary nod of approval for $3.4 million in 2012 Vision Funds from the city council last week.

Friends of Rapid City Parks opposed the original building in Roosevelt Park in 2002, the ice rink in 2003, and objects to use of 2012 Vision Funds for the third component—the field house. All three projects stand on sacred ground:  the memorial greenway designated after the 1972 flood.

The Rapid City Park system is a wonderful ribbon of green running through our city. This legacy created as a result of the tragic 1972 flood has been called the “jewel of Rapid City.” It is a refuge from the noise of the city, a place to picnic, jog, walk our dogs, bike, and for our families to participate in a variety of outdoor recreational activities. It would be hard for any of us to think of Rapid City without it.

But this jewel needs to be protected, polished and cherished. In the nearly 40 years since the Flood more than 60 buildings have been erected in the park, the most recent a new gymnasium at the expanded Central High School. If we continue at this pace our wonderful parkland will be nothing but buildings and parking lots.

Friends of Rapid City Parks do not oppose recreational facilities. What we object to is the assumption that because land is in the greenway it comes without a cost. The cost was paid dearly in lives and property in 1972. The community made a commitment to honor that loss with a memorial park, not with shoulder-to-shoulder sports facilities.

We cannot afford to use this narrow green ribbon to stack building after building, pave acre after acre, install one facility after another to accommodate recreational demands.

We need to expand our park system with acquisition of green space and land for recreational facilities away from the center of town. Rapid Creek and the greenway along it cannot continue to bear the brunt of every demand for parking, buildings, tracks, pools, and other amenities related to our amusement.

Contact your city council members to let them know you don’t want another building desecrating sacred ground.  The link will take you to the city council page where you can email members.