Letters on Cowtown boardwalk, Riverside project, Sedgwick County Park, GOP health care

Plastic boardwalk is historical travesty

Did you know that Old Cowtown Museum is in danger of losing its most iconic structure (April 27 Eagle)? John D’Angelo, director of Wichita’s Arts and Culture Department, selected a contractor and scheduled work to replace the iconic boardwalk with plastic imitation wood. He claims to save money, but it is ridiculously expensive to replace all of the boardwalk at once, and it is scheduled to be done during the tourist season, interfering with visitors, staff and volunteers.

Gone will be the historically accurate streets of Victorian Wichita, and a film industry seeking to film in authentic Western scenery. You will not hear the clink of spurs on wood from an 1875 cowboy. It will be replaced by hollow echos of plastic. Instead of counting on the wood for traction in rain, be careful of the slippery fakes.

With losses from in-season construction and the film industry, Cowtown stands to lose thousands after buying this historical travesty. We must stop this, but we have to hurry.

Reconsider project

After attending the District VI Advisory Board meeting on April 19 at Evergreen Center, where the main topic was a proposed development near 13th at Bitting in Riverside Park (April 21 Eagle), I have the following observations.

A well-organized group of protesters verbally rejected a progressive plan to start the revitalization of an area in serious decline, the start of which was to be a new 60-unit low-income apartment building for senior citizens. The building would displace a generally rundown, mismatched group of old houses, an old trailer park and deteriorating structures of nonhistoric value, with trash and open sewer pipes around the area including the river south of 13th.

It’s hard to imagine anything of historic or natural beauty on that parcel of land. As an individual who has lived and land-lorded close by for 40 years, in addition to owning a property on the disputed building site, I’m quite familiar with the feelings and politics of both sides of the issue and consider myself rather neutral about it all.

However, what is being naysayed and missed is an opportunity to stop the hastening decline of a neighborhood in need of resurgence and a chance to raise property values and improve the drive-by appearance of this once great intersection in Riverside Park.

I hope all parties settle down and reconsider the many advantages of changing this area from an armpit to the fresh smiling face of a new revival project.

Wonderful park

While recovering from shoulder surgery and having to discontinue my fast-walk golf play for a while, I rediscovered a near-perfect place for both exercise and aesthetics – the Sedgwick County Park in west Wichita.

This quite large area offers myriad well-managed hard surface trails, excellent for walkers, joggers, bikers, families with strollers or pets, skate-boarders, and ponds for fishers. The choice of paths assures the visitor a near unimaginable number of different scenic experiences, each enhanced with beautiful natural landscape, plus birds, squirrels, bunnies and, alas, insects.

My now frequent visits are eagerly anticipated, as each time there I am guaranteed a unique time with nature, which embellishes my basic need for regular challenging exercise. Upon recovery from the surgery, the links will now be competing with this exemplar of our tax dollars well spent.

To be sure, I recommend a visit, to exercise or discover an excuse of your own. It’s free.

Leash your dog

Several years ago I was attacked and bit on the face by a dog while out for a run in my neighborhood. This required stitches to lessen the possibility of scars, but the internal scar, the fear of dogs, remains.

I now drive to public places to run, such as Sedgwick County Park, because of the leash laws in place. On at least one in five runs at the park, I encounter dogs off-leash. I have to stop my running and ask the owners to “please leash your dog.”

Many comply but others do not, saying, “My dog is friendly.” One of those “friendly” dogs started barking, ran at me, and jumped on me – just like the “friendly” dog that bit me.

Because of my past experience, when I encounter dogs off-leash, I often erupt into hysterics, which I cannot control. This ruins my training for the day and would not happen if the dog was leashed.

Please, make the park experience pleasant for everyone. Please follow the law and leash your dog.

GOP opt out

So through no fault of your own, you or a family member has or has had cancer, asthma, allergies or other myriad of conditions that would be deemed pre-existing. So under the revised Republican health care plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, Kansas could opt out of electing to cover pre-existing conditions, meaning you would have to go into a “high-risk” pool, which translates to unaffordable.

Kansas could also opt out of the essential benefits secured under the ACA. That means no maternity care, pediatric care, ambulance coverage, etc.

Meanwhile, while we regular citizens are subject to this plan, Congress is exempt from these rules. Shouldn’t they be subject to this plan they are imposing on us?

A latest poll shows 61 percent of Americans want the ACA to be tweaked, not replaced. But it doesn’t seem to really matter what we want.

If you like this plan, you are really going to like President Trump’s tax plan. Same trickle-down, supply-side, Arthur Laffer-failed concepts that have Kansas on the brink of bankruptcy.

It’s a waste of time to contact our national Congress representatives, as they only rubber-stamp these Republican policies.

Lack of respect

I watched a women’s group on the news recently. It had as a guest a women who is wanting to run for president. They all laughed and made derogatory remarks against our president. They called its “satire humor.” I never saw this type of humor when Barack Obama was president.

I also saw a news report about an art professor in Alaska who painted a picture showing Trump’s severed head. This is what ISIS does to anyone who goes against its beliefs. I would not allow any of my children to attend such a destructive school.

This story was originally published April 30, 2017 at 5:04 AM with the headline "Letters on Cowtown boardwalk, Riverside project, Sedgwick County Park, GOP health care."