BALL FIELD TRADE OFF

Paul Bauer, Jr.
Anchorage, AK
Oct. 30, 2002

"I do not support this plan at all," says Paul Bauer, former two-time East Anchorage Assembly candidate, speaking on the ball field trade-off.

The proposal from some Assembly members to trade-off another piece of public land from the Heritage Land Bank to the Simonians is another smoke screen from the extreme environmentalist movements in this city. With the same stroke of the pen, Alaska Conservation Voteršs backed Assembly members want to lock-up the "urban wild park" and throw away the key without a public vote.

Where's the compromise? The extreme environmentalists organizations loose nothing in this plan. They gain the most by not loosing any portion of the wild-park as they will with the vote, and they get a major change in the park master plan by having an anti-development ordinance in this city.

This problem is over, when the Simonians kids get their fields in April as it was originally proposed, and the residents of this city still have the option to develop public lands in this park if necessary.

Some members of the Assembly want to avoid having the real public in this matter making the decision on Election Day.

Paul Bauer's last campaigns had him competing with outside funded Alaska Conservation Voters money that supported his past two opponents -- Melinda Taylor and Brian Whittle. The use of Far North Bicentennial Park for ball-fields was in the spotlight during his last campaign, beginning to raise the consciousness of development-oriented people in this city.