The Endless Debate Over Kennewick's Public Park
Commercial club members revive the persistent campaign to establish a city park, citing community needs and municipal competition.
When the sun travels high and the mercury runs wild, when collars wilt and sagebrush curls, the Kennewick citizen’s fancy longingly turns to thoughts of a cool retreat where birds sing and river breezes blow. So comes again Kennewick’s city park. The park question has been up and down, vetoed, tabled, pigeonholed, buffeted and hammered but it won’t stay down. It came up at the Commercial club luncheon yesterday, and is now in the hands of the city interests committee. A strong sentiment for the park exists; Dr. F. M. Crosby even suggested favoring a park at the expense of passing up the Grape Carnival this year. E. Sly noted that Kennewick was the only town he knew of that had made no provisions for a park, and that even the little town of Richland was ahead of them.
“The park question has been up and down, vetoed, tabled, pigeonholed, buffeted and hammered but it won’t stay down.”
The struggle for accessible green space has been a staple of civic discourse in Washington for over a century. The comparison of Kennewick's facilities to those of its neighbor, Richland, highlights a perennial competitive anxiety among Tri-Cities municipalities.
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