Save Our Parks

Austinist shudders to imagine what life would be like in our green city without our amazing (and bountiful!) parks. After all, we've grown awfully fond of whiling away early evenings at Zilker Park, teaching our puppy how to swim in the early weekend mornings at Bull Creek, and running around the shores of Town Lake.

But lately we've noticed that several of these nature havens have fallen into disrepair - whether by trail erosion, vandalism, or the lack of sufficient maintenance - and this we've found disheartening. Sometimes it can be painful, as well.

With the recent budget cuts, it looks unlikely that our city will be increasing its efforts to revitalize our parks. Luckily, the Austin Parks Foundation is more than willing to step in. Only, because they have limited funds, they're targeting a few "high-priority" parks to restore.

Which is where you - fellow neighbor - come into the picture. The Park Foundation needs your comments and suggestions so that they can choose which parks are most in need of repair from "graffiti, trash accumulation, eroded trails, broken bathroom and water fountains, inadequate drainage, invasive species, and more."

This APF page links to a quick survey. Austinist highly recommends that you take five minutes from your hectic schedules and help them out - they're our parks, after all.