Richard,

I have been involved in homeowner associations since 1992, in detroit with 1,300 residential area and here in Sharon Meadows at 176 homes.  Your words ring true and until it happens, people look up out of the sand at an issue and wonder how it happened.  I am in some ways surprised at the lack of outcry from residents.  I wonder if Greentrees and the residents in the condo's next to the park are responding?

Hello All,

I can appreciate and understand those of the mindset that the Parks, Library and other facilities shoud be for Southfield residents only. I actually thought about this and wanted to monitor this. However, I think it would be tough to block residents from other cities from using our facilities. As a Southfield Planning Commissioner, we try to think about what will enhance Southfield when making our recommendations. We certainly want Southfield to be more appealing to others which will bring monies to our community. If other residents start to trash our facilities than that is another story but until than I beleive it would be a tough task to monitor residents from other cities. As far as the Library goes, maybe we can make sure everyone that uses the library has to check in first prior to using the facility. This may also be tough to do.

I also think the baseball diamonds would be an addition to the city. I am of the mindset that any positive upgrade that would enhance the city is a plus. We have certainly been in recent meetings where we have plans of upgrading the City center in order to appeal to others. In my opinion, the addition to the parks is certainly something that will be part of that enhancement.

We don't want individuals coming to Southfield trashing things but we certainly don't want to run them away. I have seen cars ride through neighborhoods and throw garbage out the windows, which I report. I than find out that they are not from Southfield. Therefore, we all have to take part in always reporting these acts no matter when it occurs. Certainly people from other cities may not feel the pride of those who actually reside here. However, we can't penalize the majority because of the few.

When people know than they respond. We have a plan before us for a Brain Injury facility to be built on Evergreen north of 12 mile (where the vacant Athletic Facilty is now). At first no one responded but when the residents of the condos heard about it they expressed their concerns. Maybe word has not circulated yet.

RichardM,

I totally agree. When people are directly affected by a proposal or issue than they take action. Those that live near the Park certainly will have a stronger opinion. I try to take cities wellfare as a whole into consideration, however, those that are directly affected can hold a lot of weight. A change of direction only occurs when the voice of many are heard. "The Squeaky wheel gets the Oil."