BY JAN BARNES
Los Alamos

I have just realized that Los Alamos County plans to proceed with building a bicycle park in the open area west of the dog park. Seems to me they already built a bicycle park over by the tennis courts and nobody ever used it. It’s now being used to dump construction debris. Why not revitalize it?

When FEMA wanted the land to place trailers on for those whose homes burned in Cerro Grande, that property was semi-developed. When FEMA moved out, they refused to leave the infrastructure in place because the county could not profit from the FEMA-ville development. At that time, we battled with the county to keep it as open-space. There was a volley-ball court, which, like the bicycle park, was never used. That was repurposed for the dog park, which is a heavily used property and a good addition to the area.

The county seems to make a lot of promises it doesn’t keep. When we established Tsikumu Village, I seem to remember statements that the area now encompassing Big Rock Loop would never be developed. Hmmm. Then the FEMA-ville area was brought up. We have fought to keep it open-space before.

This is a highly-used area where people from all of the North Mesa neighborhoods walk, fly kites, and play from dawn till dusk. Now the county wants to “fix” it so that only a limited number of people will have any use for it. Somehow that doesn’t seem fair or fitting. Not only that, but IF it gets used, it will increase the traffic load on San Ildefonso, which is already problematic. How did this decision get made? Almost certainly not by the people who live in the area!!!!