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Unpopular opinion: The new city park in Bend is a bad idea for the wrong reasons

I visited the new park off Reed Market Road yesterday and saw they cleared a full 2 acres of native juniper to put in a flat lawn. They spent all that money to make it look like every other park. The real epiphany hit me when I saw a kid trying to climb a single, sad little sapling they planted. We're teaching people that nature is something you build, not something you find. Why do we keep making places that feel fake instead of just leaving good things alone? Has your city done something similar that just made you shake your head?
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3 Comments
angela687
angela6871mo ago
My town paved over a creek for a parking lot.
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grace607
grace6071mo agoMost Upvoted
That part about teaching people nature is something you build really got me. It's like they think they can just swap out real land for a boring green carpet. What do you think the city planners were even trying to fix by clearing all that juniper? It reminds me of what @angela687 said about the creek, just a total miss on what makes a place good.
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robinson.hannah
Haven't you ever had to rip out a juniper that was planted 2 feet from a foundation? Those things are a fire hazard and ruin your pipes. Sometimes they clear stuff because it was a mistake to plant it there in the first place, not because they hate trees.
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