Alpine Park Plan Progresses
Excerpt from Alpine Sun
District 2 Supervisor Joel Anderson said that he has lived in Alpine for 35 years in the same house.
“That park was promised to my children. Now I have grandchildren,” he said. “I would like for my grandchildren to play in it in my lifetime. While appreciate all the rich people that live across the street from the park, that live in a gated community, and how they have room on their own property for their children to play in, there are a lot of poor kids in Alpine that have no place to play. This will be the first and only park in Alpine. I have had many caucuses that have come and spoken to me, and I have been very open minded. But using the tactic that they are for the park but not here, but not with this, or not with that, they are not for the park. They have a park. It is called a backyard. The kids living in the apartments. The kids that want to play little league baseball do not have a park. Yes, it is true, we have some schools, and we have some ballfields, but during COVID for two years, they had no access to any of it. This park would provide for that. It is one ballfield.
“I do not agree with everything in the park because I am not going to use all of it. But I appreciate that it is a regional park with something for everybody except those who would deny other people’s children access to a park. They are looking for perfect when literally the people need good. And this is really good for our community. We hear from the planning chair. He got elected in Alpine and I got elected in Alpine. He would never be elected if everybody was opposing it. If this were 50% plus one were opposed, nobody in that planning group would have been elected. But they all got elected because the vast majority of people that have kids do not have time to call in or come down here. They are too busy taking their kids to El Cajon, to Lakeside, so they can use soccer fields and baseball fields there. They are in their cars all the time creating carbon because there is nothing in their backyard. We have 20,000 people in the greater Alpine area. We deserve a park. It has been too long.”