QP: Portland Parks are Wrecked

Full Text: You would think that Portland Parks and Rec is on a roll. Since 2013, the city has opened six new parks. Last year, Portland voters approved a property tax increase expected to bring in an additional $48 million a year to the parks department. Even so, the city has put off park maintenance. It’s gotten so bad that 73 of the city’s 103 tennis courts have fallen into disrepair. You may believe that, with their facilities deteriorating and money for repairs lacking, Parks and Rec would be grateful for any group of citizens looking to help. You would be wrong. Fed up with only half of Sellwood Park’s tennis courts being usable, the retirees of the PDX Pickleball Club decided to take matters into their own hands. They raised $9,000 of their own money to repair the courts and, in alignment with Parks and Rec’s eventual plans, convert them to pickleball courts. But just two weeks into their work, Parks and Rec ordered them to stop. They were told they would need to pay $1,000 to apply for a permit and, if accepted, an additional $2,500 per week in rent while the repairs were being undertaken. We’re entering an era of do-it-yourself government. We have people filling in their own potholes. We have businesses hiring their own armed security. Now we have people maintaining their own parks. If the bureaucrats can’t do the jobs we hire them to do, they should at least get out of our way when we try to do them ourselves.