October 23, 2019
Dear editor;
I am writing to make an appeal concerning McCarty Park in Aurora. My husband’s family home was across from the Park which is in the near East Side of Aurora. The Park’s purpose is to be a sanctuary and my mother-in-law spearheaded its restoration in the 1980s.
Near the Park is Wayside Cross Mission. It is a clean resident mission where lives have been restored for 90 years. No one hangs around the Mission and residents go through excellent programs.
Mayor Richard Irvin, believes our downtown can be revitalized by offering living for wealthy, high tech, trendy, artsy individuals, and they will not come if there is a Mission downtown which as alderman he voted to allow to be rebuilt. He wants it out, so he wants to turn McCarty Park from a sanctuary to a playground to manipulate the law to move the Mission out. There are two playgrounds within walking distance already. Words of fear are spread insinuating a false threat of the Mission’s presence. It is false that a park is needed.
Even if you do not live in Aurora or near the Park, call State senators and representatives and Aurora aldermen to block the grant funding for McCarty Park. If trendy people won’t live near this beautiful Mission, I am uncertain they will revitalize Aurora. Rebuild Illinois is based on money not yet collected, so we do not need useless grants.
I asked the mayor if his brother, who had success through resident living at the Mission, is welcome amongst the perceived trendy population or must he reside elsewhere?
Please call to block grant funding.
Marjorie Logman,
Aurora