Should City Parks Be Available To Buffalo Residents Only?

One of the great reasons people choose to live in Western New York is the quality of our parks. When you consider that the parks in Buffalo were designed by greats like Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted, it's not hard to see why.

The City of Buffalo boasts some of the greatest parks in the nation, and considering that Buffalo is the best-planned city in the world, it's no surprise that people come from far and wide to frolic around town.

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Since parks are truly a resource for everyone, the general consensus is that they should be accessible to all. Unfortunately, that sentiment is not equally shared among communities in Western New York. All over Western New York, you can find all sorts of wonderful parks in the various villages, towns, and cities that are run by local governments, the county, or the state. You have places in Chestnut Ridge, Evans Town Park, Delaware Park in Buffalo, Niagara Falls State Park, and more.

But as great as these parks are, not all of them are available to everyone. Many of the parks and beaches in Western New York are only available to certain people.

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Recently, the Town of Cheektowaga was having a problem with the system it uses to verify residency for people to use its parks. They posted about it on their Facebook page and decided to waive the residency requirement until they worked the bugs out of their systems.

Places like Hamburg Town Beach, Evans Town Park, West Seneca Parks, and others are reserved for residents of those towns only.

Other areas, like the Town of Tonawanda, make their parks and facilities available to non-residents if they pay a use or access fee.

This makes a lot of sense. If the taxpayers of that area pay for these places to be built and maintained, then they should have a right to reserve them for their residents.

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Now, while many places reserve their parks for themselves, Buffalo makes its parks available to everyone. If that logic seems fair, then perhaps it would be reasonable to ask this question:

Should City Parks Be Available To Buffalo Residents Only?

Since Buffalo's residents, taxpayers, and businesses support the development and maintenance of the various parks, both Olmsted-maintained and City-maintained parks, maybe it's best that City residents have exclusive use of its parks.

Or perhaps the City should charge non-residents a use fee and use the Buffalo Police Department to enforce residency rules, just like in other areas around Western New York.

Parks Should Be Available To All

Personally, I think that parks are public resources that should be available to all, especially in the 716, where we all proudly claim Buffalo.