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6 stouffvilk suntribune saturday may 19 2007 sunlribune 6290 main st stouffvilleonl4alg7 wwwyditoegioncom publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director interactive media technology john futhey director advertising distribution barry black director circulation systems lynn pashko york region printing general manager bob dean letters to the editor build paths not roads through memorial park re residents passionate about plans for park may 17 the tail is wagging the dog the first meeting i recall for memorial park planning was in january 2005 the extension of park drive through the park was one issue that prompted the re design of the park and associated lands followup meetings were well orches trated the purpose was to get input to pre pared questions but did not include future residents of neighbourhoods south of the park what didnt residents attending the meetings like in the plan the fact several roads run through the park creating issues of safety and conflicts with other uses another response as it relates to park drive extension road cuts through park safety there was also sadness and some frus tration about the extension of park drive through the park which will eliminate two ball diamonds and strongly segment the park significant omissions in the plan according to residents were create an outdoor performance facility permanent stage for concerts plays festivals cultural events and trail systempathway to hoover park no new roads a common thread found its way through each successive public meeting why extend park drive i found most of the above information after a diligent search of the towns website im waiting for a reply to my email requesting information on the latest in park design i have no doubt the tail is still wagging the dog the questions to be answered dur ing round table discussions were orches trated in favour of the current design which includes a northsouth road bisecting the park i think a walkingbicycle type path could follow the same route for the most part and in the future if the residents to the south of the park make a case the road could be laid beside the trail the overall plan to make the park more parklike would be to expand the likes of sangsters grove the objective to modernize and improve the park facilities is admirable and is in keeping with an expanding popula tion i believe the planners for this project only hear what they want to hear what i heard at a council meeting was that a builder wanted the road to hoover park bob lewis bloomington if youre not happy with coverage speak out as a broadcast journalist im well aware of the chal lenges todays reporters and journalists face in covering stories from tight dead lines and a lack of resources to cor porate ownership and the perva sion of tabloidstyle reporting in mainstream media but as guest editor for a recent saturday edition of the vancouver sun i found out i still have a lot to learn i have never been a news reporter in fact more often than not im the focus of a news story rather than reporting it still i thought i had a pretty good idea of how the news game worked i know news is whats happen ing right now and reporters have to crank out copy fast arid i know daily news is an ephemeral beast i myself have been guilty of picking up a newspaper starting to read it then throwing it down in disgust upon realizing it was a day old yesterdays news just isnt news anymore so it was amazing to find out just howxnuch goes into producing a daily newspaper i was at the vancouver sun for a 12hour shift in spite of the fact i had assigned some stories weeks before there were still dozens of decisions to be made on the fly everything from writing headlines to story placement getting reporters to follow up on leads use of language fact checking and of course meetings meetings meet ings and that was just the editorial part of the day at 7 pm when i thought we had put the paper to bed we were off to the production facility where the paper was printed another whole set of decisions and new challenges the entire process left me exhausted and humbled overall im pretty pleased with the result we managed to include david suzuki some stories i thought would never run an article on the true cost of gasoline in the business section for example a reporter looked into what a litre of gasoline costs society if fullcost accounting is factored into the equation this kind of analysis considers factors normally considered exter nalities in economics things such as air and water pollution and cli mate change when these things are considered gasoline actually costs upwards of 4 per litre far more than the lplus were cur rently paying at the pump throughout the stories my goal was to weave a common thread of sustainability i hoped to get people thinking about the environmental footprint of everything we do and stimulate discussion about how we can do things better it was actually pretty easy to find stories that touched on these issues for every section of the newspaper from sports to arts the reality is our economy and our way of life depends on the natural services that we generally take for granted we cant afford to do that any longer im sure some people will be unhappy with my newspaper because i didnt make it only avail able online to save paper great idea but not an option for the pub lisher car advertisements were still allowed or the stories werent deep enough or didnt cover all the environmental challenges we face in the end it was just one day i hope the edition got a few people thinking in different ways and i hope it gave the reporters and edi tors some new ways to tliink about things too so heres my suggestion to everyone reading who like me gets frustrated with the media and the coverage of certain stories or the lack of it tell somebody if you dont think your local newspaper radio or television sta tion is covering something ade quately give them a call reporters are reporters because they are inquisitive people they like telling stories if you have a story idea dont be afraid to write or call and suggest it environmental problems affect all of us and its up to all of us to solve them me the suzuki challenge at wwwdavid- suzukiorg letters policy the suntribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the suntribunerescrves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space letters to the editor the suntribune box 154 stouffville on l4a7z5 jmasonyrmgcom editorial editor jim mason jmasonyrmgcom interactive media marketing advertising manager dawna andrews dandrewsyrmgcom advertising retail manager staceyallen sailenyrmgcom classified manager ann campbell acampbellyrmgcom production team leader sherry day sdayyrmgcom distribution manager megan pike mpikeyrmgcom canadan ctauhora audxboart meatier ccab editorial 9056402612 fax9056408778 advertising 9056402612 classified i8oo7433353 fax 90564o8778 distribution 9056402612 suntribune a york region media group community newspaper the suntribune published every thursday and saturday is a division of the metroland media group ltd a whollyowned subsidiary of torstar corporation metroland is comprised of 100 community publications across ontario the york region media group includes the liberal serving richmond hill and thornhill vaughan citizenthe erabanner newmarketaurora markham economist sun georgina advocate york region business times north of the city yorkregioncom and york region printing