Dispute continues over replacement parkland

The problem of lost parkland from construction of the Obama Presidential Center has jumped out again as the Center has suggested that 1.6 acres of their roof’s open space will be publicly accessible and should count as replacement park acres. 

Charles Birnbaum, president of the national Cultural Landscape Foundation, rejected these arguments, calling them “bean counting” to get to a “magic number” of park acres. 

He said, “A park isn’t a park when you have to go through barriers or go to a roof to see it.”