City makes it difficult on Tift Community Market

As a vendor of the Tift Park Community Market, I have a question: What is going on with Tift Park? The city gives the Community Market access to the tennis courts, but denies access to the road through the park, which is vital for vendor and customer parking. That makes no sense.

The city says they want to preserve the old Carriage Road through the park … really? I don’t think a carriage has been ridden through the park in over 100 years (and I have lived here most of my life).

Why punish the citizens of Albany who actually use the park by denying access to the park? Where’s the logic?

How is blocking off the road a help to anyone visiting the park? You cannot access the tennis courts for the vendors, customers cannot park without walking quite a distance after they park, the produce vendors now have no place to set up (in previous years they set up in front of the restrooms).

We have many families and elderly people who used to visit the park on Saturdays to see friends, to purchase produce and enjoy the morning in the park. Now they cannot because there is no access.

It appears to me that the city government wants the Community Market to fail. They provide no support and no interest in the success of the endeavor.

Remember, the reason we fought so hard for the Community Market was to keep the Phoebe empire from swooping in and destroying it with residential housing.

So, I ask the city government, is that your goal? To destroy our local park for the financial gain you would receive if the park remains unused?

Is this just another ploy by the city government to move the Tift Park Community Market downtown? That’s what it seems like to me and others involved in this project.

Bonnie Clark

Albany