The Brady Bunch of Green Space

In May of this year, the City of Independence Parks & Recreation Department produced a list of unwanted surplus properties with the intent to sell those properties for development of housing. One of those properties was the “Brady Green Space” which is on the southwest corner of 24 Highway and Delaware Street and located within the Truman National Historic Landmark District. The setting of this property is on the prominent Delaware Street corridor in the heart of the Truman Heritage District, next to McCoy Park, on the hiking/biking trail marked with National Park Service National Historic Trail signs, within view of the front steps of the Truman Library & Museum, and part of a cluster of parks and green spaces that compliment the setting of this nationally and internationally important presidential library. But its most important attribute is the presence of a swale that is the remnant of one of the first railroad routes west of the Mississippi. Because this route represented national and international commerce on the national trails, this geography has national importance. But for a local government that knows very little nor cares about it’s own history while routinely and deliberately leaving out community stakeholders in decision making processes, our national history was and continues to be in peril. Our civic motto as quoted by leadership at the very top continues to be “We make mistakes ..... in the name of progress.” It’s too bad we can’t learn from those mistakes so they are not repeated. Isn’t that what history lessons are all about?