I just read a blog by Charles Kuffner entitled “Who Doesn’t Like Parks?” The blog is addressing the use
of $166 million in bonds to go toward parks and the fact that the state Republican
Party is against it. The authors’ intended
audience is Houston residents that have children or like to go to parks
themselves to exercise or ride bikes.
Kuffner has been living in Houston for 10 years and is a grad student
from Rice. His blog “Off the Kuff” is
Texas’ longest running political blog.
Kuffners’ main argument is that he doesn't understand why the
Republican Party would not want to use that money to go towards something like
the up keep of parks or putting in new trails.
He makes great points like the fact that taxes are not being raised
in order to get this money, it is coming from a bond that isn't being used for
anything else at the moment. One point he
makes is that “there’s never been a better time to float bonds, with interest
rates at historically low levels.” He even mentions the economic benefits of
having parks and bike trails because it attracts businesses to the city.
The only thing I feel like Kuffner could have done better
would have been to show some numbers.
Instead of making just claims like “parks and bike trails are key to
attracting businesses,” show the readers some hard evidence of these
claims. Maybe bring in numbers of businesses
that are surrounded by parks and bike trails versus the numbers of companies that
are not. Overall I feel he had a fair
and legit argument. I agree, don’t Republicans ride bikes too?
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