I would like to join the voices thanking City Council for deciding to make the Ridge School
lot into green space. My wife and I have lived on North Prospect next to the schoolyard for 26 years,
and we plan to stay here as long as the neighborhood remains liveable. Our son and other neighborhood
kids played in the schoolyard as they grew up, and I have watched over the years as organized teams and
pickup teams of school-age youngsters, college students, and adults have used the space for softball,
soccer, football, and basketball. In other words, City Council has decided not so much to create a new
facility as to maintain and expand on a community asset that is already there. In the past two or three
months, three families have purchased property in the neighborhood.The balance of rental housing and
family housing that has made this area an interesting and pleasant place to live is thus continuing. The
Ridge Street park will serve the large number of residents who do not live near Carter Park, City Park,
Simpson Garden Park, Kenwood School, Crim School, or Wintergarden Park. Many of these residents are
lower-income families who deserve residential amenities like the ones that people on the west and south
sides of town enjoy, and many are students who provide much of the economic basis of our town and also
deserve a place to meet, play, and walk their dogs. It is sad that the school building will be gone, but
most new uses would require rezoning. The rezoning of the East Wooster-Prospect area will serve
businesses and their customers, and we don’t need additional encroaching non-residential zoning in our
residential neighborhood. We welcome the Ridge park project with open arms!Geoff HowesBowling Green