Ashland's riverfront park

I really wish I could have been in Ashland, Ky., yesterday afternoon for the groundbreaking ceremony (which for some reason I tend to type as 'ceremoney' ... hmmm) for the new riverfront park.

Harris Riverfront Park used to be one of my favorite places, but it hasn't been for about three years now. Here's why:

One spring day in 2005, I dropped my older son off at school. To make things simple, we brought his little brother along. His preschool class started at 9 a.m. Having 60 minutes to kill, we went to HRP. What we found at 8 a.m. was a collection of people who looked like they slept at the park or planned to set up a panhandling business there. The park was nice, and the river looked really good, but the people at the park gave me bad vibes. I got my son out of there.

In recent years, as the park has deteriorated, I've thought a lot about Rudy Giuliani and the broken window theory of governance. Huntington has a lot of broken windows. Sometimes I wonder how much it would cost to get Giuliani in here for a couple of months so he could apply his experience in New York to what we're going through here in Huntington. It's not like he's going to be busy for the next four years, you know?

Back to Ashland ....

If the good people of Ashland were to ask me for my advice on how to prevent their new park from suffering the same problems as HRP, here are five tips I would give them:


1. Keep it active. The more people that go in an out, the less comfortable it will be for people who want to be permanent residents.

2. Maintain it.

3. Keep it secure. That means a visible and frequent police presence. There's a reason people drive 10 mph slower on Ohio Route 7 than they do on W.Va. Route 2. People in Ohio have a healthy fear of the Ohio Highway Patrol. You never know where you will see an OHP trooper, or where he will see you first.

4. Make it pedestrian-friendly. You can hardly walk to HRP from downtown Huntington, mainly because there's no traffic signal to protect you when you cross Veterans Memorial Boulevard.

5. Actively market the park and the city to passenger riverboats. The park will give boats such as the Delta Queen and the Mississippi Queen a reason to stop in Ashland. The passengers can tour the town, and the boat crew will buy potable water, hardware, other supplies and services from local businesses. But the boats must have a reason to stop. Look to Point Pleasant, W.Va., for what a park and a reason can do.

Here's hoping Ashland's park looks better in 2028 than HRP does now.