How ironic that Coach Whiteside mentioned the editorial about Miccosukee to me last night as he dragged me around on a run.
Article Comment: Cross Country Banished: Save the Mikkosukee Greenway Course!
Cross Country Banished: Save the Miccosukee Greenway Course!
As many of you know, Leon County decided that the 2008 meets would be the last cross country races held at the beloved Miccosukee Greenway. Most people consider this to be one of the best (if not the best) cross country courses in the state. Teams often travel from the most distant reaches of Florida to the FSU Invitational each year just because of this course.
The county was prompted to make this decision after some citizens expressed concern over the environmental impact of the cars and kids on the grass and also because it caused part of the public park to be shut down on those rare Saturday mornings.
In this article is a letter written by Brad Mason that was published recently in abbreviated form in the Letters to the Editor section of the Tallahassee Democrat.
- I was informed by email that some in Tallahassee have already given up any hope of Mikkosukee. They think it's kind of beyond hope with the county. And they are working on an alternative cross country course east of town.
- the course planned east of town is horrible...ran on gravel roads and very little to no room for spectators. just fyi
- mclyjumper,
Which place are you referring to?
As far as dealing with the county on Miccosukee, it is probably a pointless argument until we can get different people in those position of power. They have been working hard to shut us down for a few years now. I stopped trying to deal with them about 4 years ago when they were just overly rude to me for inquiring about trying to host a Region meet there. They attacked me for all that had been done from other hosts.
What's funny though is that the city is willing to do about anything to help us. I run a meet over at Elinor Klapp Phipps (where they host the Red Hills Horse Trials) and the city has offered to make a permanent course for us. Every year they ask me what they can do to help. I would love to get more schools on board to use this place. My course is tough, but there is plenty of room to make different courses and parking would be absolutely no issue. - when this first came up the week after the regionals, I posted about the following:
It may be possible to work a deal with the business park on the other side of the I10 exit close to the race course. As I understand it, the problem is that the Greenway people do not want cars parked on their grass. If that is the only problem, the business park may be able to work with us runners. The guy who owns that business park is supposed to be a very nice person. He may be willing to do a deal if the runners fill his hotel on the business park grounds. There is plenty of parking--hundreds of places and a really, really nice hotel. The business park is about five miles from the Greenway. The business park owner may be willing to foot the bill for a shuttle bus. I believe that coaches of the major running schools in the area should contact this person now--Chiles coach!. I am sorry that I do not know any more, but I live in Jacksonville and know only this much because we stayed at the hotel in 2007 and I talked extensively with the hotel manager. She thought that the business park manager would be very interested in giving the runners a hotel discount in 2008. However, with an FSU football game that weekend, the hotel was full way before the regional teams were set. - We have a place even closer we could use to shuttle people in from, but that just seems too daunting. And for a meet the size of FSU's Invitational this would not be practical. Hosting Regionals or Districts is always tough because hotel issues with football, but having an afternoon race eliminates this problem.
I believe from the conversations I have had and heard of that there is a bigger issue and the parking is not really the real reason. I'm almost positive all this was created by some petty disputes. Common sense and watching what actually happens proves there is no way we are destroying the park from the parking. - So if this is correct we would have to go by the county to overturn this, right? With that said sadly enough it seems nearly impossible to get Leon to change their opinion. It's sad to see such a great course gone. I ran there when I was at Columbus and I loved it and now as an FSU student I ran there a couple times. Truly a shame!
- OK, so if there are others issues and the Greenway is merely using the car parking as an excuse, we need to call them on it. Shuttle serivce is not totally needed. The school buses can drop the teams at the course and then go park in the business park. Everybody has cell phones and when the teams need to be picked up, the bus can come back. If we fill the hotel, the shuttle service may be a totally free perk as a thnaks to filling the hotel with non smoking, going to bed early runners.
Parking parents/spectators on race day can be handled by the shuttle if things get started now. It is worth a shot (phone call/dinner meeting) to see if the business park owner would support this. Remember, he has pull; we are talking multi milion dollar business park that has contributed many dollars to the Leon country coffers. They owe him and this may be a way to get "paid." And he would get great PR and advertising out of this as would the hotel. At least let's let the Chiles coach make a phone call--are you hearing this? and just see if this might work. Yes, this is a wonderful course even though my wife and I finished almost last and next to last in the open race this year! We cannot wait to run it again next year (probably finishing last and next to last for sure). - A shuttle service to a parking lot several miles away sounds impractical. Plus,trying to get everyone out of the park in a timely manner would be a disaster on the two-lane road and tiny, permanent parking lot.
Tallahassee has other locations that would be suitable for races. knowing Coach Braman's dedication to bringing a championship xc race course to town, it won't be long before he finds a replacement that rivals Miccosukee. - We are done with use of the Miccosukee Greenway. We tried for nearly 18 months to work this out and even the County Commissioners could get us back in. The 10-year Usage Plan has it as a passive-use venue and we can't get around that with our large events. Believe me, we tried everything.
On the positive side, Leon County is working with us to develop a cross country park on Appalachee Parkway, about 5 miles east of town (from the corner of App.Prkwy and Capital Circle).
I'll post a separate thread with details.
