A letter was published last week from Alan Haker from the mythical village of Concord in unincorporated St. Louis County. He laments that growth in Green Park will impact his commute by installing a new traffic signal and modifying another.

He correctly points out that Lindbergh Boulevard and the traffic signals are the responsibility of the Missouri Department of Transportation. Most of the signals he complains about between Mueller Road and Lemay are outside of Green Park, near the intersection of Interstate 55 and Lindbergh.

It is not Green Park that placed those signals, and is certainly not Green Park’s job to ban development in its area to manage traffic on Lindbergh.

His complaint seems to be that Green Park is able to take advantage of the nature of a city to control development and to spend money as it sees fit. When Green Park was incorporated, one of the most important reasons was to get a government more responsive to its citizens. If the citizens of Green Park feel that new concrete streets or free trash collection are extravagant, they can replace the government at the next election.

Perhaps Mr. Haker does not remember the time of Green Park’s incorporation, but I do because I was chairman of the committee that got the job done. On the south side of Lindbergh Boulevard and the north side of the Trailnet, meetings were held and the desire to incorporate was rebuffed.

The boundaries of Green Park reflect the area where people wanted to have local control. That Mr. Haker now notices that Clayton collects the revenue but never seems to get around to replacing the streets is not a surprise. It is, however, not Green Park’s problem.

Mr. Haker suggests that Green Park does not care about the rest of south county.

People do care about their neighbors, but it is the Green Park government’s job to care about Green Park. Mr. Haker points out that those who are not citizens of Green Park do not have a voice in the affairs of Green Park — damn right.

I am reminded of the fable of the dog with a bone that sees his own reflection in a stream and thinks the “other dog” has a bigger bone. He barks and drops his own bone into the water. There is nothing to be gained by pointing at Green Park and complaining about what “they have.”

There are two useful things to be done: Either incorporate your area into Green Park or get Clayton to be more responsive.

Good luck. You, too, could have had free trash pickup and new concrete streets.

The Guru of Green Park Incorporation

Fred Hoehn

Green Park