To the editor:

In 1954, the Newburyport City Council voted to dramatically transform Cushing Park. The CBS Hytron across the street — manufacturer of the television tubes used in old sets — needed more parking. Where once recreational open space stood, the City Council decreed, a 250-car parking lot would now stand. As the old Joni Mitchell song goes, "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."

This ordinance violated two required procedures: 1) No public hearing was held and 2) Article 97 of the Massachusetts Constitution was not followed. I realize the court will not correct a decision made over 50 years ago, but as a community we have the power to right this wrong.

Since its inception, this ordinance has cost the city money — both in terms of hours spent managing the lot and, more importantly, in terms of legal fees paid to ascertain its official designation. This second more costly fee has been incurred so that Mayor Moak can locate a senior center at Cushing Park, a site opposed by the majority of Newburyport senior citizens.

Both a written petition signed by 317 senior citizens opposing the decision and a telephone survey in which 194 additional respondents disagreed with the Cushing Park location leave little doubt that Cushing Park is not the choice of our senior citizens.

The explicit justification set forth in the original 1954 ordinance stated that Cushing Park could be used as a parking lot because sufficient parking for the CBS Hytron could not be found within a reasonable distance from the site elsewhere. The CBS Hytron has now been gone for many many years and Cushing Park has not been used as a full-time parking lot for many, many years. The 1954 ordinance was always a temporary fix to a temporary problem — a problem that, quite simply, no longer exists.

I therefore respectfully request that the City Council effectively table Mayor Moak's written request, made in the form of a letter dated Aug. 8, 2007, to approve Cushing Park as the site of our senior center. Instead, I would ask that you support an ordinance that would return Cushing Park to the authority of the Park Commission, where it belongs.

GEORGE ROAF

Newburyport