Why in God's name do we need ANOTHER park?

Let’s consider a hypothetical:  Many opponents of development at Oakwood have said they want the land to become a park. I believe that the so-called Citizens for Oakwood group are playing a stalling game, hoping that if the zoning change is rejected, Mitchell Schneider will be unwilling to build homes in the current economic climate, eventually become frustrated enough to throw his hands up and donate the land or sell it at a reduced price. This also ASSumes that an entity would be willing to buy the land, but South Euclid and Cleveland Heights don't have the money and no one at Metroparks has come forward and publicly expressed interest. But let’s say, what happened if it became a park? How much use do the parks in our area get?

Quarry Park has a low to moderate rate of use during the warmer months and is mostly devoid of activity during the winter. The only exception to this is the Dog Park at Quarry North which is active year round. Metroparks Euclid Creek reservation has a moderate to high level of activity in the warmer months and moderate to low activity in colder months. Often, the primary use of that park is as a cut through between Anderson/Green and Highland Roads. Cain Park in Cleveland Heights has a higher level of activity, partly driven by concert and other stage events or planned events like the Cain Park Arts Festival in July.  Forest Hills Park on the Cleveland Heights/East Cleveland border is seldom active unless there is a scheduled event such as a softball game. 

This only addresses four of the larger parks in the area, and does not take into account the many smaller neighborhood parks, such as Bexley Park. I bring up the above to point out that we already have a great deal of greenspace in the area, and that the Citizens for Oakwood group is being dishonest in posting pictures of butterflies, foxes and birds on their webpage, trying to tug on our heartstrings and portraying the developer as some kind of monster who wants to rape the environment and exploit gullible taxpayers. By the way, how are they getting these pictures? Are they trespassing on Oakwood to take them? CfO and the Severance Neighborhood Association are being doubly dishonest by acting as if they were blindsided by these events.  People have been talking about selling Oakwood since 1994, yet no one ever came forward with a real offer for the land until Mr. Schneider came along. 

Where were they all this time?