On Friday morning, June 30, the ground was finally broken for a park on King James Parkway in Fitchburg.
A ceremony was held by Wanda Smith and her organization Peace Network, Inc., alongside Michael Johnson and Kaleem Caire of Focus Interruption Coalition and former Fitchburg Mayor Steve Arnold to commemorate the start of the park development.
Noticeably missing from this event was the city’s current mayor, Jason Gonzalez, who held a separate city groundbreaking ceremony just one hour before the start of Smith’s community ceremony.
Gonzalez’s groundbreaking was apparently aesthetically different from Smith’s, consisting of mostly white and Latino kids, who Smith said did not live in the community. Photos posted on the City of Fitchburg’s Facebook page show a small group of mostly white people. The separate ceremonies were believed to represent the longstanding racial divides in the city.
“Mayors have to be master facilitators, they have to be uniters not dividers, but Jason Gonzalez chose to hold a separate press conference,” said Caire during the ceremony. “I’m so disappointed that in Dane County we’re mimicking the behavior we see nationally.”
Gonzalez told Madison365 the mayor’s office was never invited to the groundbreaking and proceeded to schedule it’s own, while also citing potential legal issues between Smith and the city as the ultimate cause for a separate ceremony.
“Unfortunately, the last two meetings we’ve had with Ms. Smith, she’s threatened to sue the city in both, for what reason we don’t know, so we were advised by the city attorney not to have any contact with her, unless she gets an attorney,” said Gonzalez. “There was a lot of concern of the direction the private ceremony would take.”
Smith acknowledged that during a meeting in May she said, “if the inequities continue” she would sue the city for civil violations, but no legal action has actually be taken.
Smith also said the mayor was aware of the community ceremony and that she was not informed of a separate groundbreaking until three days prior to the event.
“The reason the city decided to have a separate groundbreaking was because they were upset that Steve Arnold wrote the press release for our ceremony,” said Smith. “This is so ludicrous. This was about our community and our kids getting a park.”
Despite the conflict, the construction for the park will begin this month and a playground is expected to be completed by August. Construction will continue into the fall and spring to develop a basketball court and eventually expand the park once more land is acquired.
“My neighborhood will be happier and healthier and we should all celebrate and join in solidarity for that,” said Smith.
