I hate all the walkers with their iPods on the bike trails...they swing their arms and strut like they own the full width of the bike trail.
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Kick all the walkers off the bike trail, limit them to the Riverside Road.....and plant more lilacs!

I golf at Riverside alot and I know for a fact that that road is used all day long. Its use by walkers, joggers and bikers. Opening that road up to car traffic is like opening up the bike trail to cars. Someone is going to get hurt or killed by some nitwit driving to fast. The golf course is already having a problem with the renovated devils staircase trail. That trail has started to funnel walkers up to the course where they walk down the fairways to get to a different section of the trail. For every person who doesnt abuse it there a two that do. I can see opening it for special events to improve traffic flow out of the park, but even then you will bottleneck at the intersection on the way out. My daughter and I love to walk that section of the park because it is quiet and you do not have to worry about vehicle traffic. So it should stay closed.

It is a great hill for the bicycle, and with the road open it would be a nice loop. I golf, too, and still think it would be better open.

It's accessible by foot. Why the change? What happened that is different from when it was closed?

Keeping this park open is imparative for the value of homes in the area. The value of these homese drives the quality and quantity of business in the areas. These businesses and their revenues help offset property taxes. Keeping this park open allows us all to have better and more valuable homes with lower-than-average taxes.

This is simple economics.

okay i have to rewrite my post it isnt here.

Sorry greengina- youll have to SHARE the liliacs unless yould like to fund the park yourself then make your own rules.

as for damages to a car. that is what comprehensive ins is for on your auto unless you dont insure your auto then you must not care enough about it anyway.

there are people that live on golf corses and get hit sometimes but that is the price they pay for doing so and it is an advantage for then. they too have insurance to cover such things

AME-as far as people just hopping on corse- it is called trespassing and i am sure the foursoom would have a problem with thaat as well and would notice.

seems not many golfers are complaining about this.

also it seems the city likes to shut every thing down if a crime happens- crimes will happen- stop shutting things down because of it.

Didn't the lower road, by the ball fields, used to be a thru-way? Why did they make the cut-off?

Having a son that plays baseball - it is a real pain to not have that road open. We invite people from other communities into this park to watch their kids play ball, but many are discouraged because of the traffic situation. Many complaints. -- NO I'm not saying open this just because of baseball. I'm simply pointing out one more reason why the park is not very accessible. Why was the road dead-ended into the parking anyway? It's a traffic nightmare after games.

But MikeF, the lilacs!?

With the parking lot sealed off on one end and the upper road closed, that leaves a long road around the outside of the inner park that dead ends into a parking lot. This discourages leisurely traffic into that end of the park. With the upper road open, cars could travel into the northern end of the park and continue up the hill and back down by the boat landing and then on out of the park. Also, with larger events, such as Family Fun Fest last September, the second road out of the area helped facilitate the orderly exiting of the park at the end of the event.
One proposal discussed by the Friends of Riverside Park group was to have two way traffic from the boat landing to lilac circle, but one way traffic from the pool/pavilion parking lot to lilac circle.
This encourages responsible, family-friendly use of the park, which will prompt more people to use that end of the park, which will in turn discourage the vandalism that is already occurring.
The question that should be asked is not "why should the road be open?", but instead, "Why should the road remain closed?" This is a public roadway that was blocked off to end a specific problem over 10 years ago. While the road blocking did end that problem, it caused a rapid decline in the quality of the park overall, which in turn invited undesirable activities in the park, which further damaged the park, much more so that the original problem did.

dini79-it is understandable why limited access may be necessary, but I am not sure the others have the same motivation. I love Riverside Park, too, as well as all other parks in the city and county. I'm just really concerned about noise pollution, trash, bottles, etc.; like there used to be when the road was open to vehicles.

Yes, greengina, I do love Riverside Park and I DO have physical limitations that prevent me from walking up that hill.

jimtmdc12- I didn't realize the road was closed because of the golf course.
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Can anyone tell me the purpose of opening the road?
I really don't see the reason for opening it. It won't make the pool or the rest of the park any more accessible.
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Keep the cars off the road. Keep it closed to foot traffic only.

greengina8 -
"Who are the people that really want this open?"
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Me. I intend to dust-off my Kawasaki Ninja and scream through the curvy roads like I did in high school...what a great road course.
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Just keep the lilacs trimmed back from the edge of the road...on some of those curves I need the road edge to stick a knee into the turn.

Why does the golfer think they can keep the road closed, the park is supported by the taxpayers the golf players are only a small % of the taxpayers. When the road was closed, I do not beleive that it was supposed to be closed all time. Open it up and if there is trouble then close it again. The shelters and wadeing pool would be nice to use again.

You can still access that part of the park on foot. Not everything has be auto accessible. Who are the people that really want this open? Do they have physical limitations that prevent them from walking up the hill?

I love people who accidentally hit the caps lock button, and then forget just where it is on the keyboard.

Also bring back the midget races around the park. Those were fun to watch when I was a kid. Cars, not people.

ame8736- and this is different from Blackhawk Golf Course and Palmer Drive how?

IF THE ROAD WAS REOPENED, MY HUSBAND WANTS TO KNOW, WHAT IS GOING TO STOP A GOLFER FROM PARKING UP ON THE ROAD AND GOING OUT ON THE GOLF COURSE? WOULD THEY PUT UP ANOTHER FENCE THERE. ALSO IF A CAR IS HIT BY A GOLF BALL WHO IS GOING TO PAY FOR DAMAGES?

Opening the upper road in Riverside Park re-establishes a traffic flow to get in and out of Janesville's most beautiful park. Not to mention the glorious views of the river that cannot be enjoyed by all citizens that visit the park - they are not accessible to older and/or handicapped people who are not able to walk up the step hill. The road should have never been closed!

Its a waste to have such an awesome park partitioned and shut off to people. Open the road!

Just put Riverside back on the priority list - it is too much a part of the fabric of Janesville, whether the lilacs live or not.

It's nice having a place where cars are not allowed. Please let me enjoy the lilacs in peace.