Park Steward Ralph White Calls It A Day
I Ralph White would approve of this picture.
Phil Riggan of Richmond.com has written a nice piece about Ralph White which will give you an idea of why he is so respected. Phil also throws out the idea of attaching Ralph’s name to the “”Main Area” of the JRPS — the area of the park on the south bank of the river from the Boulevard Bridge to the Southside rocks on Belle Isle”.
The reason for stepping down is a combination of declining health and weariness of fighting the good fight.
Never a man to mince words, White says he’s “bruised and bloody” from continual conflicts with city government. In recent years he’s struggled to manage ever more visitors — approximately 750,000 each year — with little money in his budget.
Instead of giving him more freedom, he says, the city has placed the park under “much stricter and tighter administrative control.” Just last week, White found out the city administration wants to install an ice-skating rink at the 22nd Street parking lot on Riverside Drive, a popular park access point. “You can’t do that,” he says.[via Style Weekly]
Thank you Richard. We need to begin the process of searching for a new park manager sooner rather than later. We should not let the city wait until January 2013. Nathan Burrell, trails manager, is a great person to start with!
We owe Ralph a lot for what he’s done with limited resources. His efforts will be missed
My appreciation for the James River is all due to Ralph for taking a bunch of college kids tubing down the james river. I have never forgotten that day and hope he never stops.
Richmond and the James River Park System are very lucky to have had the stewardship of Ralph White for the past 30 years. He has helped to make the park a real wilderness treasure in the middle of an urban environment. He will be very hard to replace (though I agree Nathan Burrell is a very good suggestion).
I’m certainly bummed to see Ralph go. He’s done so much for the park system with what generally seems to be a not-so-supportive government. I hope the next one can stand up to the bureaucracy as well as he did. I would second the choice of Nathan Burrell as a candidate.
A sad day for Richmond. Hopefully a happy day for Ralph. He is irreplaceable.
p.s. I don’t trust our current Mayor to handle this decision. Too bad we lost Mr. Pope as parks director.
Ralph White is the salt of the earth.
I wonder why he opposes having a skating rink at the 22nd St parking lot: while the pedestrian bridge over the tracks is very popular and well used, the parking lot is closed 95%+ of the time.
BEST. PARK DIRECTOR. EVER. :-(
Nathan Burrell IS the CLEAR choice for the job but we are dealing with the City so there is NO guarantee he will get it. The reason IMO Ralph was/is so successful is his undying love for the park. The man truly cares for the piece of earth he has been given to manage and he has done it to the best of his abilities.
Looking forward we need somebody that has that same drive and sense of caring and having known Nathan since college and having worked closing with him the past two years in the Park there is nobody better situated for the job. I would be willing to wager a months salary Ralph feels the same way.
I agree that Nathan would be a great choice but I don’t know if he would even want the job. My impression is that Nathan enjoys being very hands-on and moving into Ralph’s position would get him off the trails.
I’m not sure if it would be a promotion for Nathan. He currently is the citywide trails coordinator, so he may already have more responsbilities and impact than he would as a “Recreation Program Specialist II” which is Ralph’s title. These are classified positions, and should be filled using the city’s HR system. Making the position a patronage appointment has its down sides.