Unlike the developer's land exchange PR campaign, I don't have access to the big bucks. I don't have a multi-color brochure to mail to all the Lakewood households. I am not a telemarketer from New Jersey hired by Carma to call homes directly. I have a simple black and white flyer asking my fellow Lakewood citizens to vote against the land exchange.

While walking through the neighborhoods distributing this flyer, I have spoken to a number of you about the exchange. The most common response is surprise and then outrage that we would give away land that was given to the city for use as a park. Why, I was asked more than once, would anyone donate land in the future for use as a park if the city will allow a developer to take and build on the land? This land was accepted by the city "for park and other municipal purposes." I wonder what Mr. Forsberg would think of the million dollar private homes that will occupy his parkland instead.

But this election is about more than setting a bad precedent for the exchange of city park land. It is really about the intrinsic value of a piece of land that far exceeds what we will get in exchange. Mr. Forsberg did not give us a drainage gulch. He gave us a park with outstanding views of Red Rocks and Dinosaur Ridge. He gave us an easily accessible open space that we can use for exercising the dog, playing with the kids or just admiring the sunsets.

I'm sure my feeble attempt to reach my fellow citizens pales before the juggernaut of the developer's campaign. What keeps my hopes up, however, is the responses of my fellow Lakewood citizens. Enough of you want to honor Mr. Forsberg's legacy that we just might pull it off.