Kevin Moran Park is the largest park in Saratoga that is not
dedicated to a single purpose. It covers slightly more than 10 acres.
We have two parks that are larger but one is a Japanese garden and
the other is an orchard, a last remnant of the orchards that
dominated the Santa Clara Valley before electronics gained supremacy.

The land for the park was purchased 35 years ago. Since then, the
neighbors have fought almost any effort to develop the park for
general use. That has meant that in 10 acres there are a two picnic
tables, a walking path and a climbing structure for young children.
There is little parking and no bathrooms. Neighbors’ arguments against
bathrooms have warned that, if bathrooms are installed, perverts would
attack children in the park and drug users would use drugs and turn
the park into a drug zone.

I took my son, Andrew, to the park while his brother was at piano. He
did not like having to go behind a tree in the park because there
were no bathrooms, and we were too far from the piano teacher’s house.

When I related this to one of the neighbors at a meeting, he told me
that if I wanted my son to play at a park with bathrooms, I should
take him somewhere else.

Andrew was a boy who loved soccer and was happiest playing in the
goal. His team in his last fall season never won a game. They were
the youngest team in their division and did not even score a goal
until about halfway through the season. Yet, he could come off of the
field and say, “It doesn’t matter what the score is. If you have a
good attitude, you are a winner.”

The following summer, he died because of an aneurysm in his brain.
That was 27 days before his ninth birthday. We never saw a symptom
that something would go so horribly wrong.

For me the real issue here is whether the largest park in Saratoga
will be developed for the use of all citizens or be restricted to the
use of the close neighbors because there are no facilities for basic
human needs. I will work to make it a park where children do not have
to squat behind a tree.