March 27, 2005: Headlines: COS - Thailand: Wildlife: Parks: Richmond Times Dispatch: "I've pushed the envelope on a number of occasions," admits Thailand RPCV Ralph White, who has become the heart and soul, defender, liberator and -- perhaps -- emperor of Richmond's legendary James River Park System during his quarter-century relationship with it
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April 1, 2005: Headlines: COS - Thailand: Wildlife: Parks: Richmond Times Dispatch: RPCV Ralph White, accused of insubordination for unlocking park gates to allow paddlers and dog walkers in after hours, will be suspended for two weeks without pay :
April 2, 2005: Headlines: COS - Thailand: Wildlife: Parks: WAVY: RPCV Ralph White suspended for opening locked gates :
March 27, 2005: Headlines: COS - Thailand: Wildlife: Parks: Richmond Times Dispatch: "I've pushed the envelope on a number of occasions," admits Thailand RPCV Ralph White, who has become the heart and soul, defender, liberator and -- perhaps -- emperor of Richmond's legendary James River Park System during his quarter-century relationship with it
"I've pushed the envelope on a number of occasions," admits Thailand RPCV Ralph White, who has become the heart and soul, defender, liberator and -- perhaps -- emperor of Richmond's legendary James River Park System during his quarter-century relationship with it
"I've pushed the envelope on a number of occasions," admits Thailand RPCV Ralph White, who has become the heart and soul, defender, liberator and -- perhaps -- emperor of Richmond's legendary James River Park System during his quarter-century relationship with it
Park leader was born to be wild
MARK HOLMBERG
POINT OF VIEW
Mar 27, 2005
Mark Holmberg
Mark's column appears Sun. and Wed. Contact him at (804)649-6822 or mholmberg @timesdispatch.com
TOMORROW
IN METRO
CONTROVERSY:
Nighttime-closing policy has created confusion for frequent park users.
Ralph White, 60, looks like a naturalist from a Mark Trail comic with his snowy beard, his kindly and somewhat weather-beaten face and those owlish professor's spectacles.
He acts like it, too.
"I've pushed the envelope on a number of occasions," admits White, who has become the heart and soul, defender, liberator and -- perhaps -- emperor of Richmond's legendary James River Park System during his quarter-century relationship with it.
White's untamed streak came up during his insubordination hearing Thursday with a Richmond Recreation and Parks deputy director and a city human-resources manager.
"I'm clearly not someone who takes orders," White recalls being told. "There's a history of this, of my not following direct orders."
His latest and perhaps most serious act of disobedience was unlocking two west-side gates so nighttime birdwatchers and dog walkers could gain access to the park, which is supposed to be closed at night.
White's open rebellion came after a recent move to lock all park gates in a crackdown on nighttime park usage, be it fishing and kayaking or boozing and cruising for sex.
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Come Tuesday, White will likely face some sort of discipline, ranging from reprimand to termination.
Even the former seems excessive. The latter would be seen as outrageous and unacceptable by legions of park lovers. A firestorm would certainly ensue.
When White started in 1980, the James River Park System was largely ignored except by fishermen and bottle-smashing kids and drunks.
It was against city ordinances to swim, wade, launch a boat there. There was no life-jacket law or bike trail.
"All of those got changed," White says. "Yes, they did involve pushing."
Now the park system is a nationally recognized wild-river gem, a favorite for kayakers, birders, fisherfolk, river loungers and others mighty fond of flora and fauna.
And along the way, White's reputation for having a renegade streak deepened.
It's not surprising, given that this New York City native grew up half-wild in Thailand and the Philippines. As a child, he said, "I thought I was Oriental."
He fondly remembers hunting wildflowers in the jungles with his parents and, later, starting his own wildlife preserve while in Asia with the Peace Corps.
He established a nature center in Thailand -- it still exists today -- with the help of a disparate group of international volunteers.
Humans, regardless of origin, do best while enjoying a harmonious relationship with nature, he believes. "If it's good for them [plants and animals], as it turns out, it's good for you."
That has been White's guide in life.
"I believe in getting things done," he said.
So when park-loving people were being unfairly locked out, he acted.
Two years ago, at the end of a two-decade push for the bicycle trail on Riverside Drive, he grew tired of not having signs for bike crossings and reduced speed limits on the winding road. So he posted his own, even though the road is not park property.
"At times, he can be a little overzealous, but his heart is in the right place," says White's former boss, Sheila Hill-Christian, who now heads the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
White is "wonderfully committed" to the park system, Hill-Christian added, and has been a huge positive for Richmond.
Indeed. Even while embroiled in the worst tempest of his career, White has been using his microphone time to talk about the size, the scope and the wonders of the 11-park system and the river that runs through it.
"It's the feature that defines being a Richmonder," he said after his Thursday hearing. "It's what defines us as being different and better than the surrounding counties and other cities."
Over the years, he earned a reputation for promoting the park, not himself. He would call The Times-Dispatch whenever there was a special event in one of the parks, or when a story about a riverside location failed to mention that it was part of the city's park system.
Now, with his reputation on the line, all White asks is that his wild streak be judged by "what the end result was. . . .
"If I'm only a muckraker, only causing trouble, you should get rid of me."
But if his actions have prompted pro-park, people-positive responses by a city that can be a little slow on the uptake, "then maybe that's good," he said.
"Somebody needs to be on the cutting edge," White said. "Somebody needs to be pushing for change."
In the case of the locked gates, we see a one-size-fits-all policy for complex crime and behavior problems that afflict different park locations to varying degrees.
Surely there's a solution out there somewhere, one that will balance park use against park abuse, one that will harmonize human safety with the freedom and the need -- to enjoy nature, day and night.
Ralph White, the park's manager and Richmond's own Mark Trail, should be at the center of that solution -- not the focus of the controversy.
Contact Mark Holmberg at (804) 649-6822 or mholmberg@timesdispatch.com
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Story Source: Richmond Times Dispatch
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Thailand; Wildlife; Parks
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