Beryl Baker is an environmental and neighborhood activist in Tucson.

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Ever since I was young, when one had visitors, one of the grand sights was a trip to "A" Mountain to see the lights. True, one can still go during the day but it just isn't the same.

We took a young family with children up to enjoy the mountain and were told to move on by the officials partly cause we got there "too late" even though it was summer and still light and partly because they didn't want anyone to stop at the front of the mountain. How does one enjoy a view without stopping?

"A" Mountain has always been a place for young people to hang out. In the '60s putting tin cans on the road for cars to run over was considered delinquent. If the behavior has worsened, it should be dealt with separately without punishing the entire community or destroying what the mountain has been to our community.

If former mayor Lew Murphy and council had taken my suggestion and bought the property south of Sentinel Peak Road years ago some of the concerns of people about driving "through the neighborhood" could have been prevented. People who bought homes near the road, knowing that there was late-night traffic, are now pushing to close the road and deny access to all of us.

At the community meeting about "A" Mountain last year, long-time residents expressed discontent that the Mountain has been virtually shut down to the public at night. There was general agreement that it would be nice to have "A" Mountain more family oriented and good suggestions were made about how to encourage that. It appeared the consensus was for interpretive signs, and that the "improvements" to paths and additional ramadas would not take millions of dollars.

However, from the picture shown of the "A" Mountain Plan (Arizona Daily Star Nov 8, 2008), it appears the "solution" would be to close the front of the mountain to all but those able to walk or ride bikes. This is not returning the mountain to the general public. It is creating exclusion.

Mucking with the roads like widening, blasting, "improving" drainage, which would take millions of dollars, needs very careful thought before getting into a situation where one destroys what one is saying they are saving.

To reopen the road, once closed, would require bringing it up to current code standards, which would require blasting more of the mountain. Past road "improvements" have caused more erosion and without completely new thinking, there's no reason to believe that future "improvements" wouldn't do the same. If they leave the road as is, it is grandfathered in.

Let's stop the lip service and actually protect the "A" Mountain experience for everyone in our community. Don't let the City Council do to the mountain what they did to the Talk of the Town Restaurant and the Levy's building.

It is good that the plans are being brought back to the public as promised. One hopes that the entire community will be notified and not just exclusively the neighbors who live at the foot of Sentinel Peak Road.

Amazingly, it took $60,000 to make the plan and will take another $10,000-$20,000 to finalize. No wonder the people "planning" Rio Nuevo just keep planning.