The curtain opens. Dr. Morphineus Codeine Shingles steps into the spotlight.

&8220;Ladies and gentlemen. What a pleasure it is to bring my show into Natchez, that great city which is the pearl of paradoxical pulchritude, situated on the plentiful, paradisial path of the parsimonious and prodigious, promissory, prismatic, preponderous, marvelous, magnificent, meritorious, millennial, majestic, mighty, muddy Mississippi River&8230;

&8220;What a rare opportunity for me to offer to you the world&8217;s great panacea, the cure-all of all cure-alls, the world&8217;s most spectacular, most stupendous, most splendiferous, super special spectorating, slondifering and pluperfect product &8212; my own Dr. Shingles magic wonderous, healing oil &8212; the elixir of life&8230;&8221;

So goes the opening lines of the biennial Fall Pilgrimage&8217;s Little Theatre production of &8220;The Mississippi Medicine.&8221;

It might also have been the opening lines of the &8220;We want to bring you our casino and other developments&8221; show that was presented to the public Monday night at the Natchez City Council Chambers.

Lane Company and the Natchez Riverfront Development Group presented their proposals to open casinos at the base of Roth Hill Road.

Each group brought with them a whole crew of investors, designers, consultants and experts to tell the Natchez mayor and board of aldermen why they are the best developer to make their dreams true.

Oh yes, and they brought with them technologically savvy Powerpoint presentations and pretty pictures.

And at the end of each presentation, you might have thought they had the cure-all to all of Natchez&8217;s ills.

As Dr. Shingles might have said had he been there, &8220;It&8217;ll put a spring in your step, a swing in your gait and a glint in your eye.&8221;

I&8217;ll leave it to the free market to decide if Natchez needs a second casino.

But what I heard from both groups is this: We want to give back to your community. And how will we give back to your community? Well, we will give you a park or a promenade.

We will give to you at the end of Roth Hill.

At first glance, it sounds romantic, doesn&8217;t it? Moonlit summer nights sitting on a lush green lawn listening to the symphony as boats drift by along river.

Or how about a beautiful stroll along the promenade walking hand in hand with your sweetheart as the sound of a jazz band plays?

It makes for beautiful imagery, but is it a realistic vision?

All up and down the Mississippi River, parks have sprung up all in the name of giving back to the community. Unfortunately, many of the riverfront parks that have been built in the last couple of decades have become a maintenance problem and have been deemed largely unsuccessful.

Instead of designing parks where they are most needed &8212; where people live and work &8212; many cities have taken to designing parks on the fringe.

Instead of building simple sidewalks lined with trees and unfussy lights, many parks have been gussied up with extravagant metal structures and fancy lights.

Like the riverfront parks closest to us in Alexandria, La., and even in Vidalia, many parks have begun to show their age. Metal signs are rusting and metal wire balustrades are sagging.

The Vidalia Riverfront, by most accounts, has been a successful addition to the city. Despite some early signs of rust and disrepair, the park remains a popular spot for residents. To keep it popular, the city will soon have to invest in some much-needed maintenance.

The Vidalia project also has an amphitheater that remains vacant other than one or two events each year.

Is building fancy structures that will require regular maintenance from rust and disrepair giving back to the community? Is building amphitheaters and bandstands to be left vacant for most of the year giving back?

Maybe the best way to give back to the community is to preserve what the developers admitted we already have &8212; that marvelous, magnificent, meritorious, splendiforous, pluperfect landscape we call Natchez on the Mississippi River.

Ben Hillyer

is the visual editor of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3551 or

ben.hillyer@natchezdemocrat.com

.