The mailer I received from Forward Portland on the upcoming parks initiative is so misleading as to shock the conscience. The city should be ashamed of itself.

For example, the bold claim “Portland Parks Are Already Protected” is a flat-out lie. Former Mayor Anne Pringle’s Maine Voices column (“With park’s perpetual protection insecure, Portland voters should have final word,” May 29) accurately demonstrated that they are not protected.

The very fact that a large part of Congress Square Park is about to be sold to a major corporation demonstrates that there is no protection – the council now can sell what city land it chooses, to whomever, for whatever reason it deems sufficient.

The negative picture of Congress Square park displayed in the mailer suggests that the initiative somehow created this condition.

In reality, it is many years of dereliction by the City Council that allowed this to happen. Tommy’s Park and Post Office Park in the heart of the Old Port show what can be done in Congress Square without selling an inch of park land.

The suggestion that a “no” vote will pull Portland out of “difficult economic times” is absurd. We’re well out of the recession: We have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state; we’re enjoying a surge in construction – housing, hotels, Thompson’s Point, a refurbished Civic Center.

Don’t be fooled by false political mailers. A “yes” vote will curb a runaway City Council too full of itself.

O.E. Delogu

Portland