New London - It was John Maynard, president of the New London Neighborhood Alliance, who put the argument most graphically.

Pointing to a map of Riverside Park, which showed which nine of the park's 18 acres the Coast Guard wants to buy, he said, "We have the crust of the bread. I don't know about a lot of people here, but I like eating the whole sandwich, not just the crust."

Indeed, the map looked like nothing so much as that sandwich.

Maynard was just one of seven speakers who addressed a crowd of more than 60 people in the Pilot House at Ocean Beach Thursday night, laying out their arguments for why residents should vote "no" on the sale of the park and their strategies for saving and even transforming it.

The forum, on "The Future of Riverside Park," was sponsored by the Alliance and New London Landmarks, and it was apt, said Landmarks' Executive Director Sandra Chalk, that it was held at Ocean Beach.

"It was in 1996 that the Save Ocean Beach group got together," she said, wearing a black-and-yellow "Save Riverside Park" T-shirt. "At that time, it was in very bad shape and about to be sold to the Mashantuckets. And look at it today."

The forum was convened on the eve of the Nov. 8 election, when voters will decide the referendum question: "Shall the City of New London sell a portion of Riverside Park to the Federal Government?"

If the voters say "yes," the Coast Guard will buy 9.14 acres in the center of the park from the city for $2.9 million. If they say "no," the park could be renovated according to plans unveiled Thursday by Madeline Schad from the University of Connecticut's Community Research & Design Collaborative.

Those plans would reconfigure the overgrown park to connect it to the community and, in particular, to Winthrop School in three stages:

• Clear trees to create a view from the school to the river and open up new spaces in the park.

• Build stairs and ramps from the school to the park and realign the road at its center.

• Erect a pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks, which currently cut the park off from the river, and a pier extending into the river.

These plans would be a good fit to make the Winthrop School a science, technology, engineering and math magnet school, said Martha Bauduccio, an advocate for the school. In fact, she said, "the park was key on deciding on the science theme for this school."

As for the larger residential community that borders the park, Norman Garrick, director of the University of Connecticut's Center for Transportation and Urban Planning, said New London has suffered from being bisected by the highway and railroad and that the park is key to the survival of the surrounding community.

"This city is so small, and yet it's been so divided and cut up that it doesn't function as a coherent place," Garrick said. "Riverside Park is the heart of that community. Selling Riverside Park is really giving up on that community."

Cathi Strother, one of the members of that community, concurred, saying that her house borders the park and "every single day our family is in the park."

And Strother rebutted what she said were several misconceptions about the park.

"There is no drug activity in our park. There is no prostitution in our park," she said. "What it is is overgrown. The park is very important to our neighborhood. ... It is beautiful. There's nothing wrong with this park; it just needs some TLC."

As to that, Nancy Baude of the New London Parks and Recreation Commission presented ideas from a report prepared by the Subcommittee on Riverside Park, which lays out a five-year plan to transform the park. Those ideas include engaging local groups to clean up the park and to host activities such as picnics; putting up new signage to help people find the park; and forming a 501(c)3 nonprofit tax designation to collect grants and donations.

"That's how Ocean Beach was done," Baude said.

The people who banded together to save Ocean Beach raised more than half a million dollars, built the boardwalk and paid for the amusements with lots of donations and volunteers, she added.

The main point, Baude said, is to "get people into the park to work and play."

k.robinson@theday.com