by Cat Scott in Accessibility, Environment and Open Space, Investigative Reports, Neighborhoods and Squares, Schools and Youth
Posted on August 7, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Last Modified on September 3, 2009 at 5:36 pm
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Many Somerville residents are not aware that the City manages 46 parks, playgrounds and ball fields for residents. City of Somerville parks map here (jpeg)
With this astonishing number comes certain responsibilities on the part of the city, such as upkeep and accessibility.
The City of Somerville’s website provides a great deal of documentation around plans and projects related to Open Spaces and Recreational Areas.
For example, the Somerville Open Spaces and Recreation Plan for 2008-2013 (which was recently sent to the State’s Exec Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs/Div of Conservation Services in compliance with the MA Urban Self-Help program) states that “the need to renovate existing parks and open spaces is a clear mandate for the City to promote health, safety and well-being for all residents.” This document states that approximately 20% of our Parks are in need of renovation; and, that the investments in Parks generally hold for about 20 years.
The City says it is working hard to renovate and maintain the city’s parks and playgrounds, and expand open space opportunities across the city. The Parks and Open Spaces website, with links for Plans, Programs and projects is here
Several of us bloggers are collaborating with neighbors as we visit the playgrounds that are maintained by the City. We’d like to see how far the City has come with their Open Space and Parks planning and implementation; offer some encouragement and suggestions; and provide a venue for interested residents to ask questions and/or provide comments (anonymously or not). We have visited 8 parks and/or playgrounds so far, and see a mixed bag. Some provide only adequate accessibility, while others appear to have been created with a great deal of thoughtful planning- yet are not maintained very well.
Each review will contain recent photos- this first review includes photos taken July ’09. As we continue to check certain details, we will add them to each article. As the results of neighbor-requested investigations become available, we’ll add them to these reviews. Please send us your questions and suggestions so that we can focus on the stories you find compelling!
Hodgkins – Curtis Park
Located on Holland St., between Simpson and Paulina Streets, between Davis and Teele Squares.
This park offers 2 playgrounds as well as a large baseball field. Adults come here as well as children, often for picnicking, exercise, sunbathing and sports play like Frisbee or baseball. The playground appears to be in good condition, and the baseball field looks quite good. However, the play equipment for non-tots sports a cracked slide.
Hodgkins - Curtis Park : Broken Slide
The City covered the top of the slide with a wood board to prevent children from sliding down.
Hodgkins - Curtis Park : Slide Board
That Band-Aid of a solution doesn’t look like it will prevent kids from trying to climb up this broken fixture- if they do, they can certainly get hurt!
Kids Climb Slides
There was also a mixture of dirt and glass on the other slide- we wondered, is there a maintenance schedule published for Somerville’s playgrounds? We haven’t found one.
What’s great is that the City of Somerville has a projected plan for renovations to this park. There is no official start date for these renovations yet. Design concepts are available online for citizens of Somerville to look at, and they even provide an email address for comments.
Kenney Park
This park is located within Davis Square, at the corner of Grove Street and Highland Avenue.
This park is in OK shape with a lot of different play elements for children, Here is a wheels element for future motorists.
Kenney Park "car"
This park has a street-level entrance (SEE UPDATE,below, regarding the inaccessibility of this entrance); however it leads to an immediate obstacle for people with mobility impairments.
Kenny Park entrance
The ground surface is old loose fill, which may conform with standards from the American Society for Testing and Materials- see ASTM – yet, it appears too loose to provide wheelchair maneuverability. [SEE UPDATE, BELOW, regarding problems with this old surface material.]
There are some maintenance issues, such as graffiti on the slide.
Kenny Park graffiti
The park has a basketball court, which has exciting pick-up games, and a shaded courtyard sitting area with plenty of benches.
Morse-Kelley Playground
corner of Summer and Craigie Streets
Walking down Summer Street, this playground is almost impossible to miss with its large metal canopy and benched sitting area.
Morse-Kelley benches
There are ramps that lead down to an incredibly large basketball court. We will need to measure the ramps for slopes and other details to see if they conform to safe and accessible slopes and transitions. For example, the picture below shows a change in level that may be over 1/2 inch- which would pose a safety issue for both motorized and manual wheelchair users.
Morse-Kelley transition lip
The court is clean with hardly any debris. Everything is in great shape, so while some folks in the area may have to bring some toys to play with, there is plenty of room to run around for children and parents alike!
Morse-Kelley vast and clean
Although Morse-Kelley Park appears to be in excellent shape, the City has allocated $45,000 of Federal Community Development Block grant funds from the additional Recovery Act monies to “hire landscape professionals” and redesign this park. We can’t quite figure that one out. (SEE: City of Somerville 08/09 Substantial Amendment Plans (pdf), sent to HUD with very little public comment.)
Bailey Park
Spring Hill area, connecting Belmont Street and Lowell Street.
Located between Belmont Street and Lowell Street, Bailey Park is a beautiful area with plenty of trees and shrubbery. Accessible by four ramps (after slopes are checked with a digital level, this report will include those measurements), the sitting area surrounds a large shrub.
Bailey Park bench circle
This park is an ideal space for reading, sunbathing, or picnicking on a nice day. The greenery is incredibly well-trimmed, and the area is pristine without any trash around.
Dickerman Playground
Ward 4, Craigie Street across from the Dante Club
Surrounded by an elaborately built stone wall, and with an entire wall of the basketball court depicting children of all types celebrating playtime together in a mural, this park has fallen into disrepair after so much money was clearly spent renovating it in 1997/1998.
Dickerman Park mural
The ground of the play area has tons of holes in it, some of them so deep that children could easily trip and fall in them.
Dickerman Park surface repair needed, close-up
Dickerman Park rubber surface needs repair
There are many interesting play elements for children, such as a sliding bar, a bridge, a xylophone, a giant wheel, a fountain, and a rock climbing wall.
Dickerman Park ground play elements
Dickerman Park elevated play path
Dickerman Park Composite Play structure
Dickerman park climbing wall
At the August 9, 2008 Board of Alderman meeting, a resolution was sponsored by Alds. Taylor, Sullivan, Connolly, Desmond and White to prioritize this park for renovations in 2008. Two years later, the City has included the redesign of Dickerman Park as another CDBG-eligible project and designated 45,000 of those Federal funds towards redesigning this .41 acre park. The city claims that this will result in 2 part-time jobs during the 6-month course of the design project.
Meanwhile, neighbors are planning a Dickerman Park cookout and discussion to generate ideas and plans for this park, and we welcome their posts, which will be the gold standard for information about the future of this community space.
Play On!
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The condition and design of city parks make a big difference to kids and their families. I wonder whether anyone checks to see how many people use the various parks and why. In my neighborhood, there’s a little postage-stamp park called Palmacci (corner of Skehan St. and Hanson St.) which my 4 and 7-year-old granddaughters love. I finally got bored after the 100th visit but they didn’t. By far the best-used park in my area is Conway Park whose climbing structure is often packed and I’m not sure why. The league sports there is also a very big draw.
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My son (22 months) fell while walking on bricks at the Walnut Street Park on July 18 and fractured his right femur. He is in a cast for 4 weeks. Bricks at the park were loose and the city attempted to repair them cheaply. There was also water on the bricks from rain.
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I brought one of my granddaughters to the playground next to the main branch of the library yesterday but it’s closed and the climbing structure has been removed. It would be good if the city would post a prominent sign–like the ones they post at properties whose owners have asked for a special permit–explaining what’s happening when a park is closed.
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It’s great that you’re making the effort to get to know Somerville’s parks. Please resist the temptation to make quick judgments after one or two visits to a park. Judging physical condition is one part of evaluating a park; looking carefully at how a park is used is another part. When you go to a park, you might ask yourself questions, such as: Are there people using the park? If so, who is using the park? What ages are these people? Are they alone or in groups? What are they doing in the park? Take note of whether you feel comfortable spending time in the park by yourself. You might also visit parks at different times of day to see how use varies over time.
There has been interesting research done on how people use parks. You might want to look at The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces by William H. Whyte, a very readable small book based on detailed observations of people using public space in New York City.
Park design can affect the way people use parks. In the late 90s I spent a couple summers making observations of how people used 17 small neighborhood parks in Somerville and Cambridge. One of the things I noticed was that there were very few elderly people in parks, except for elders who were accompanying small children. In New York, elders commonly use parks. Why the difference? In one case, I found a published article about the redesign of a particular park from which it was possible to glean that the well-intentioned designer had unwittingly removed the benches on which elders had congregated and replaced them with seating that was awkward for them to use. Another park next to a senior housing building had what could have been a pleasant little sitting area furnished with benches that weren’t appropriate for elders.
The customs and habits of people who live near parks can also affect park usage. Immigrants from some cultures may be more comfortable socializing with people they don’t know in public places than people raised in the U.S. do. There can be cultural changes over time that affect part use. When I was growing up, kids learned games like hopscotch, jump rope and tag from other kids. The last time a saw a kid jumping rope in the park across from my house, she was being taught by an adult. I used to see kids go to this park by themselves; now they mostly go with adults.
Finally, any judgment you make about a park is a reflection of your beliefs about what a good park is. People have different ideas about they want parks to be. Some people are focused on green space, others on althletic facilties, others on dog runs, and so on. Given that we have a limited number of parks and that so many of our parks are very small, I especially like parks that can be used flexibly and spontaneously. For example, a simple grassy field can accommodate people engaging in lots of different kinds of play, while a state of the art baseball diamond can only accommodate people who want to play baseball, and possibly only organized baseball. I also like parks that draw a variety of ages of people. There is so much segregation by age in our culture that we need public spaces where people can mingle across generations, and not just in their own families.
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Lynn, your response moves me and is delicious to read. I am definitely going to follow up on the resources you’ve suggested. I am surveying the parks, along with Cat and others, based upon accessibility features and federal and State standards. It’s very interesting how small details- like the accessibility of the curbcuts leading to the parks- can change the whole picture regarding use-Ability. Thanks so much for the discussion about bench comfort for all ages.
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More money for the part of the city that is most popular. The parks where the kids are located are in terrible shape. How many kids do you think live between Teal Sq., Davis Sq., and Porter Sq.?? The patch work that was done at Trum field is horrible.The benches are a mess! and you can’t walk down the isle without falling over the crappy patch job that was done on the seating area for the ball fields. I took my kids to see a baseball game there and they left with more scratches and cuts than a fighter.All from trying to navigate the seats area and the horrible conditions.
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Agreed, rpm! And I’d love to find out the answer for your question about how many kids live btn. Teale, Davis and Porter Squares. Anyone reading here have those figures?
After all the hoopla about the new Trum Field House (completed in 2008), it was very surprising to note that 1. the easily-removable barrier at Trum Field’s Cedar and Broadway public entrance was ignored; 2. those public bleachers remain inaccessible to mobility-impaired residents; 3. the ball park area doesn’t let kids with temporary or lifelong mobility impairments watch and play with their buddies; or 4. the sidewalks surrounding this major public open space remain cracked, steep and not usable for all constituents.
Here are 4 recent photos:
1. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2592/3801556365_aaa0e9a934_o.jpg
2. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2530/3801557169_a6a6a32915_o.jpg
3. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2644/3801556865_0c91c63b4c_b.jpg
4. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2482/3802372922_5998749bd2_o.jpg
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Excellent discussion and wonderful information from Lynn on the bench seating. It is nice to see such interest in the parks in your city. I will chase down that book by William H. Whyte!
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When there were meetings about the Powder House school use brainstorming recently, a map of Somerville showing percent of population under 18 (apparently by precinct) was disseminated. Looks like the average percentage is about 10% in the Teele to Porter Sq. area. I just downloaded the City’s Open Space and Recreation Plan for 2008-2013 from the city website, but it’s not there. I still have the download of the population map, but I don’t know where to tell you to get it again. Anybody know?
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Update on Kenney Park: the Community Access & Inclusion team checked out the accessibility of Kenney Park. This .30 acres of public use park and playground does not offer equal recreational opportunities for residents with any range of balance impairments. Here’s the facts:
The street-level entrance on the Grove Street side leads to a gate that gets stuck before it’s completely open. It does not allow for a 36 inch entrance, which is necessary for manual wheelchair-users. Perhaps the City would fix this issue. But still another barrier remains: this entrance has a 9.9% slope, which is quite excessive for folks using manual wheelchairs. That alone makes this entrance impossible to use for many with rolling mobility devices. Here’s a photo:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3432/3884303241_a50e79f874_o.jpg
The entire playground area has old loose fill ground surface materials, and a perimeter barrier of old, splintered wood. Here’s a photo from the Highland Street entrance gate:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3501/3885096040_c6bf6a3d9a_b.jpg
That old loose fill is enormously unsafe for everyone. First, there could be sharp objects hidden in that loose materials, and secondly, it does not provide the necessary cushion that kids need so they can swing and romp without so much worry about an occassional fall. Here’s another picture of the composite play structure, with the inaccessible and unsafe surface materials:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3448/3884301477_3d59fdf7d6_o.jpg
(A poured-in-place seamless, porous and cushioned rubber top surface costs approximately $8.00/sq.ft., with installation.)
Now, the City claims that this is an accessible playground. Why doesn’t Joe Curtatone care that his designated ADA Coordinator has absolutely no knowledge, experience, or motivation to do the right thing? Or is that why he chose her- to deny residents with disAbilities the opportunity to play in his all-american sandbox?
Please excuse my frustration- but the safety and equal accessibility for over 17,000 Somerville residents stands in the balance!
Anyway, here’s the drill: This play structure has at least 16 varied play elements within the composite structure. Only 4 of them could be used by a kid mounting the play area from a wheelchair, if there were an accessible route, with safe and accessible ground surface materials. In short, this playground is absolutely NOT “ADA-accessible.”
The cross-slope of the nice sitting area in front of Kenney Park is sloped at an inaccessible 4.0 – 5.7%, which forces manual wheelchair-users, attempting to maintain balance, struggle and look undignified – which, of course, they are not.
Here’s a picture showing one place that the cross-slope was measured:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2512/3885468740_069810e387_o.jpg
Finally, here’s the brick sidewalk leading from Davis Square to the Park. Bricks should be outlawed as pedestrian surfaces:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2580/3885099578_7af705c0d7_b.jpg
[By the way, since Flickr requires that the FlickrPhotopage url be added when photos are migrated, here's that long url: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21908925@N03/sets/72157621802985641//72157621802985641/
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