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/

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

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.