West University Park - Laserfiche WebLink

New Search

HAMMITT Bob From: ETTER John F To: HAMMITT Bob Subject: FW: West University Park Date: Thursday, December 14, 1995 10:13AM FYI, this is a response I made to Richey during an earlier stage of considering what to do with the park. The response I made this morning follows (if you didn't already read it). --John From: ETTER John F To: WEINMAN Richie D Cc: WEBER John J; MEDLIN Johnny R Subject: RE: West University Park Date: Tuesday, October 31, 1995 10:20AM I'll repeat here and modify slightly what I just said on your voicemail, if you want to keep a hard copy: We support keeping the property in public ownership for eventually recreating a park. There is no park to serve the area; the location makes sense and should remain valid in future years. If social patterns change to where we can make a good park, then we'd have a head start, or we can more easily return to where we've been. I think we need to have a long term vision for a park here, even if it takes 25 - 50 years to get it back. Meanwhile, it could be used for housing of a type that we also hope may be needed only on a shorter range basis. We would like to see that housing effort include the lot on the SW corner of 14th and Hilyard, which might be purchased with federal funding. The long term plans could then be made to recreate the park on a larger scale with more space for active (healthy) uses and better visual access. (As a rather obscure pocket park, it was too easy for the homeless element to take over.) We, at Parks Planning, are interested in how this develops so keep us posted. I should say that at the neighborhood meeting earlier this month (10/5) the sentiment wasn't as drastic as using the site for housing (although it was an option I suggested on in interim basis). The sense of the meeting was to close the park by fencing for a while, step up police surveilance, and hope for a fresh start with the park at a future (unspecified) date and measures to control any return of what we've been dealing with. --John From: WEINMAN Richie D To: ETTER John F Cc: DONAHUE Christine Subject: West University Park Date: Monday, October 30, 1995 1:43PM I understand that the neighbors would like to see a decomissioning of the West University Neighborhood Park. I know that most of the attempts to salvage the park from the undesirable use have failed. The park was acquired and developed with CDBG funds. I have an alternative use to suggest. If the park could be declared a landbank site, the best use for the property may be some specialized housing. I know that one particular non-profit, Mainstream Housing, has resources to construct a group home for people with disabilities. The West University site may be ideal for them because it is so close to the hospital complex. I'm not sure what stage of discussion/decision making the park is in. I know what I know mostly from a conversation a couple of weeks ago with Shannon McCarthy, neighborhood chair. Please feel free to enlighten me or put me on the right road. Thanks. Richie Page 1