A little more about Duke Park
I mentioned below in the brief history of Duke Park that the park used to be the home of a swimming pool. When i moved to the area in 1993, i chose Duke Park because the idea of having a public pool in walking distance for my two young children was appealing.
Alas, the pool closed for the season on Labor Day that year, and never reopened. The reason why the pool had so many structural issues is that it was built over an unnamed branch of the Ellerbe Creek, which is, in theory anyway, culverted where it runs through the park. But water kept eroding the soil structure under the pool, opening sinkholes and cracking the concrete. Eventually it reached the point where the pool could no longer be repaired, but instead needed to be either removed or replaced. Fortunately, it only took the city 11 years to get around to removing it.
Here's a shot of what happens, though, when you don't deal with drainage issues caused by building your park on top of a creek.
During the swimming pool removal, the Neighborhood Association offered numerous suggestions to city personnel in charge of the process as to how to deal with the issue of water on the site. Steve Hiltner, then of Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association, had some especially good ideas about creating a larger scale aquatic garden modeled on the one at Indian Trail Park, but P&R and General Services weren't remotely interested in talking about it. Instead, sod was laid on the old swimming pool site over a bed of clay and industrial grade fill, complete with concrete chunks 8 inches across, and broken glass. Since this was done in August, a sprinkler was set up to keep the sod watered 24/7 for about two weeks.
It was all dead before mid-September.
Oh, well.
At least we still have bathrooms. But if you want to let your daughter use the ladies room, better make sure she knows what poison ivy looks like. This tree is about 15 feet from the door to the ladies room. I first reported it to Parks and Rec after the 2006 Beaver Queen Pageant.
Finally, i mentioned that the old parking lot had been fenced in and turned into a storage yard. It's great that the Parks Department was able to find the resources to buiild this fence to keep people out of their yard.
After all, those busted basketball goals have to be kept safe:
Too bad the department hasn't figured out where to find the money to keep park users safe from morons who drive their cars over gardens and into the park.
I've posted a bit about my trip to NY last weekend. I did a lot of walking, including through much of Central Park. The park has around 6 miles of roadway that is open to vehicular traffic. Except for the following times:
Somehow, even though cutting through the park is incredibly convenient for motorists, the folks in New York City are able to keep cars off of the park drives during these hours, allowing tens of thousands of people to enjoy the park on their bikes, skates, wheelchairs, or feet. How hard should it be to keep a 1/8th mile loop in a small neighborhood park vehicle free?
Alas, the pool closed for the season on Labor Day that year, and never reopened. The reason why the pool had so many structural issues is that it was built over an unnamed branch of the Ellerbe Creek, which is, in theory anyway, culverted where it runs through the park. But water kept eroding the soil structure under the pool, opening sinkholes and cracking the concrete. Eventually it reached the point where the pool could no longer be repaired, but instead needed to be either removed or replaced. Fortunately, it only took the city 11 years to get around to removing it.
Here's a shot of what happens, though, when you don't deal with drainage issues caused by building your park on top of a creek.
During the swimming pool removal, the Neighborhood Association offered numerous suggestions to city personnel in charge of the process as to how to deal with the issue of water on the site. Steve Hiltner, then of Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association, had some especially good ideas about creating a larger scale aquatic garden modeled on the one at Indian Trail Park, but P&R and General Services weren't remotely interested in talking about it. Instead, sod was laid on the old swimming pool site over a bed of clay and industrial grade fill, complete with concrete chunks 8 inches across, and broken glass. Since this was done in August, a sprinkler was set up to keep the sod watered 24/7 for about two weeks.
It was all dead before mid-September.
Oh, well.
At least we still have bathrooms. But if you want to let your daughter use the ladies room, better make sure she knows what poison ivy looks like. This tree is about 15 feet from the door to the ladies room. I first reported it to Parks and Rec after the 2006 Beaver Queen Pageant.
Finally, i mentioned that the old parking lot had been fenced in and turned into a storage yard. It's great that the Parks Department was able to find the resources to buiild this fence to keep people out of their yard.
After all, those busted basketball goals have to be kept safe:
Too bad the department hasn't figured out where to find the money to keep park users safe from morons who drive their cars over gardens and into the park.
I've posted a bit about my trip to NY last weekend. I did a lot of walking, including through much of Central Park. The park has around 6 miles of roadway that is open to vehicular traffic. Except for the following times:
When are Park Drives closed to motor traffic?
Weekdays: 10:00 am – 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm – 7:00 am.
Weekends: 7:00 pm Friday – 7:00 am Monday
Holidays: 7:00 pm the night before – 7:00 am the day after.
Somehow, even though cutting through the park is incredibly convenient for motorists, the folks in New York City are able to keep cars off of the park drives during these hours, allowing tens of thousands of people to enjoy the park on their bikes, skates, wheelchairs, or feet. How hard should it be to keep a 1/8th mile loop in a small neighborhood park vehicle free?
Labels: Duke Park, local government
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5 Comments:
After reading this post the Duke Park meadow as the setting for the Beaver Queen Pageant seems even more appropriate.
I hear tail umh.. tale that the old swimming pool hosted pageants there in its heyday. Where is that fabulous picture of the boys in drag?
By
Beaver Lodge Local 1504, at 8:40 AM
Hello Beavah!
i'm hoping to get the rights to publish some of those fabulous photos in time for the pageant.
By
Barry, at 8:42 AM
holy crap, those bathrooms are actually in use?!
for the longest time we thought the pool had been housed in that same little building...we were convinced there was some secret pool languishing in there waiting to be used...lol
so, what's in the rest of that building? My other half is constantly trying to poke around in there to no avail...we always wondered why it wasnt used as some sort of community hall or something...
So, does it cost anything to use the "meadow?" what sort of reserving is done? what are the rules and restrictions?
By
Vera, at 8:54 AM
The rest of the bathhouse was used as changing rooms and showers when the pool was in operation. Altogether it's got nearly 3000 square feet of usable space.
The city's original plan, presented to the neighborhood in 2000 or so, was to spend $1.6 million on renovating Duke Park, including replacing the bathhouse with a grand entranceway to the park. Of course, they only had $400,000 to spend, and that all got sucked up by the playground equipment. Duke Parkers were pretty surprised when no funds were allocated to Duke Park in the 2005 bond; we were insulted when a Parks and Rec official suggested that was because nobody from the neighborhood had bothered to participate in the CCIP committee that set priorities for that money. My feeling is that i spend enough of my time doing my own job, i don't really have that much left over to spend reminding you how to do yours. If you told the neighborhood that you had a three part development plan for Duke Park, we kind of expected that you would remember to fund it the next time you asked us for bond money.
It's not used as a community hall because the city is too shortsighted to see its value, and too boneheaded to let the neighborhood take care creating one. DPNA spent over two years negotiating a lease with the city before we found out that, because we weren't a registered 401(c)3 non-profit, we couldn't even sign a lease with the city in the first place. The Duke Park Preservation Initiative, which is a registered non-profit, has been attempting to negotiate a lease for the past 8 months or so. That may get done by the end of the year, or it may not. the roadblocks being thrown up by the city include zoning issues and parking issues. Apparently the nearest handicap parking space is 20 feet further from the front door than the maximum allowed, as well as the fact that the on-street parking on the Acadia St. side of the park wouldn't count toward the minimum number of spaces required. And since P&R is using the old parking lot for storage, we can't count those spaces either. Meanwhile, try to get Planning to enforce some of its regulations against front lawn parking or home based warehouse and distribution businesses run out of residentially zoned areas. Unfuckingbelievable.
As far as reserving the meadow, my commenters can probably provide more details. My understanding is we've gotten a special use permit for amplified sound, and DPNA is sponsoring the event allowing the association's insurance policy to cover any liability. Standard park restrictions apply - ie, no alcohol, no food sales.
Prks and Rec is putting on a concert in the park on June 21 featuring "Cool" John Ferguson. If you give Annette Smith at Parks and Rec a call, she can probably help you out if you want to put something together there on your own.
By
Barry, at 9:21 AM
If the neighborhood just went in and renovated the site without permission, the only way the city would cite us is if a neighbor complained for over a year about someone doing construction without a permit. And by then, the construction would be done. And then the city would grant us the permit after a few months just to shut up the complaining neighbors. Even if the illegal construction caused damage to those neighbors' properties.
At least, that's my experience with other construction projects in our neighborhood.
By
Anonymous, at 9:44 AM
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