My route to and from City Hall takes me past Waterway Park (between 11th and 12th Streets north of Grandview Boulevard). As I drove home from a UG meeting this past Monday, I was thrilled to see dozens of people enjoying the park!
Thanks to funding from Community Housing of Wyandotte County (CHWC), a partnership with the Unified Government and the tireless efforts of CHWC community organizer Steve Curtis, Waterway Park has been transformed from a rather unattractive hole in the ground to an urban oasis.
As I drove past the park I saw neighborhood residents having a picnic at the covered picnic table, walking the trail that circles the park, playing on the playground equipment and just generally enjoying the pretty, open spaces. I've included a couple of pictures below (click to enlarge...sorry for the poor quality).
You can read more about the past and future improvements on Steve Curtis' blog at:
http://chwckck.org/http:/chwckck.org/and-then-there-is-waterway-park
Steve does a great job of detailing what has already happened and painting a wonderful vision for coming improvements.
Seeing how much the neighbors were enjoying the space, got me to thinking ... what would it take to make similar improvements in all of the other parks in District 2? By my count there are 10 more parks besides Waterway. Here's the list I came up with.
- St. John's Park (4th & Armstrong)
- Huron Park (6th & Ann)
- Eight Street Park (8th & Ann)
- St. Margaret's Park (7th & Homer)
- Shawnee Park (7th & Shawnee)
- Bill Clem Park (10th & Kansas Avenue)
- Bethany Park (12th & Central)
- Northrup Park (10th & Grandview)
- Waterway Park (Waterway Dr. & Grandview Blvd.)
- Prescott Park (13th & Ridge)
- Lally Park (10th & Central)
Did I miss any? More importantly, what could we do in one or more of these parks that would make a positive difference for the people of the community? Let me know!
bmckiernan@wycokck.org
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