PAIGE BOOKER PARK
Paige Lynn Booker Memorial Park
The near east side is an area of high crime, low income, low home ownership, abandoned houses, decaying sidewalks, litter, and high weeds. In 2006, a mass murder of a family of seven occurred. Despite this, homeowners are working to turn the area around. After the mass murder, the City created a TIF District, with funds for public improvements. The new Great Indy Neighborhoods Initiative (GINI) was started; planning grants were awarded to this area and five others. But these would take time, and they wanted to start something immediately! In August 2006, the neighborhood applied for a grant for four pocket parks. These would create gathering places for neighbors, for them to meet and to work together to improve their neighborhood. Not waiting to hear from the grantor, they found free trees from another source. On the worst of the 4 vacant lots, they planted 12 trees. Due to the tenacity of the neighbors, they received the grant.
A house once stood on this lot. The renter was evicted by the landlords. While moving out, he purposefully burned the house down. Once torn down, the remains settled, creating a low spot that flooded with every rain. Other renters parked on this lot, creating ruts, and trash got stuck in the mud as the impromptu lake filled and dried. The owners of the lot were friends, not slumlords, and wanted to help. Knowing their lot was having a negative, not positive effect on the area, they donated it to create a park in memory of their granddaughter, who died young. The site is tiny, only 40 feet by 140 feet, but the plan packs a lot of activity into that space. The primary focus is the playground, but a picnic shelter and BBQ complement with space and activities for adults. A flower garden at the front of the site welcomes everyone into the park, and planter benches along the side along the alley, along with the new trees and some strategically placed large boulders, help delineate the edge to keep cars out of the park.
Construction began in March 2007, filling in the “lake” and building a shelter. The grantor supplied materials to neighbors who precut wood in their garages so the shelter would have more a decorative and finished look to it. Once the shelter was completed, they followed with a flagstone patio floor and a curving walk to the front of the park. The neighbors met every other Saturday and many weekdays to build the amenities of the park. Says the project manager. “This was the easiest park I’ve ever helped build; I would deliver materials on Wednesday, and when I came out Saturday to help, most of the work was already done!” On the final construction day the playground pieces were assembled, with 48 volunteers showing up. They had succeeded, this tiny park had become a focal point, a place to gather, a flash of pride in a troubled neighborhood.
The grantor’s staff noted one amazing thing about this project and the neighborhood. Not only did the leadership engage the homeowners, young/old, long-term/newly arrived, white, black, and hispanic, all working together in the creation of this park, they also successfully involved nearby renters! Some of these renters are now taking responsibility for the monitoring and maintenance of the park. Dropping by in early July, the project manager watched some children drag their parents into the “new park”. While the kids played, the parents introduced each other, discovering that they lived only a block apart, but had not met before that day. Not only had they created a safe place for kids to walk to for play, but they had successfully created a vehicle for neighborhood interaction in a more welcoming place than the mini-mart at the end of the street.
Congratulations go not only to the neighbors, but to the organizations that donated money, materials, and/or volunteered to help build this magnificent little jewel, one of the best places in town that most will never see, but one that the neighborhood will enjoy and celebrate for a long time.
