President's Message May 2009
Good Things Come in Small Packages
By PFP President Jack Foley
Pocket parks – also known as vest pocket parks, mini-parks and hidden gardens – are urban jewels. They bring beauty, reflection and recreation to harsh environments, create social space, and reroute traffic from quiet neighborhoods.
My wife and I recently visited Paris, where we strolled through sculpture gardens, mini-basketball courts and soccer walls tucked into quiet corners. In one dense urban swath, a pocket park measuring less than two acres overflowed with waterfalls, ponds and wild flowers. Former President Jacques Chirac created hundreds of these green spaces during the 18 years he served as mayor of Paris. The City of Light’s current mayor has greened 79 more acres of mini-parks during the past seven years.
We can learn a lot, not just from Paris, but from San Francisco, New York City and Seattle, where pocket parks have long brightened the cityscape. Los Angeles has traditionally opposed mini-parks for economic reasons. It’s more cost-effective, the argument goes, to mow 10 acres of lawn than to maintain 10 one-acre mini-parks. Fortunately, that thinking is changing.
In Santa Monica, I recently discovered a park wedged into a concrete maze of auto dealers and medical buildings flanked by two busy boulevards. Small community gardens book-ended the 100-foot by 40-foot park. The middle space was filled with lawn, flowers and benches. Gardeners were planting flowers, herbs, and vegetables. Office workers were lunching in the sun. The whole scene was unexpected and inspiring.
During March, I testified before the L.A. Planning Commission in favor of a pocket park proposed for a lot next to the Westwood Library. Friends of the Library helped design a public space with a reading circle and small amphitheater landscaped with drought-resistant plants. Before the meeting, city staff presented 25 factors that contribute to an attractive pedestrian walking area. I was disappointed that the list didn’t include the beautiful touches that characterize Paris’ mini-parks – gardens and art.
The City of L.A. now maintains about 100 acres of pocket parks, and the County also operates a few mini-parks. Many of these spaces, however, are leftover pieces of land with some trees and grass, and neither agency has a program to develop these public spaces. The solution lies in the grass roots. Many residents and neighborhood groups would help maintain mini-parks precisely because of their human scale. In Malibu, for example, the non-profit Green Machine is landscaping five miles of median strips on Pacific Coast Highway.
It’s time to beautify Los Angeles block by block. Good things come in small packages, and when pocket parks are strung together like pearls, they can raise our overall quality of life. Want proof? Click here for a virtual tour of mini-parks from San Francisco to New York and Paris to Bogota.
I look forward to your feedback. Please send your comments to me directly at
jack.foley1@verizon.net
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