Pocket parks help neighborhoods use small pieces of land

Communities are saying goodbye to vacant lots that are neighborhood eyesores and saying hello to pocket parks.Pocket parks can contain traditional park amenities, such as benches and playground equipment, but the best thing about this growing trend is they can be anything a neighborhood wants it to be.“It’s usually a corner piece for a neighborhood or brings the neighborhood together and embodies what the neighborhood wants to represent. It’s a real community asset,” said Ashlee Wilson Fujawa, director of public relations for Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB), an organization dedicated to preserving the natural beauty and environment in local communities.Wilson Fujawa said KIB is excited to be working on a parkette in Ransom Place, a historic African-American neighborhood. Though it’s a very small piece of land, she said the park contains a beautiful pathway, native trees and a unique feature.“We wanted an element that speaks to the idea of ‘four seasons of beauty.’ In the spring, summer and fall you get a beautiful plant palette, but we wanted something else that would be a showcase,” said Wilson Fujawa.Along the back of the park is a fence that was initially constructed for housing privacy purposes. To add custom character, KIB partnered with the Indiana Historical Society. They went into their archives and found five photos from the neighborhood. The pictures will be integrated into the fence.KIB is also building a pocket park in the Willard Park neighborhood that is making use of a strip of land that used to be abandoned houses. The idea is a whimsical wonderland with a pathway constructed out of repurposed tires; a native plant palette throughout the space; an oversized picnic table and an oversized chessboard.Wilson Fujawa said Purpose Park in the Hawthorne neighborhood created last year has really taken off and become a prime location for the area. The neighborhood created a learning and gathering environment. The park’s centerpiece is a vertical yellow 1964 Pontiac Bonneville car that represents the 1960s Hispanic/Chicano migration into the neighborhood and U.S. Route 40 located near the park.

“The neighborhood has begun to embrace the park and is using the color yellow throughout the neighborhood. You’ll see yellow flowers or yellow doors. It’s like a brand for them,” said Joseph Jarzen, director of community engagement for KIB.

Pocket parks, also known as vest-pocket parks, are public spaces, but are not considered city parks. However as the city’s park department, Maureen Faul, public information officer and senior manager of communications for Indy Parks, said Indianapolis’ Department of Parks and Recreation has quite a few mini parks – 24 to be exact.

According to the Indianapolis-Marion County Park, Recreation and Open Space Plan, “Mini parks are only created when neighborhoods enter into a long-term partnership with Indy Parks.” KIB is taking a similar approach and spending more time with communities they serve.

Prior to the change, KIB would work with a neighborhood to develop a park and then leave. They realized they weren’t spending enough time with the community and developed a longer-term plan.

Today, KIB has a three-year focus program that consists of a year of building; a year of maintenance and stewardship; and a year of helping plan programming.

“We’re finding that we’re able to help neighborhoods understand the space a little better, learn more about the plants we planted and help them learn more about how to take care of the space,” said Jarzen. “And Ashlee has helped with programming and ideas on how to use the space. It becomes more of a place – something more connected to the neighborhood.”

Though Indianapolis has a low park score compared to other cities, and many central Indiana residents have backyards, neighborhoods are looking to pocket parks to create aesthetically-pleasing shared spaces with a sense of purpose – community building by way of community greening.

For more information on pocket parks, contact Keep Indianapolis Beautiful at (317) 264-7555 or kibi.org; or Indy Parks at (317) 327-PARK or visit Indy.gov/eGov/City/DPR/Pages/IndyParksHome.aspx.