what do you want Wick Park to become?

This Saturday, March 15th at 11:00am, there will be a meeting.

It's purpose: for a community to come together and build a vision for what the Wick Park of the future will be.

(photo courtesy of the Wick Park wikipedia entry)

Founded in 1889, the Park is just north of the YSU campus, and the neighborhood surrounding it is home to many university students and faculty members.

Similar to several pockets of the northside, Wick Park now needs a little love and attention. Like anything worth keeping, a bit of planning and reinvestment now will go a long way towards sustaining a bright future.

Please join the Defend Youngstown movement and Youngstown CityScape with the professional services of The Urban Design Center of Northeast Ohio for the initial meeting for community-wide input.

The future timeline and structure of the project is archived here.

WHO: All interested individuals, businesses, institutions, neighborhood organizations, non profits
WHAT: Share sense of history of Wick Park, information about the current conditions, restrictions on its use; discuss community goals and intended outcome of the park planning process. Chance to sign up for projects in the park.
WHEN: Saturday, March 15, 2008, 11:00 am
WHERE: Park Vista (Community Room) 1216 Fifth Ave.

You can RSVP to youngstowncityscape (at) sbcglobal (dot) net or call 330-742-4040

this will be the first step in a multi-step process.


so to prepare for the meeting, I have been thinking about all the parks I have visited over my life and what made them special.

things like:

- often populated by the public during both night and day
- historic or artistic signage
- good views of surrounding architecture in neighborhood
- fenced-in dog park to let pooches run wild and meet other dog owners
- farmers' markets
- a lake with a trail around it
- pruned trees and landscaped flowerbeds
- fountains
- an outdoor stage for community events
- stone entryways


so Youngstown, what do you want Wick Park to become?

what aspects are important to you?

the little white paper that could

hello.

a little "white paper" was passed out at today's meeting at City Council Chambers at 3pm.

It was completed a few hours before the plans were officially released to the public today, and is stamped with a date and time of completion. Version 2.0 is the most recent and proper version. It can be accessed by clicking on the green button below:



Additionally, the button will appear on the right hand side of this blog for a while.

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But the paper should now be read with a few caveats.

First, during today's meeting, it came up that not every single one of the mature trees near the sidwalks will be removed. However, all if not most of the mature trees in the medians will be removed.

Second, it was stated that in addition to parking, the medians need to be removed to access the deteriorating wires used for lighting connections. That point was not included in version 2.0 of the paper. However, one attendee mentioned that the wiring could possibly be deactivated and left in the ground with the medians, as an alternative electric source can be connected to power the lighting. Is this a possible solution to part of the problem?

Upcoming posts will be include links to media coverage, in additional to providing some suggestions for compromise and ways to ameliorate public involvement.

Videos were up at wytv.com and wfmj.com as of 9pm.

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But even with those caveats, the story remains the same.

For the entirety of this project, especially since 2005, public input has rarely been sought and public disclosure has rarely been provided.

These criticisms of the process are independent of the final design.

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And if you're reading this blog for the first time and don't have a clue what I'm speaking about, please read the report.

It's not a perfect document, but it gives an alright overview of the issue at hand - one which concerns many people who care about the future of downtown youngstown.

Public Planning Meeting will be the first of many

Tomorrow (Wednesday) kicks off an important step in the Youngstown 2010 Planning Process - The very first public planning meeting will be held at the D.D. and Velma Davis Education and Visitor's Center at Fellows Riverside Garden (7pm) to discuss ideas about what is currently being called the Garden District.


This neighborhood, the first of nearly 130 within Youngstown City limits to be planned, is bordered on 2 sides by Mill Creek Metroparks. It is also hugged by Calvary Cemetery to the west and Mahoning Avenue on the north.


Public meetings like these are priceless to the City Planning Department as it gives them an opportunity to hear directly from the residents of that area. Without that valuable input, it can be difficult to determine exactly what the best plan for an area is.

If you live in the area, if you don't live in the area, if you want to move to the area, or if you have ever passed through the area to get to Fellows, please try to contribute to this discussion. You can have a say in what happens here.

The format will be somewhat informal, with the Planning Department presenting several preliminary thoughts, ideas, and observations about the neighborhood. These rough ideas are meant to initiate discussions by the public about what may or may not work in this particular neighborhood. From there, the Planning Department will have some material to work with to generate new and improved plans, which will again be presented in a public forum at a later date.

Be there and be vocal.

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In addition (and because it wouldn't be a Youngstown Planning Meeting if they didn't use Youngstown-based technology) participants will be using Turning Technologies' audience response system.

During the presentation, the public will have the ability to voice 'Yay' or 'Nay' the ideas with the touch of a button.

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'Garden District' Public Planning Meeting

June 27, 2007 7pm

D.D. and Velma Davis Education and Visitor's Center

Fellows Riverside Garden

new floral display in metz

About four months ago, I wrote an entry describing how some cities in Europe add floral displays to cover their open plain spaces during the summer months. This week, I returned to the city of Metz in France to further investigate exactly how these displays were constructed. (click here to read the original post)

This year the city of Metz decorated the space in front of their main train station with a mix of flowers, grass, stones, and sculpture:


This year's design celebrates the arrival of the high-speed TGV train to this part of Eastern France, cutting the travel time to Paris from 3 hours to 1.5 hours.


This display really hightens the beauty of the surrounding buildings.


During the rest of the year, this space is a completely flat surface. When starting construction, the designers place what looks to be a series of beams which are 3 to 4 inches in depth around the perimeter of the planned area.


This bracketing allows for a series of sprinklers and pipes for watering to be placed, as well as rich planting soil to be contained within the planned space.


The design is even more remarkable from the air. On the observation platform, one can see the swirls and curves of color below.


Buses operate right next to the displays, as they shuttle passengers throughout the city.


People are given enough space to walk between the arrangements.


So can something like this be designed and constructed in the central square along Federal Street next our historical structures? Every year, a new design can be utilized. After a few years, professional photographers would have amassed enough photos of this to create images to be sold on posters and postcards.

Should an idea like this become a reality in our downtown?

blossoms in the concrete jungle

Recent construction has done a good job of opening up Federal Street downtown, but there seems to be a glut of concrete spaces and anemic grey benches. Examples can he seen here, here, and here.

When the springtime hits in Europe, some cities take their wide-open public places traditionally covered in brick and place very large planters across the ground. They then arrange some flowers to make a pattern. Essentially it takes a normally barren area and adds life and color to the central part of some cities. Here is an example from a postcard:


Perhaps partially covering over the cement in the summer months with flowers, while leaving space for pedestrians is one way to ameliorate the attractiveness of our downtown's streetscape.

(special thanks to Matt at downtownyoungstown.com where I found these pictures)

UPDATE (August 2006): There is new blog entry about the flowers in Metz in summer 2006 and how they were assembled. Click here to see more details.