Page 24 - Sonoma County Gazette January 2017

Bayer Neighborhood Park & Gardens ready for Roseland
By Vesta Copestakes
The first time I came to this community garden was to do a story on
Redwood Empire Food Bank’s summer lunch program. The Imaginists Theater Collective performed plays for families while people made fresh tortillas on hot grills. Fresh vegetables harvested and brought to the outdoor kitchen were served up to hungry children while people milled about and enjoyed this delightful community gathering place.
My last few weeks at the Board of Supervisors were mostly like any other time there...but busier. In addition to wrapping up my year as Chair of the Board and my two terms in office, there were initiatives to address which could not roll over to next year. Primary among these tasks was ensuring that Andy’s Unity Park would have the support from my fellow board members for full funding, and finishing up the Cannabis Ordinance that Supervisor Gorin and I worked on for the past year along with a very capable and insightful group of County Administrator staff and multiple departments.
Andy’s Unity Park: The Moorland neighborhood came together after the Lopez shooting with a new sense of urgency about making sure that their voices were heard. Around the same time, the Portrait of Sonoma identified the neighborhood as a priority for infrastructure improvements and health and human services. The Health Department, Regional Parks, and Community Action Partnership began working with neighbors to establish the Moorland Neighborhood Action Team. They started small, with community cleanup days and graffiti removal projects and moved on to prioritizing needs. Street lights were installed on formerly darkened streets, and bus stop locations were moved and improved. Then came the park.
One of the women I spoke with told me she had been living in the neighborhood for only a short time but this garden brought her in touch with the people who shared common ground. She told me that she counted 14 languages spoken, the most diverse group of neighbors she had ever known.
A vision is realized!
The area next to the community garden
is now ready for people to play on swings and slides, test their skills at the skateboard structures, toss a basketball at hoops...and the part that impressed me the most, was the outdoor dining area featuring four different kids of ovens to prepare hot food created
by the different cultures represented in
this community. They are embracing their similarities and their differences.
It Takes a Village
Knowing that a public park in Roseland was far overdue, and not wanting folks to have to wait longer, this simple action marked LandPaths’ commitment to the Roseland Community. Within a few months, neighbors began farming the land and brought youth programs to the farm.
I watched as people came to paint the mural designed by Artist Mario Uribe and Daniel Doughty on the central building which includes a commercial kitchen - which will be available for rent. The mural was drawn on as a paint-by-number project so people could easily fill spaces with color.
The park property at 1550 West Avenue,
was acquired in 2007, and the concept
was created through a series of community
meetings held in 2009. But on August 10th,
2007, instead of waiting 10 years to cut a ribbon at an officia park opening ceremony, LandPaths’ Executive Director Craig Anderson, immediately cut the barbed wire fences to get it started.
In no time at all, the place took on a life of its own, encouraging all kinds of people from different cultures and backgrounds to celebrate and break bread together, to teach each other about their heritage through crop cultivation, recipe exchanges and potluck dinners.
The County was able to acquire the property where Andy Lopez died. Long planned for development by the property owner, the land became home to a memorial altar and playground which had to be respected. Over 20 years ago, the developer of the adjacent subdivision had agreed to build a park for the community. At the last minute, the Board of Supervisors reduced the size of the development and did not require the park to be built. And so, Moorland remained park-less for many years and the lot stood vacant and neglected.
Numerous partners are essential to Bayer’s success, starting with City of Santa Rosa’s Park leaders who were willing to take a risk at the beginning, to community members, individual donors and the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District (who has been there since day one), Kaiser’s HEAL program that jump-started the garden, paired with consistent support from the Community Foundation Sonoma County, Speedway’s Children’s Charity and community partners —most notably the Imaginists and Redwood Empire Food Bank. The park will be open daily sunrise to sunset. A special grand opening festival will take place in 2017 to celebrate the park and recognize the contributions of everyone who made this possible.
Regional Parks does not typically develop neighborhood parks. If you look at their menu, their parks are beautiful and vast – almost all over 20 acres. Given the nature of the project, and the small size, their team coordinated a community process that included members of the Neighborhood Action Team, Andy Lopez activists, and other community members. The meetings were well attended and robust. Community members made important decisions about the design of the park, elements were added and subtracted based on a projected budget, and went through a lengthy consensus project to agree to the name Andy’s Unity Park.
Mario Uribe & Daniel Doughty with neighborhood help
24 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 1/17
OUR COUNTY cont’d on page 25
Once the design was finished, the project went out to bid. As with most projects, funding had been dedicated to the park, but when bids came in they exceeded the projections. Thanks to the community members who sat through a long morning at our meeting to tell us how important the park is to their community...and thanks to my fellow board members for committing to the funding.