COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: HOW TO MEMORIALIZE A CITY OF OPEN SPACES, ONCE ALL THE VACANT LOTS ARE FILLED “. . . I’ve been saying for a long time that the city should be actively acquiring and developing one lot in each neighborhood as a pocket park with some kind of unique sculpture or statue as its centerpiece. Some kind of consistent theme of that sort could form the basis for grassroots tourism of a unique variety. Sort of a park crawl rather than a pub crawl . . . or perhaps both at the same [time]. Houston’s best assets, after all, are our neighborhoods. We should show them off.” [TheNiche, commenting on Headlines: Vargo’s Comes Down; The Honeywood Trail House of Honey]
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Hmmmm, yes, but wouldn’t a lot as pocket park look less than aesthetically pleasing, I mean pocket parks are gorgeous when they look like the ones in River Oaks which were designed by Hare and Hare in the initial development of the neighborhood. The idea of some vacant lot as park seems odd, it would look out of place I fear
And at who’s financial burden would this socialist decadence be achieved?
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I am however willing to donate a statue of myself is some sort of grandiose dictatorship pose.
How thrilling would it be to see a statue of commonsense pulled down like Lenin and Stalin at the fall of the USSR, I’d pay to watch it melted down for metal used for shoring up historic buildings, using my commonsense to to dispose of a worthless edifice
Let’s not fool ourselves. Socialism is entrenched in America already, alive and well, but meticulously concealed from the public conscience.
How do we finance a worthy cause? Easy. Cease to finance a cause that is unworthy. (That’s my personal favorite.) Or raise taxes. Or issue debt and raise taxes later.
Houston actually has a program that does this in low to moderate income neighborhoods. “Parks to Standard” uses a Community Development Block Grant from HUD for the acquisition and/or construction of parks. I totally agree with you that there should be a pocket park in every neighborhood; not just some poor to moderate income neighborhoods.
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How to pay for it? An expanded community development block grant would probably work. But the bigger question is: how much do these parks really need to cost? We seem to assume we have to spend a ton of money to build parks when an open patch of grass and a few signs would serve the purpose just fine. The biggest expense would be the mowing. Monuments, paths, benches, palaygrounds, sports fields, and structures could be be paid for and installed by the neighborhood or other civic groups.
ZAW, your comments are reasonable and your ideas well-considered but must be ignored because SOCIALISM!
That is the worst idea I’ve heard today, but it’s only 9.
I would love little pocket semi-private vegetable gardens, like they have in Germany. Local residents pay a small fee to rent a parcel within the lot, already fenced off, to garden at will. Most of the Germans I saw tending theirs added little shacks to store their tools, and a few lawn chairs to sit and relax in their garden while taking a break from the work.
I believe the gardens I saw there were government-owned (and sponsored), but I doubt they generate enough revenue to be profitable. Of course, no profit implies the S word already used above. Surprised no one threw out the words “hero” or “terrorist” while they were at it.