- $10M Plan To Revitalize Upper Kirby’s Levy Park, Next To New Mixed-Use Midway Development ‘Kirby Grove’ [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Both Atwood Oceanics, American Electric Technologies Relocating Headquarters to New Energy Corridor Spots [Prime Property]
- River Oaks Spot Local Pour Expanding to the Woodlands, Joining 12-Unit ‘Restaurant Row’ at Hughes Landing [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
- Sources Say Cinemark Has Pulled Out of Texas City Deal [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- FEMA OKs $7.6M in Disaster Recovery Grants for Construction of Flight Museum at Ellington Field [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Houston Saw a 3.4 Percent Increase in Bus Ridership Last Year, Finds Transit Study [KHOU]
- Lack of Firearms Regulations, Homeowner Associations Make It Tough for Waller County Residents To Fight New Gun Range Being Built Near Their Homes [abc13]
Photo of Downtown: Jackson Myers via Swamplot Flickr Pool
The Levy Park project has some great potential. I am glad that it will be seeing some new investment. My only criticism of this project is that it eliminates the ball field that is currently located in Levy Park. I reside adjacent to this park and over the past year or so I have observed that the biggest and main attraction to the park is the ball field. This field brings in lots of people every week for kickball, softball, and baseball. Sometimes it makes the park crowded, which is a good thing. If the goal is to get more use out of the park, why eliminate the biggest thing that attracts most of the current users? My best guess is because the ball field wouldn’t look as “pretty” to the developments that are coming in. Excluding the ball field in the new design seems to me like there wasn’t very much research put into how the park currently functions. Spending just a week of observing the park during the springtime would make this evident. I hope its not too late to consider keeping a ball field in the design (although I work in the design profession so I know that it may be inconvenient to redesign). Even though I am a renter in the area, I feel as though my opinion should matter.
I don’t think I have ever gone to Levy Park to do anything except use the softball/kickball field. I am all for investment in the park, but I would hope that field would stay. Unfortunately, I think Jesse already has the answer to this figured out.
That picture looks like it was take off Clinton and Jensen. Really jealous of the view those townhomes have over there.
@jesse: It seems that when green space gets redeveloped (reimagined?), aesthetics are favored over function. Yes, the renderings look attractive, but it’s probably not a place the woman quoted in the article would actually take a child to play–what fun would he have? But,I don’t see too many corporate types lining up to fund playgrounds.
Where is the dog park? I don’t see it in the new plans.
I actually thought that Levy Park was a terrible place for a ball field. I have been there a number of times with my dog and kid. When there is a decent game of softball, foul balls and home runs regularly escape the fence line for the ball field, making it hard to walk or play around the oak trees. There are ball fields at the high school just north of the park. Maybe leagues could move their games to the school instead of being at Levy?
Also, from what I understand of the design, there is going to be a splash pad for kids and the dog park will still be part of the design. Open fields would be more accessible for kids than a baseball diamond. When the baseball field is in use, kids cannot use the space. But open fields can be used by several groups of kids for different games that do not need an entire ball field. Just go to Discovery Green and see all the kids play on the great lawn.
I hate for us to lose another softball field. The city does not have enough softball fields to accommodate current demand. My team has to go through a lot of hoops to rent fields, and we are constantly driving all over the city to outlying fields because those were the only ones available at the time. There is a crazy system of applying for fields online, and the fields become available at a certain time of the week, so die-hard teams will flood the internet registration site at that time hoping for a decent field (if they can get one at all). We play at Levy a lot, and will miss that park.
I wish COH would have a coherent parks strategy/plan. I encountered this recently when planning a tree planting in my local neighborhood park. I asked about the city’s policies or plans for tree count per park, the rationale for how much and where playground equipment is located, and what types of amenities are planned in proximity to certain demographics, schools, and resident density. It turns out the city has no objective other than to make sure their “48 inch mower deck fits between” whatever goes into a park (taken word for word from the high level parks official who blessed our project, after we agree to space out the trees accordingly). A simple look at softball field data would show high demand for more fields.
Superdave,
Having gone through a similar situation for the kickball leagues, the solution is obvious. Charge higher prices for the fields/leagues, and use that extra money to build more fields.
I don’t play softball, I played baseball in HS but could never get into softball, maybe because the girls always seemed much better at it. The fields are ugly as hell, with all the rusted chain link and the old bleachers, just not aestheticly pleasing at all, especially when they dominate a small park like this one– Why not just buy a ton of land out in the hinterlands she’d nobody gives a shit and build like 100 softball fields–a field of dreams for old jocks trying (poorly) to regain some glory from HS–I’ll
Pass
@Shannon
A rusty fence means the field is old and is not being maintained. Instead of destroying the field, how about replacing or maintaining the existing amenity? Also, there is heavy demand for this particular park amenity inside the loop. Moving it to the boonies will not help alleviate the need.
What is the difference between a softball field, a dog run, playground equipment, and a basketball court? All cater to only certain parts of the population that use the parks. That doesn’t mean any are less valuable to the community, or should be moved out to the burbs so other groups can superimpose their preferred amenity over another.
And your statement that we softball players are washed up old jocks is wrong, and rude. We do it for fun, camaraderie, exercise, and social networking – which perfectly belongs in a public park.
Fair Enough
Hmmmn. Seems like softball should have been your thing Shannon. By the way, did you ever look up the definition of a narcissist?
Melanie, don’t you know, it’s always about Shannon.
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The fact that he gave Superdave a “fair enough” shocked me.
I know more personal details about Shannon’s life from casually reading these comments than I do of anybody that work with.