My last column was about our community working together collaboratively and how effective we are when doing so. It’s great to see this community be the kind that supports itself so willingly.
I started thinking about this sitting in the temporary park at the corner of Third Street and Monterey Road. I hear it called the little temporary park, the pop-up park, the Bike Hub Park… but, no matter what you call it, it should be called a huge collaborative success.
Just the creation was a huge success of the city’s Economic Development Planner Edith Ramirez to get the concept approved and then bring in the collaborative group of businesses, artists, different city departments and private interests to actually make it happen. This park was primarily created with all of those parties donating money, time and sweat to make it what you see today.
I go to this little park almost every day and except for the hottest times I see at least one, two or a half dozen families filling the park. I see little ones exercising their brains drawing on the chalkboards and creating whatever it is they are creating with those blue foam shapes when not tossing bean bags well, just about anywhere.
Speaking of those blue foam shapes, I think they are one of the keys to the park’s success. They fairly scream for kids to come and play. Those blue foam things are also another show of collaboration, they were lent to Morgan Hill by Passerelle Investments out of Los Altos because their big temporary pop-up park took a year off.
So a park that’s as active as this one must require some form of maintenance and there we find more collaboration. Members of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association volunteer to water the trees and plants, clean the chalkboards and do general cleanup and miscellaneous maintenance.
Right now you can count on the Candy Parlour, Rosy’s at the Beach, and Ladera Grill to take care of this park, and they are doing a great job.
The whole community is doing a great job of taking care of their park. I like to think the general condition of a public place will tell you quite a bit about how much pride and respect a community has in that place. Any visit will tell you that this community has a lot of pride and respect for this little park so all of you are to be thanked and congratulated.
This park will be around a little longer than originally planned so we may have its charms to enjoy until early next year and then it will be removed for another very good use.
So where will the park go from here? I believe that most of it will be moved to the planned Depot Street park. City staff hear your comments and I think you can feel safe in knowing that this is not the end of this kind of park in our downtown.
I just hope they take that big blue chair too…
John McKay is a Morgan Hill resident, city planning commissioner and co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance.
