In the Santa Fe New Mexican of 31 August 1998, an article appeared on the park proposal:
copyright The Santa Fe New Mexican

Neighbors eye old lots for new parks
By MARK HUMMELS
The New Mexican

"Most people are
acutely aware
of vacant space
in their
neighborhood and
are enthused
about the idea
CARRIE LACROSSE
Santa Fe neighborhood planner
When Anna Richards looks at the vacant triangle bordered by Cerrillos Road and Don Diego Avenue, she sees more than just one-third acre of dirt, weeds and makeshift parking
She sees potential.
She sees a perk-to-be, dotted with shade trees and places to linger beneath them, adorned with native plants, sculptures, and a sign welcoming drivers headed up Don Diego Avenue to the neighborhood.
"We'd like to set a tone here," Richards said while showing the parcel next to speeding Cerrillos Road traffic during a lunch break last week.
Slow down, enjoy the sceneryand respect the pedestrians and residents along the way, " she said.
Richards and her Don Diego neighbors are not the first to consider a better future for the vacant triangle across from Allsup's, but they may be the ones to make it happen.
The group has submitted a proposal to the city to turn the lot into a neighborhood park. The plan may become a test case for a city program being considered to help turn city-owned weed lots into gardens.
The city's Public Works Committee gave conceptual approval last week to a proposed Neighborhoos Parks program that would assist residents with plans to create city parks in their neighborhoods. The program might tap some city money for initial costs, but the burden of planning, creating and maintaining the parks would fall mostly on the neighborhoods that want them.
"That way, the neigborhoods take owneership and pride," Councillor Mollie Whitted said. "When you feel this belongs to you, you really take pride and take care of it."
The program proposal will go to the Finance Committee today and, if approved, to the City Coulcil next month.

picture of Laura Wilson at the lot
Local resident Laura Wilson wants the city to make a park out of the empty lot at the intersection of Don Diego Avenue and Cerrillos Road.
The program would start with an inventory of eligible, city-owned parcels, then establish a process and criteria for inviting and evaluating park proposals from residents.
Carrie LaCrosse, Santa Fe's neighborhood planner, said such parcels - likely to number in the dozens - could come in various forms in the city.
They are the bits and pieces of vacant land too small for other uses, left for the most part to grow weeds and collect garbage, but ideal for local "pocket parks," herb gardens or other greenery.
Likely candidates for the program, LaCrosse said, would be undeveloped areas of existing parks, strips bordering arroyos, water easement and well sites purchased along with the Sangre de Cristo Water Co., or leftover rights-of-way from city street projects.
The Don Diego dirt triangle falls under that last category. It's what's left of a filling station lot the city bought to extend Guadelupe Street into Don Diego Avenue.
Richards and four neighbors who put together the park proposal envision the lot becoming a mixed-use park with a pull-out bus stop and bench, car and bike parking fo local businesses, revolving sculptural exibits, xeriscaped grounds and a kiosk for neighborhood notices.
"In the the evolution of this urban property, we're just raising up again the pedestrian use and the greenery, so it isn't totally given away to the automobile and the asphalt," Richards said.
The move to build a park on Don Diego Avenue reflects a wider interest seen in the neighborhoods across the city, LaCrosse said.
"Most people are acutely aware of vacant space in their neighborhood and are enthused about the idea," she said. "But that enthusiasm has to carry over into a proposal and a project."
Councilor Whitted, former director of Santa Fe Beautiful, said the success of the city's adopt-a-median program shows such citizen-based initiatives can and do work well.
"We're just on the drawing boards, and it's a big job," she cautioned about the program.. "But I'm excited about it. It's something I've been wanting to do for a long time."


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