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A Positive Park Story
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You probably have never heard of Henry Highland Garnett Park before. It is located at 415 West Lafayette Avenue at the corner of Druid Hill Avenue. The 1300 block of Druid Hill Avenue is not in the best shape despite the fact fact that Bethel AME church is located at 1300 Druid Hill Avenue. Bolton Hill is only three blocks away. Unfortunately there are quite a few empty buildings that are falling apart on the block. Henry Highland Garnett Park was designed in the 1970's and over the years it has fallen in to disrepair. Recently some neighbors came together and cleaned it up.
The neighbors did not wait around for the city to come in and fix things. They have taken proactive steps to improve their area. Through the Marble Hill Community Development Corporation the community is coming up with a plan to renovate the park and make it a center of the community. With the guidance of the Park Advocate Chris Delaporte they are working toward using already existing rec and parks funds for this project.
Chris Delaporte taught me that in order for a park to thrive the surrounding community must take ownership of it. Marble Hill is doing exactly that with Henry Highland Garnett Park. Every Friday from 3 to 6PM they have a Farmer's Market in the park. This gets productive activity in to the park and discourages activities that could lead to the park's destruction.
I don't get to write about positive stories very often. I think this is a great story though. Communities need to come together and take ownership over their areas. In Baltimore you can not wait around for the politicians to help you. People need to take charge and initiate change so that politicians can not ignore them and are forced to become a part of the progress.
Over the next few months I will give occasional updates about this park. I encourage people living nearby to check out the farmers' market if they are around on Fridays between 3 and 6PM.
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