We’ve been two parks down in Wallingford for the past few months: Dump Park, the play area given to the neighborhood by the city as a bride price for the Transfer Station renovation work, has been fenced off for the past couple of months for ADA compliance work. Likewise, the playground at Wallingford Playfield at N 44th St and Wallingford Ave N has been closed for complete replacement since November.
Good news for the kiddos on both fronts. Dump Park has mostly re-opened, with just some temporary barricades around the basketball hoop and benches until the hoop is reinstalled and a couple of benches are raised. Otherwise, have it.
Over at Wallingford Playfield, I spotted this activity over the past few days. The signs say that the project is supposed to wrap up in March, which we are almost half-way through. I don’t know if they’ll make it, but it’s nice to see some real progress being made.
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The Dump Park basketball backboard and benches were installed yesterday (Mar 11).
What a way to start the day! Once more, I am assaulted by the misnomer “Dump Park.” Why must we put up with the misconception of cynics? The large facility across the street from the park is not a dump but a Transfer Station from which discards are moved to other facilities to be recycled. Nothing is left permanently in the Transfer Station to fester and corrode. However, this is a mere quibble. I have a more telling objection to the disgusting name of “Dump Park.” Language frames perceptions and value judgments. I challenge those who enjoy using this disparaging allusion to garbage to stand on Woodlawn Avenue and look east. Then they can enjoy the beautiful sight of the Aurora Avenue Bridge spanning the Ship Canal with the ascending trees of Queen Anne in the background. Like a series of paintings by Monet of his garden and house in Giverny, the bridge affords an array of views at different times and in different seasons. To reflect the real aesthetic value of the park, I suggest we refer to it as “Bridge View Park.”
So eloquently stated! Thank you. ( c re c)
Great suggestion! Open space is open space. Let’s treasure all that we have and seek to get the additions promised by the City during the 1990s planning process (community center, west-end park, larger library) as mitigation for the incredible increase in density our neighborhood achieved (and successfully accommodated) over the last 20 years. Open space helps keep people sane as our bubble of privacy is ever depleted, trees downed, gardens eliminated.
The new transfer station has been great. The old one would probably deserve to be called a dump with the smell and the mega-murder of crows. The new one not only got a park, but also an indoor viewing area for the transfer operations. It’s not bad to take small kids there to see the heavy machinery work. A facility with free indoor and outdoor play areas for kids!
You got me. Henceforth, I shall refer to it as Bridge View Park (née Dump).
OK, OK, we’ll drop its maiden name altogether!
Dump Park is a good name. You know from the name where it is. We have bridges all over. Are we ashamed that we have a dump in our neighborhood? We shouldn’t be – as you point out, it’s a nice place as dumps go.
Hee, hee. Although tickled to see the new replacement, at the single design meeting for the play area at Wallingford Playfield, a primary comment was to please use earth tones, dark greens and browns, for the new structure… and please no neon green. Attendees were also promised to see the final design before purchase for review and final comment. It appears this might have been a good idea. Never heard a word. Some things never change with the Parks department! You can review the minutes from the meeting online.
Please, please, please… if any of the donor plaques on benches or tables are removed, please reinstall them or at least return them to the volunteers that built and funded the last play area (at one-quarter of the cost of the new one, BTW) so that we may, once again, install them ourselves. It was mainly through the generous donations of the entire Wallingford community that we designed and built the park, at a time when Parks said they did not have the funds to do the work.
When I was a kid we played in the street with a rusty tuna can and my grandpa’s wooden leg.
You had a rusty tuna can!!!