California Awards Grants To TPL To Build Urban Parks

The state of California has announced the award of grants worth $14.9
million to help build five parks in densely populated parts of San
Francisco and Los Angeles, The Trust for Public Land announced today.

The grants were among a series of 62 approved by the California
Department of Parks and Recreation under the auspices of Proposition 84,
a $5.4 billion open space bond passed by California voters in 2006.

The TPL projects include one in San Francisco, three in Los Angeles,
and one in the city of Maywood, which is in Los Angeles County.

“These grants will help us build parks and playgrounds in
neighborhoods where children need safe, open spaces to play,” said Sam
Hodder, California TPL Director. “We look forward to working with our
local partners to turn these plans into reality.”

“We have a long and successful track record of creating parks like
these. In fact, we are the only national conservation organization
working to create parks in cities across the country,” said Hodder. “We
appreciate that the state of California agrees that these five parks
must be built as soon as possible.”

The parks, and grants, include:

• Boeddeker Park, San Francisco. The $4 million grant will
  go to the city and county of San Francisco, where TPL is working with
  the city to build a one-acre park in the midst of the Tenderloin
  neighborhood, one of the city’s poorest areas. Almost 50,000 people
  live within walking distance and many of those are families with
  children in apartments or single rooms with no safe places to play
  outdoors.
• Carlton Way Pocket Park, Los Angeles. The $1.26 million
  grant will create a park on a 0.2 acre lot which has been vacant for
  more than 15 years. There are no other parks in the neighborhood, which
  has more than 15,000 people. The park will include a playground,
  fitness equipment and a small plaza with trees and benches
• Monitor Avenue Park, Watts district of Los Angeles. TPL
  was awarded $5 million to work with the City of Los Angeles to turn a
  1.13 acre site, which is now a vacant lot surrounded by a chain link
  fence, into a park with playgrounds, fitness equipment, and a lawn with
  picnic tables.
• Maywood Avenue Park, City of Maywood. A $1.9 million
  grant will be used to turn a city-owned industrial site of about
  one-third of an acre into a park, which will include a small playground,
  mini-field for sports, and restrooms. Maywood, in southeastern Los
  Angeles County, is the most densely populated community west of the
  Mississippi River, with more than 30,000 people living in only 1.13
  square miles.
• Patton Street Park, Los Angeles. A $2.7 million grant
  will be used for a park and community garden in Echo Park, a
  neighborhood near downtown Los Angeles. The 0.4 acre site is next to a
  city-owned community center and is in a densely populated neighborhood.
  Plans call for the park to include a playground, fitness equipment, a
  picnic area, and a community garden.