It was the middle of the afternoon on a Thursday, and it seemed like a good time to see what all the fuss was about. The media have been touting Citygarden, and I figured I’d check it out.
I’m at a loss for superlatives.
The two-block development on Market between 8th and 10th was crawling with people at 3:00 in the afternoon. These weren’t office workers eating lunch. The crowd was made up of just about every demographic you could come up with, and they were having fun!
Citygarden was funded by the Gateway Foundation, and in this project, the foundation has done more for Downtown than 20 years of professional planners and politicians have been able to accomplish.
There are works of art scattered throughout, with beautiful plantings, walking paths and water features. The people were participating – kids were climbing on the art and playing in the water, and adults could be seen dangling their feet in the pools. Even the dogs seemed to be enjoying themselves.
It’s not an overstatement to think that, years from now, planning professionals will look back and cite the development of Citygarden as a major stabilizing factor in the Downtown area.
When you couple the Gateway Foundation’s contribution with that of Gateway Greening, the organization responsible for all the median plantings, you can see how grateful we should be for the efforts of both groups.
There are two blemishes on this beautiful picture: 1) City workers are supposed to care for the plants in Citygarden. Some of the flowers are already shriveling and dying. 2) The annual cost of the work of Gateway Greening is not being covered by the city, which means the organization is facing a huge debt and will probably not be able to keep up its excellent work.
Thank you to members of both these groups for giving the City something to be proud of.
Would either of you be interested in redeveloping the ground currently occupied by a softball field?

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