From Eyesores To Centerpieces In Restoring Community Parks, Neighbors Make The Difference

JUST FIVE years ago, Carroll Park in West Philadelphia was dark, dirty and dangerous, providing hospitality for what Carroll Park Neighbors' president Doris Gwaltney calls "the element" - drug dealers, mostly, but also muggers and rapists.

The park was, in another of Gwaltney's apt descriptions, "a putrefying sore."

Today, though, Carroll Park is the center of the neighborhood. Young children from three local day care centers toddle on the tot lot. Seniors play chess and checkers and walk its perimeter. School children form a park patrol on Wednesday afternoons. Churches hold revivals there. Families picnic. In summer, there are concerts. One family even held its funeral repast there.

Other city parks can tell similar stories: Vernon Park in Germantown, Gorgas Park in Roxborough, Malcolm X Park in West Philadelphia, Elmwood Park in Southwest, Norris Square in Kensington. All have gone from eyesore to centerpiece.

What made the difference? People. With grants from nonprofit organizations, donations from individuals and businesses, plus help from city government, some community groups have transformed their parks.

But these successes are bright spots in a generally dim picture of serious neglect of the city's parks - both the expansive natural lands parks and the scores of neighborhood parks that dot the city.

Philadelphia's parks may suffer from a lack of funds, but they are blessed with sizeable human resources - more than 30,000 volunteers who organize cleanups, plant flower beds and reclaim stream beds.

But there is only so much volunteers can do. They cannot, for example, open or build additional restrooms for Fairmount Park, which now only offers a paltry 11 for thousands of visitors. They can't patrol the parks, combat dog litter or remove graffiti on a daily basis. While Philadelphia's park volunteers have helped stretch inadequate resources, Philadelphia cannot continue to rely so heavily on them.

The Friends of Philadelphia Parks organization recently has stepped up its advocacy efforts, meeting with City Council members and organizing a presence at budget hearings. It's now time for the city government to respond.