I have not seen the park recently. I do know that Ron Oster put in a tremendous amount of work on all three parks on Nash, the one described, the one in the middle of the block and the one at Nash and Edward. The last one was done with Susan Frew and Ron. I think that it would be good to have a community group meet once a week and look after the parks. Maybe we could find someone willing to coordinate such an effort from this post.

i would love to help restore this space. we are lucky to have it in the neighborhood.

Hi there - I was actually referring to the one in the middle of the block - the largest one (I just had a little difficulty placing it on the seeclickfix map) - as the one that needed the most fixing up.

Has anyone suggested this to Friends of East Rock Park?

FERP needs a watch area -

Thank you for your comments regarding Park on Nash. I see that there are a number of people making comments about the disrepair of the community park. I have not seen any of you in the park on any of the days that the neighbors have been in the park doing cleanup. We have posted notices 5 times this year to help clean up the park. I have seen the same 5 people show up to work on the garden. Nobody that has made a comment here has been seen doing any maintenance of the park. It is a community neighborhood park which was originally funded by the city of New Haven, the Community Foundation and Urban Resources Initiative. The funding was to reclaim an abandoned lot which had been vacant for about 30 years after a fire had burned down the 4 family house originally on the site. It was a privately owned lot that was allowed to detirorate so that the city had erected jersey barricades to deter people from dumping in the lot. Over a 3 year period the neighbors on Nash street worked to develop the lot into a community garden. A small community development block grant enable us to put up the wrought iron fence which was salvaged from e demolision project in Brooklyn, NY. It also provided the money to buy the storage shed in the rear of the park. I went to some people I do business with in Madison, CT (Wood, Steel and Glas) and asked them to donate the material to build the kiosk in the front and the gazebo in the rear. The neighbor's on Nash build the two structures from those materials. The stone fence was built by a former resident of Nash Street who wanted to learn how to build a stone fence. I showed him the basics and he spent many early mornings working on the fence. It took about 3 years. Since the grants have ended about 7 years ago, the Nash street neighbors have met on an irregular basis to keep the park up. That worked well, because we use the park to 4 neighbor BBQ's annually; Memorial Day, Labor Day, 4th of July and we sponsor a Pumpkin carving party in middle of October. All of these activities are funded by the neighbors themselves, usually someone putting some money in an envelop in my mailbox. Unfortunately, about 5 years ago, the Board of Education decided to make use of the old Levell School on the corner of Nash and Lawrence Streets to put high school students who were disruptive at Wilbur Cross. The level of supervision for those students was negligible and the students came and went when they wanted. Many of them often left school and walked down to the Park on Nash for some recreation. Despite numerous complaints by the neighbors the school administrators ignored our requests for better supervision. Those students often destroyed many elements of the Park. The table and benches that people had donated were burned and destroyed by those students. After a highly confrontational meeting with Dr Mayo, at the East Rock Management Team, The use of the school was modified to its current use by CT Scholars. The first 2 years, 2008 and 2009 the students were monitored fairly well and were seldom seen in the Park. However, this past year has seen a return to the destruction by the students. Despite repeated calls by members of the neighbor, they were told it was not their students and the school was not responsible. All of the picnic benches and tables were destroyed as was much on the bbq grill and the gazebo. We made a decision to replace the wooden tables and benches with plastic which we can store in the storage shed. The neighbors on Nash continue to use the Park for BBQ's and will have their next one on Labor Day. We will as usual have a clean-up and maintenance party on Sept 4 from 10 am to 3 pm. For those of you who want to see the Park cleanup you are welcome to attend. I hope to see at least the 21 people who think the Park should be fixed up. If at that time you would like to come forward and demonstrate your leadership abilities to organize the efforts you will be greatly appreciated.

Ron - I think you have found your forum for finding more people to help than your usual crew. Don't forget to repost your September 4th clean-up near the date to remind everyone to come out.

Additionally, it does sound (from the history) that FERP may be a great resource.

http://www.friendsofeastrockpark.org/

Hi Ron,

Thanks for your comments. I live around the corner, but have never seen an announcement regarding a clean-up, so I have never attended one for that reason. Where are the notices usually posted?

The reason I created this post in the first place was not to whine about the state of the park, but, as you can see in my original post, to hope that we might as a community get together to fix it up. In that spirit, I hope we can move forward and have a larger group of people now work to clean it up. My roommate and I actually helped to plant the garden in the Dog Park two months ago, so we would of course be interested in helping with the Park on Nash. Perhaps the park clean-up dates could be posted on the Upper State Street website as well?

Thanks,
Debbie

Thanks Doug, I had already planned on reposting. I'll talk with Justin next time I see him about the linkages. Hope to see you at both the clean-up and BBQ.

Not sure how to post on the Upper State Street site, if you want to post it please do. We will be out on the 4th and come to the BBQ on Monday.

Doug,

Thanks for the shout out for the Friends of East Rock Park. We have a watch area in East Rock Park and the Nash Street Park is it a bit out of our boundaries.

Justin Elicker
Friends of East Rock Park
www.friendsofeastrockpark.org

Justin, as you know I also started the Mechanic Street garden which is behind East Rock School and next to the playing fields. This garden will be part of the new school when they reopen is there anyway that FERP can keep an eye on it so it doesn't get destroyed during construction. By the way, its a great place to seat and watch the softball games. Cool and shady.

Hi Deborah,
Thanks for your comments. You mentioned the gravel being gone. I have been restoring the gravel path when time permits over the past three weeks and have completed about a quarter of it. If you had gone by about a month ago, you might have seen me vaccuming the grass in front of the park. That's right, vaccuming the grass with a shopvac and fifty feet of extention cord running across Nash Street. One of our students up the street had smashed a computer monitor and there were hundreds if not thousands of glass shards imbeded in the grass waiting for a child or dog to seriously cut themselves. I also police the grounds every morning picking up nickel bags and other drug refuse after watering newly planted grass seed to even out some irregularities in the path. I hope I'm not blowing my horn too much, but I want you to know that the park has not been abandoned. Ron's comment about there only being four or five of us showing up for scheduled cleanups is right on the money. I really appreciate your comments and that you cared enough about the Park on Nash to say something.
Don

Hi Ron,

I know there has been a good amount of discussion about better integrating the field, the park and the school in the future design. I've been attending the meetings about the school's designs and will bring attention to how important it is to preserve the greenspace you created and keep it maintained.

FERP's got its hands full in East Rock Park, but I think there are enough involved folks in the neighborhood, that if we organized a cleanup and got it out through my aldermanic email list and other avenues, we could attract a lot of folks to help out.

Justin Elicker

Thanks Justin,

The Nash St. neighbors are planning to do a cleanup on Sat , Sept. 4th at 10 am. Its a small park lets see what kind of turn out we can get. I would be better to organize it so that it is maintained by those in the neighborhood. I appreciate the amount a large group can do, but the real problem is the continued ongoing maintenance that's something the immediate neighborhood needs to address. With the CT Scholars vacating the school this should lessen the amount of use the park gets. And with all the interest this thread has generated there are at least 10 people or so that are ready to help fix the problem or did I see 15 posts thinking this needed to be fixed. Justin, I know you've got lots of other commitments but you're invited to attend. Anyone else bring a pair of gloves and any gardening implements you think you'll need to weed rake and cleanup a 60 x 125 ft garden. See you all on the 4th.

For those people who would like to see the Park on Nash cleaned up, we will be getting together on Sat. Sept 4th. URI has said they will give us some stone dust and some mulch. In addition, I have gotten some plants and leaf bags. The clean up will start at 10 am although you can get started earlier if that better fits your schedule. Hope to see all those advocating the Park being spruced up on Sat. We will also have a Labor Day BBQ on Monday. Bring a dish to pass and we'll provide hot dogs, hamburgers, veggie burgers and cold drinks.

The lenghty explanation given by Ron Oster is awesome. Oster's explanation of the history of the Park on Nash and how certain construction have been damagaed due to the teens of the School at the corner of Nash and Lawrence is quite enough to shed light on the great suffering during tha past three years of continuous efforts to restore the park.. Now, with the disappearnce of all damaging factors of those students, the Park on Nash restored part of its beauty as a a lung to the neighborhood. As a resident of Nash street, and being there for alsmost 10 years, I am not exagerating if I say that only three or four people show up every now and then to take care of this park, with some appear as volunteers. I expect more people to show up whenever there is announcements for cleanup. It is a chance today on the labor day for many to come and see the efforts done to bring the park to its beautiful new look.

Ahmed Ramadan

Ron, please don't be negative about this. This was never meant to be a negative post, just one encouraging community participation. I particularly object to your personal accusations -- I was, in fact, visiting my ill 92 year old grandmother in New Jersey, and my roommate was sick in bed with the flu. This isn't a forum for negativity, but rather one for community solutions. Had I been in town, and not at the Chilton Memorial Hospital visiting my grandmother, you can be assured I would have attended the cleanup. I hope we can move past this and build up, not break down, community.

Ron, for my part, I am sorry that I didn't have the presence of mind to write into SeeClickFix at 4am Saturday morning when I was awake vomiting all night to report that I couldn't make it.

Your negativity is very alienating. An open invitation to future clean-up events would have been much more beneficial to the health of the park than your hate filled diatribe against the wrong people.

ron,
sorry i couldn't rearrange my work schedule to join you in the park. i work on saturdays.

this issue was opened by a concerned citizen who cares enough about her neighborhood to bring attention to something. this website encourages citizens to speak up about areas where change is needed. i am certain she didn't intend for this issue to be a personal attack on those who've helped out in the park in the past, just that she noticed it was in disrepair.

the issue being opened shed light on it's history and connected citizens more successfully than a few fliers posted on telephone poles. you seem to be angered by this, but that is the entire point of seeclickfix.

you have certainly made me think twice about joining these efforts at all, with your negative and hostile rants. if you care enough about your neighborhood to volunteer your efforts so admirably then why would you at the same time bash your neighbors so publicly?

A bunch of neighbors came together and did a great job giving the park a face lift. I hope we can all come together in the spring to ensure we will have a great park for the warmer months.

Matt Smith, Alderman, Ward 9