Pimp my park
File under: urbanism, Wellington
Glover Park is finally being closed off for redevelopment. The fences are going up, and as I mentioned earlier, these will soon be covered with hoardings featuring works by local artists.
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6909/1288/400/glover_fence.jpg)
In a way, this redevelopment is necessary: the park looks dated, the dark trees help it feel gloomy, the paths never went in the right directions and some of the inhabitants have been intimidating enough to deter even hardened urbanites. On the other hand, there are a couple of arguments against it.
Social problems like addiction, mental illness and homelessness don't go away just because you put in some nice paving. The previous inhabitants have already moved on to Cuba St and Courtenay Pl, and if anything this has exacerbated tensions between them and the rest of the community.
Also, as a reader ("bush whacker") has pointed out, this is a just plain awful site for a park (see the site plan and location map - 671kB PDF). It's shadowy, damp, and while a café or two might bring some people here, the surrounding buildings generally turn their back on the place. More importantly, it's not a very useful thoroughfare to anywhere, and unless Garrett St is extended through to Victoria St and the mess of carparks between Garrett and Bute Streets are turned into a pleasant pedestrian route with some ground-level activity, it will remain a backwater.
But my green space map shows that Glover Park fills a gap in the green network of Te Aro, so what's to be done? Bush whacker points to the obvious solution: swap it for the car park at Swan Lane:
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6909/1288/400/swan_lane_carpark.jpg)
Now that $1.2 million is being spent on upgrading Glover Park, the swap with Swan Lane looks all but impossible. Still, I do hope that the park upgrade goes well, and that the results attract people to a much improved urban space.
1 Comments:
Work is well underway
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