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Beaver Hills House Park & Michael Phair Park Renewal

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I know a lot of people think the parks were fine, but I'm glad this is happening now. I used to walk through them on a daily basis, and while the Michael Phair park was OK, the Beaver Hills one wasn't nice. The rear portion was difficult to access, so nobody went there aside from the houseless; the Indigenous walk of honour was very run down and easy to miss; the water feature regularly clogged and flooded the surrounding walkway. And when standing in one park looking toward the shared connection, it was difficult to tell that there was even another park so close by. Overall, it just felt run down and sketchy. This refresh will add activation to all areas of the park to encourage a more even flow of people, enhance the connection between the two parks, and just make it a more pleasant place to be overall. Even though the city could have scraped by with a more minimal approach focused on infrastructure renewal, I think it was a better choice to make it more appealing to visit too. We want more people to visit, work, and live downtown, and I think that this could help.

Greenspace said:
Also, the trees along 105 Street are being cut down today.
Click to expand...
All of them? The page does say this:

"The project team, along with the City forestry team, has determined some trees cannot be accessed for proper maintenance or are in poor condition. These trees will be removed in the last week of June. Per City of Edmonton policy, a bird sweep will take place before any tree is removed.

Existing, healthy trees will be preserved and we will plant new trees in locations with good growing conditions that are easily accessible for ongoing maintenance."

I really hope that they either kept some of the trees along 105 St, or replaced them. Those were some big and beautiful trees, and with summers getting hotter we need all the shade we can have.
 
CplKlinger said:
I know a lot of people think the parks were fine, but I'm glad this is happening now. I used to walk through them on a daily basis, and while the Michael Phair park was OK, the Beaver Hills one wasn't nice. The rear portion was difficult to access, so nobody went there aside from the houseless; the Indigenous walk of honour was very run down and easy to miss; the water feature regularly clogged and flooded the surrounding walkway. And when standing in one park looking toward the shared connection, it was difficult to tell that there was even another park so close by. Overall, it just felt run down and sketchy. This refresh will add activation to all areas of the park to encourage a more even flow of people, enhance the connection between the two parks, and just make it a more pleasant place to be overall. Even though the city could have scraped by with a more minimal approach focused on infrastructure renewal, I think it was a better choice to make it more appealing to visit too. We want more people to visit, work, and live downtown, and I think that this could help.


All of them? The page does say this:

"The project team, along with the City forestry team, has determined some trees cannot be accessed for proper maintenance or are in poor condition. These trees will be removed in the last week of June. Per City of Edmonton policy, a bird sweep will take place before any tree is removed.

Existing, healthy trees will be preserved and we will plant new trees in locations with good growing conditions that are easily accessible for ongoing maintenance."

I really hope that they either kept some of the trees along 105 St, or replaced them. Those were some big and beautiful trees, and with summers getting hotter we need all the shade we can have.
Click to expand...
I also walked through them regularly previously and liked them. I agree the rear portion in particular was not well utilized or properly cared for and it became neglected.

I do hope the renewal will result in a nice and better space, but I feel many of the problems relate to the location, little or no security presence and not enough maintenance.

So my concern is that in a few years after spending a lot of money many of the same issues or problems will be back again. It is not enough to build new things we also must properly maintain them.
 
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