Squirrel Hill Park, the controversial gated pocket “park” at 48th and Chester, is still open after being “liberated” earlier this month and renamed “People’s Park.”
Residents have been asking for years what it would take to open the park to the public. A group started a few years back to work through the legal entanglements. They event sent out a survey. But members of the Black and Brown Workers Cooperative showed what it took: vision, temerity and a pair of bolt cutters.
The Cooperative posted a video (see below) of the opening of the park a couple of weeks ago. The video now has nearly 20,000 views and the park is still open.
The park was designed and built in 1996 by West Philly artist Danielle Rousseau Hunter. Friends Rehabilitation Program Inc., an affordable housing provider located at 247 S. 48th St., owns the land.
April 29th, 2019 at 7:49 pm
“The park was designed and built in 1996 by West Philly artist Danielle Rousseau Hunter.” Heh. It would require an extensive thesis to correct and give a full account of everything behind that sentence.
April 30th, 2019 at 12:55 pm
This video never gets old. It captures so much about WP. Used or unused, the aesthetic value of the park is superior to the aesthetic value of any (alternative) construction that would likely be erected there! I am pro “Pocket Park” (liberated or not!)
May 1st, 2019 at 5:12 pm
I love that the park is opened – however it happened. So classic that it’s liberation moment involved a ball stealing antagonist.
May 1st, 2019 at 5:59 pm
Yeah, nothing like a mosquito breeding ground (literally swarms of mosquitoes from the stagnant water) and a garbage collection point to spruce up the neighborhood after an “artist” grifted her way into ripping off the US military to fund something she won’t let anyone else use. West Nile Virus for all. Huzzah.
May 4th, 2019 at 9:19 pm
Some people have balls. And some people have to steal them.