Bus Tour Highlights Community Greenspaces Citywide

Dozens of New Haveners peeled off of yellow school buses and down a pathway toward the Botanical Garden of Healing, nestled in the shadow of West Rock on Valley Street. They were grandmothers, grad students, kindergarteners, actual gardeners, high school friend groups, and everyone in between, who braved the thick August heat for a tour of New Haven’s ever-growing roster of community greenspace sites, including this new one on Valley.

After a two-year Covid hiatus, the annual free public Urban Resources Initiative (URI) Community Greenspace Bus Tour returned on Friday, promising a two-hour excursion to recognize and celebrate the hard work of volunteers who have been greening the city. 

URI is Yale School of the Environment-based not-for-profit that has planted trees and helped create greenspaces throughout the city since 1995. Every summer, hundreds of volunteers dedicate their time to creating and maintaining around 50 greenspace sites with URI’s help. The fruits of this collaboration have transformed vacant lots throughout the city into lush community gardens. 

URI Director Colleen Murphy-Dunning said that the tour, which came at the conclusion of the summer season, was primarily to show appreciation for the volunteers and thank them for their work beautifying the city. (Click here to read a story about the bus tour in 2013.)

Participants gathered for the tour at around 5:30 p.m. Friday on the front steps of City Hall. URI employees and interns wore green T‑shirts and made themselves available for questions, and greenspace volunteer leaders greeted each other, some for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

Betty Thompson, a Cedar Hills advocate who has a street named in her honor, was among those who reunited with past friends. She arrived with her great-granddaughter Zaria and daughter Kenya Adams-Martin, with whom she co-leads the Cedar Hills Greenspace.

“We never stopped working,” Thompson said of the two-year hiatus. She said it was exciting to have their work be seen and appreciated by the community again.

Meanwhile, other greenspace site leaders mingled: Pat Wallace of Rainbow Park, Marlene Miller-Pratt of the Botanical Garden of Healing, Stephanie FitzGerald of Edgewood Park, Rebecca and James Cramer and Joan Hilliard of Beaver Ponds Park, among others.

URI Associate Director Chris Ozyck welcomed the group and provided background on the greenspace program, which he said began over 25 years ago. The three main goals of program, he said, are restoration, community building, and maintenance. 

Then everyone piled onto the vehicles for the tour: two school buses and one van for overflow, which boasted air conditioning as a bonus.

The tour couldn’t hit all 50 greenspaces citywide. This year’s tour began with the Newhallville neighborhood. Buses slowed as they drove past a handful of the sites, and select volunteers stood to tell anecdotes about the history of their site and progress they have made.

One greenspace, at the corner of Shelton Avenue and Hazel Street, was previously nicknamed the ​“mudhole” decades ago when it was known as a drug-dealing, high-crime spot. Now, thanks to a total greenery makeover, the area has become a nexus of community activity, providing a home for a workout class, a small youth group, and outdoor classroom events.

The first actual stop of the tour was at the Botanical Garden of Healing for Victims of Gun Violence, where leader Marlene Miller-Pratt addressed the crowd. Miller-Pratt, who lost her own child to gun violence, spearheaded the project to create the tribute park along with other survivors Celeste Robinson Fulcher and Pamela Jaynez in 2017. The tribute park first became open to the public in June of last year, making this year’s stop the first time that the site was featured along the tour. 

Miller-Pratt talked about the brick walkway, which pays homage to those who have lost their lives to gun violence in New Haven, and a large sculpture that serves as a metaphor for how gun violence tears families apart. (Click here to read more about the history of the garden and the women who made it happen.)

The final stop of the tour looked at the greenspace near Mitchell Library, maintained by Kate and Bob Bradley, retired locals who have stewarded community land for over 25 years in the neighborhood. 

The site is officially designated as the work of Blockwatch 303, which works to maintain ​“two large beds near the library’s entrance in addition to many of the library’s trees, the hostas in the parking lot, and the Whalley/Blake Street parking lot further down the block from the library.”

Attendees were treated to pizza, watermelon, and iced cold beverages at this final stop. Bradley, Ozyck, and Mayor Justin Elicker shared closing remarks of gratitude while everyone ate. At a little past 7:30, the buses took everyone back to City Hall, with full bellies and high hopes for next year’s tour.