These young gardeners hopped a bus to see a dozen neighborhood spots where people have brought beauty, and nature, to city streets.
Two busloads of people in all traveled to a dozen greenspaces Thursday afternoon for a firsthand look at true grassroots efforts — and a visit with some of the heroes behind the rakes.
A hundred neighborhood beautifiers passed by the greenspaces in five neighborhoods west of downtown, including the combination beautification and traffic-calming circle pictured above on Frances Hunter Drive.. Chris Ozyck (pictured), who coordinates the Community Greenspace Program, narrated the tour. Pictured at the top of the story are his daughters, Adeline and Grace, flanking Davina Waters, who helps her grandma garden. Ozyck said there are 49 greenspace groups (not counting community gardens), which involve 600 to 800 people each year. This was the fourth annual greenspace bus tour of parks, streetscapes and front yards.
The first stop was on Bristol Street in Dixwell at a greenspace its volunteers call the Garden of Eden. Mr. Mack (pictured), lives nearby and wanted an old-fashioned Southern garden that serves as a gathering place for the neighborhood.
The greenspace program is a joint effort of Yale’s Urban Resources Initiative, the New Haven Department of Parks, Recreation and Trees, the Community Foundation and United Way.
The beautified spaces ranged from pocket parks (like this one at Watson and Bassett streets in Newhallville) to street scapes to front yards, from wildflowers to native bushes to trees. The tour offers a chance to cross-fertilize the Community Greenspace Program, where gardeners could see what other gardeners are doing.
The biggest project is Beaver Pond Park (pictured), where the neighborhood “Friends” group has cleared invasives from the water’s edge and planted many native trees and bushes.
Five young men from Crossroads, a substance abuse treatment program on Ramsdell Street in the West Rock area, worked together to clear out invasive Japanese knotweed and plant native trees all around a basketball court where they shoot hoops. Claudio Lopez (pictured on the right) explained why he liked it. “It’s good. You feel good about yourself planting trees and stuff. I like the system, how the greenspace works.” Others in the photo, from left to right, are Harry Gonzalez, Jael Cividanes, Juan Godri and Kilvin Sanchez.
There were a few newcomers and potential gardeners on board, but all those with their hands up are the ones already digging in the dirt.
Everybody piled out of the buses for a pizza dinner at Mitchell Library in Westville, which is surrounded by beautiful flower gardens (like this one) planted by neighborhood blockwatch #303, which also hosted the dinner.
On the way back to City Hall, the buses passed Troup School and surrounding streets beautified by a group of mostly older men calling themselves the Troup Group; the 11 gardens maintained along the Edgewood Avenue Mall by the East Edge Gardeners; and Rainbow Park, a shady little park on Edgewood near Park Street that has been maintained for the past several years by a group of dedicated neighbors.