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Sunday, August 10, 2008

Plainfield's latest 'park' not its greatest




This abandoned pallet marks the entry from the rear parking lot.




Bare dirt comprises most of the 'park' site.




The sign. No comment.

Plainfield's latest 'park' is hardly its greatest.

I've been watching the vacant lot on West Front between Horizons and McDonald's as the long-vacant building was razed and then a couple of park benches appeared. I didn't realize it was a 'park' until Bernice called it to my attention recently.

Since no one can seem to remember the Council resolving to make it a park, the mystery of how it got that designation and where the funds came from to do the project is beginning to pique a few people's interest.

Parking in the lot adjacent to Horizons and behind the storefront properties, one is first caught up by the deteriorated and refuse-strewn condition of the city lot. What is that about?

From the rear, one must pass an abandoned pallet to access the mostly bare dirt 'park', in which two benches perch amid a hedge of barberry, a few neglected and dying marigolds and assorted litter.

Aside from the sign (with its odd, uncalled-for use of quotation marks and brackets), one would hardly suspect it was a park. With the benches in direct sun except for early morning and late afternoon, it is an uninviting spot, and seems mostly ignored in favor of seating along Front Street that gets more shade.

You'd think the people whose names are on the sign would think twice before letting their names be associated with such a forlorn-looking project.

Is this the image of the Queen City the administration wants to project?


-- Dan Damon

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