What Do Cities Know?

The ten things I know by standing in the center of Pioneer Park.

1. People can transform a blighted neighborhood through a commitment to place.
2. This blighted park will change as more and more people come to live in the blocks immediately adjacent.
3. We must break the barrier of 300 west and figure out a way to invite people across that state highway into the park. Perhaps a new street design, more pedestrian friendly, a "bridge".
4. Within 700 feet of where I stand, I can find nearly every amenity for residential life.
5. This park can be the neighborhood social center again, as it was 50 years ago when the park played host to the neighborhood swimming pool.
6. Broad public understanding of the homeless population in this city is nil.
7. The park should have an active winter life, as it does in the summer.
8. The city does not reflect its various cultures in its shape and form.
9. I miss the smell of breakfast burritos mixed with the heat of July.
10. The park needs a new buildling, something architectural to create areas of interest; drawing people in from the outside.