Green space

My friend Yori stopped by to tell me about the tour he gave the city's Park Commissioner of the neighborhood's green spaces

Much of what he and his wife showed was new to the city officials: an embankment, a section of open stream,  a filled-in quarry, an unmarked pauper's field in the city owned cemetery. The city has a plan to make sure no city resident is more than a ten minute walk from a playground, ball field or park, so he wonders: what about such places in our part of town? 

And what about this new building, said to be temporary, that the city is constructing opposite the Audubon nature center? Is this the first move in a wholesaler relocation of municipal storage facilities from more well-connected neighborhoods? 

Yori, this quiet, semi-retired man, is vigilant, dogged, is increasingly visible to people in City Hall. Don't these city folks have the imagination to see the green space possibilities here, he asks me. Do they see us at all? 

I confess I hadn't thought of these spaces as possible recreation areas. Canterbury Brook, that hidden, virtually inaccessible watercourse, could, yes, become strollable. That property bought by the electric company for a switching yard could indeed spare space for a park which would have views over the city. As you spoke about these possibilities, I found myself thinking in a new way about places I walk or drive by regularly. 

That's one thing I like about you. I hope I return the favor. Most of all,  I hope the city hears and takes your ideas and concerns seriously. Your eyes are valuable. Thank you for letting me see through them.