Monroe Park renovation delayed, still planned
Samuels said he is confident the funds will be secured and when it is, the entire park will still be closed for renovations as originally planned.
That part of the plan doesn’t sit well with some people. Online petitions still circulate to keep a portion of the park open during renovations for those who rely on it daily, like the homeless.
“They need to be quiet, for real,” said one homeless woman who wanted to be identified as Treasure. “They need to cut that out.”
This classist plan to gentrify Monroe Park will not happen in Richmond. We haven’t forgotten that the plan is on the table, and any attempt to shut down the whole park will be met with resistance. Give it up Samuels, your ideas suck.
“Mo”, your reflexive and self-serving indignation is both irrelevant and idiotic. The park is a mess and no one uses it except for some smelly bums who make it unapproachable for most of civilized society. Kick them out, institutionalize them or give them a job, I don’t care. The blighted park will be closed and renovated, that much is assured. Your efforts are fruitless.
John, your comments and views they imply are why some people may feel uncomfortable in the park. Personally, I see diverse groups of people in the park all the time. Your classist, and somewhat racist comments, calling these PEOPLE smelly uncivilized bums, are very hurtful. Instead of trying to gentrify a PUBLIC PARK and sweep the city’s poverty under the rug, perhaps we should try and address the root issues of why individuals may be chronically homeless, jobless, or otherwise socioeconomically disadvantaged. Renovating the park isn’t the issue, how it is implemented is.
So renovating public spaces is “gentrifying” it?
Making a public space nicer for everyone (for those using it now and those who will use it in the future) is sweeping poverty under the rug? Even if you don’t like the plans- it upgrades the park from its current state- which doesn’t maximize it’s full potential as a public space.
Improving the quality of the environment isn’t a bad thing- feathers get ruffled anytime the government chooses to close anything be it a library, a school or in this case a park.
Richmond has poverty issues no doubt- but this isn’t helping your case- it’s not even relevant. I agree that more needs to be done than whats already in place to address homelessness in the Commonwealth (it’s not just Richmond with these issues…) but there are plenty of other public parks in the nearby area- many of which are accessible from mass transit. All of which I should hope you would agee are just as nice or nicer than Monroe Park.
Complaining about the city closing one park seems ridiculous. Go to one of the cities numerous other parks, Belle Isle, Forest Hill, Church Hill, Battery Park, Mary Mumford, Ancarrows Landing, Byrd Park, Gilies Creek Park, Maymont, the Southbank & Northbank Trails (or the James River Park System), Kanawha Plaza, Clay Park, or any of the dozens of other parks in the city of Richmond. Any government is going to have to close parks periodically to upgrade & maintain the public space- fact of life- deal with it.