![]() The survey results should be viewed with some caution, too, because participants are self-selecting. They deserve to be heard as much as the people who support one of the four proposals. Some people might prefer to keep the former and send kids to other nearby parks that already have play areas. None of the four shows the cancer survivor statue or the fountain, and each includes a large outdoor play structure. It asks respondents to choose their favorite of the four published options. A community meeting to discuss the options is planned for April. It is taking comments via an online survey at bit.ly/3MBrOaj and has extended the deadline until March 31. The city has done a decent job of soliciting public input about its park plans. The cancer survivor sculpture, meanwhile, needs a new prominent home if it doesn’t stay in Fremont Park. Perhaps a similar approach is possible at Fremont Park. Fair enough, but similar challenges haven’t prevented the city from working with the downtown district to raise money to reinstall the Ruth Asawa Fountain at Old Courthouse Square. The decades have left their mark on them, and besides, there’s a drought on. Officials say that keeping the water features, for example, would be expensive. The four proposed master plans for the park mostly erase those historic components, and that is raising eyebrows as well as hackles. And a sculpture dedicated to cancer survivors erected in 2000 is beloved by many residents. A variety of trees, most notably rows of yews, dominate part of the park. A century-old fountain and pond are part of a formal English garden design. Historic elements of the park present a conundrum for revitalization, though. The park’s most recent brush with infamy was as the site of a homeless camp that police eventually cleared. A revitalized park could become a hub for neighbors and employees of nearby businesses. Future tenants surely will enjoy the chance to soak in some nature at the park, and kids who live there will have a place to play. A multistory apartment building is going up across Fourth Street from the park. It’s surrounded by commercial development and a middle school.īut the neighborhood is changing. Every park is beloved, and a radical overhaul without public buy-in is a sure path to community opposition and hard feelings.Īt less than 2 acres, Fremont Park is a pocket of green space just east of downtown. ![]() If Santa Rosa officials overhaul Fremont Park - and they should - it’s critical that they listen to the public.
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