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The Trust for Public Land bought seven former industrial properties along the Los Angeles River to create the Maywood Riverfront Park, opened in 2008. Largely Hispanic Maywood is the most densely populated city west of the Mississippi River.


by the community. Young sycamores that will grow into large shade trees dot the lot. A small lawn is a lush and inviting island of green. Picnic tables provide a place to play games or share a meal, and a free-form sandbox set with natural boulders sits next to a water feature, perfect for cooling off on a hot summer day. The outreach process in Maywood has required special


tactics, says Elda Peralta, a grassroots organizer with Unión de Vecinos (Union of Neighbors), one of TPL’s partners. “To have a park be a success, you have to integrate the com- munity, you have to integrate the families into the plan- ning process,” Peralta explains. “But in Maywood, where so many people come from other countries and work so hard all day and don’t really know each other, they tend to live behind closed doors.” To encourage participation, park organizers go


door to door to publicize community meetings and explain their purpose. Often only a few people show up at first. But as word of the gatherings spreads and


RICH REID PHOTOGRAPHY.COM Dancers celebrate the opening of the Maywood Riverfront Park. Parks for People, by the People Feature Title 41


the prospect of helping to invent a community park grabs the public imagination, meetings, barbecues, and picnics soon attract hundreds of attendees,


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