Nancy Ybarra pogo park playworker
A few blocks north of Harbour-8 is Elm Playlot—a pocket park, modest in size but buzzing with activity. The half-acre space overflows with more than 50 kids and a dozen or so parents. Children zoom across the park on a zipline. In one corner, women and girls are dancing in a Zumba class. In another, a group of children heaves a giant disc swing—piled with even more kids—high into the air. “This group is lightweight,” says Carmen Lee. “Usually, the park is even busier.” Lee, an Elm Playlot neighbor, is one of a half-dozen regular “playworkers” at the park. Before the non- profit Pogo Park got involved, Lee explains, not much went on here besides crime and drugs. Many of the nearby homes were vacant, providing cover for illicit activity. But over seven years, as the community rallied to renovate the park, things got better. With help from Maher and Pogo Park, the vacant homes immediately adjacent to the park were filled with
families who have since become Elm Playlot staff and volun- teers—close at hand to watch over the space and keep it safe, even after dark.
The five big sycamores inside the park are wrapped with LED lights. “It’s really beautiful at night,” Lee says. Staff serve free lunches to kids in the summertime, run an afterschool “homework club,” and even bring in the occasional petting zoo. They’re about to build a tot lot, especially designed for babies and toddlers. “It’s all love here,” she says. “If you could get a park like this everywhere, its power would ripple out into the community. It’d knock down a lot of violence and racism. It’d knock down a lot of ‘isms’—a lot of barriers.” A moment later, Lee is absorbed in a swarm of children demanding her attention. “We’re bustin’ out,” she says as she turns to greet them. “We’re going to flip Richmond.”
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