Boeddeker Park in the heart of the Tenderloin, San Francisco, California
dozen different languages, really di- verse. Over the winter holiday, vandals burned down the play structure. It was coming up on Martin Luther King’s birthday, and so instead of just being sad, the kids asked, well, what would he have done? And they staged a pro- test—the whole student body marched around the block singing. It was so pow- erful to see tiny kindergarteners stand- ing up for their little patch of green.
How did you first become inter- ested in the public-access side of environmental work? My parents raised me with a strong sense of equity, peace, and justice. When I was in high school in the ’80s, we were growing up feeling the threat of nuclear war. I remember thinking that if people could just get out and see the world, they wouldn’t want to destroy it—they would be moved to protect it. That’s what drew me to parks and placemaking.
What’s the best part of designing parks alongside the people who use them?
When we start a project, communities can be wary—even if they want a park. They want to know who we really are and why we’re really there. Sometimes they see us as just another outsider coming in thinking that we know what’s best. But that’s not what we’re about. I live for the moment that people realize, oh, you’re actually listening to us, you’re really here to help us get what we need: that moment when trust
is established. When people begin to trust, they open up about real prob- lems—and we can start designing real solutions.
What do you try to learn in these design sessions? We try to get past just asking about what color swing-sets and slides people want. We want to build deeper con- nections by asking more about their childhood memories of parks, and their vision for their park’s future. We hear things like, I want to have my child’s birthday party here, or our family re- union. Or, my friends and I used to lie in the grass and look for lucky clovers. Or, I had my first kiss in a park. It’s these kinds of stories that inspire us to design a really special place that will be central to people’s lives.
Those are experiences that make people invested in their parks. Right—even a tiny park can play a huge role in people’s daily lives. The first park I ever worked on was next to a school with about 600 students, speaking a
What about your own kids? What do they think of the work you do? My children are very young—four and six. So they know I build parks, I just don’t get into the details with them. But the other day, they asked what meeting I was going to and I said, “Well, today I have to tell some people why parks are important.” And my son said, “Mama, I know why parks are important—be- cause kids like to play in them!” And then my daughter chimed in with, “And because they have nature.” And I thought, wow! I’ve never explained that to them. Our work has to be pretty powerful and fundamental if even kids understand it intuitively.
What do you love most about your job?
I feel really grateful to have found an organization whose mission matches my values. We all deserve nature, not divorced from our daily lives but inte- grated into it—whether that’s going to the park to exercise, or walking by and smelling the flowers in bloom, or even just looking at it, for a moment of calm. Everyone deserves that.
FIRST LOOK · 23
jeremy beeton
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68