Transforming N Street Park
March 22, 2023
By Wyatt Garrett, Cecilia Walsh, Torin Dunnavant, and Emily Griswold
This past weekend, Tree Davis and the Davis Manor Neighborhood Council co-hosted two volunteer work days at N Street Park, with over 75 community members coming out to get their hands dirty. Under expert guidance from Tree Davis, the group planted over 450 drought-tolerant, climate-ready plants throughout the park, including eight trees. In addition, staff and volunteers began the installation of a comprehensive drip irrigation system around the park, completed a natural log habitat feature and spread a fresh layer of mulch in the newly planted areas. All of this work is part of a larger, community-wide effort to transform N Street Park into a more engaging and inspiring public space.
N Street Park was built in 1960, and last renovated in 1996. Up until 2022 the park was limited to a basic open turf area with a small, aging play structure tucked out of view from the street. Over the last few years, the Davis Manor Neighborhood Council successfully advocated for the park to be renovated in order to make it more safe, welcoming, playful, and sustainable. Starting in 2018, the neighborhood planning committee worked closely with Davis Manor resident and landscape architecture student Tucker McPhaul to engage neighbors in re-envisioning the park. They ultimately submitted a conceptual design proposal to the City of Davis that featured an updated play structure, conversion of most of the turf into climate-ready planting sites, inclusion of a dry creek bed, and the installation of a log habitat feature. Many of these preliminary concepts were incorporated into the final design.
The N Street Park renovation project has proven to be a model of neighborhood advocacy and community engagement in park design and implementation. Initiated by the Davis Manor Neighborhood Council, the project has been made possible through collaboration with the City of Davis City Manager’s Office, Parks and Community Services Department, Public Works Department, numerous contractors, and Tree Davis.
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