The park is in the Tiffany Neighborhood bordered by McRee Avenue to the south, the alley between Folsom and Blaine to the north and S. Spring Avenue to the east. The western border is not a street, rather the neighborhood because the parks doubles as a barrier to a "through" Blaine Avenue in an effort to slow traffic and dealing that peaked in the 1970s - 1990s in this part of town.
The park once had a basketball court on the south end of the park, but the goals have been removed. You can tell how the stairs leading down to the basketball courts were designed to double as seating areas to rest or watch folks playing B-Ball. I wish people understood that basketball is a healthy and fun sport and a great pastime for kids. If asshole adults and dealers were making the courts unfriendly and annoying places, get rid of them, not the courts. Kids love playing ball and I can't tell you how many times I've had kids tell me how thankful they are for the new courts in Fox Park. Sports aren't bad, adults that take over these "kid/teen" spaces are.
The park has nice landscaping, handsome fencing along the north, east and south borders and street trees edging it.
need a new tree here
The centerpiece of the park is a tiered concrete semi-circle.
There is a circa 1980's (in a good way) pavilion to the south of the semi-circle and a playground to the north.
The park has a "private place feel"; yet, opens up it's arms to the neighborhood to the east and west in a way I love:
The neighbors sadly have taken to trashing the park with junk food, "snack juice" (what the kids around here call Vess) and other trash.
The housing stock in this neighborhood is absolutely gorgeous.
basketball is associated with blacks, so racist reactionaries remove the courts, so dumb.
ReplyDelete^anonymous, basketball is associated with all races. But, I see your point. Yet, look at the Census info from Tiffany. The data indicate that in 2010 the neighborhood was 84% black, 11% white and in 2000 it was 83% black, 12% white. So, black people are the overwhelming majority voice and there are really no excuses when you look at the numbers. If basketball is important to the neighborhood, the numbers are in the favor of folks that according to you are playing basketball in Tiffany.
ReplyDeleteData source: http://dynamic.stlouis-mo.gov/census/neigh_comp.cfm
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI'm from STL but currently live overseas. Let me tell ya, I could spend hours on your blog looking at the photos and finding old stomping grounds. Nice work! Please keep it up. Have you ever been to photograph the St. Louis Independent Packing Co's former property between Chouteau and Vandeventer? My grandfather used to work there and I would like to see how the building looks today. I think I found it on Google maps street view located by Spaghetteria Mama Mia but do not know which building it is with a certainty.
many neighborhoods in the city have removed courts because of racism, (laf sq did so in the 90's). and yes, all races play basketball, in rural indiana it is associated with white farm boys. in urban st louis it is associated with black youth, if you dont think so you are extremely naive. in the city (as in life) the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so if those 12% white people were complaining enough, they could have gotten the courts removed. the parks department doesnt have anything to do with neighborhood boundaries, and neither do our wards. the racial make up of the tiffany is kind of irrelevant. I would bet $100 that some old white busy body or busy bodies complained until the courts were removed.
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