Photos by Qiyuan Wang
Members of the West of Washington (WOW) neighborhood association gathered with city officials last Saturday (Sept. 19) to break ground on a new public park, marking the culmination of a community-led effort that began a decade ago.
The city will spend $1.35 million to create the West of Washington Family Park on four formerly vacant lots at Norwell and Park streets. The properties were transferred to the city of Boston last year through an agreement involving developer Travis Lee, who has built new housing in the immediate neighborhood in recent years.
The new public space will feature a playground, water play area, and space for community events. The park, shaped through public design meetings, is funded through the Community Preservation Act and the city’s Streets Cabinet and is expected to be completed in 2027.
Mayor Michelle Wu joined City Councillors Brian Worrell and Ruthzee Louijeune and state Rep. Russell Holmes at the groundbreaking.
Elected officials, park advocates and residents of the West of Washington neighborhood perform the ceremonial groundbreaking Saturday on four vacant lots that have been derelict for decades, but most recently had been commandeered for community events. Now, they will become an official city park. Construction started Monday.
“This was a collective idea that the community rallied around,” said Laquisa “Que” Burke, founder and former leader of the WOW group. “The park is a legacy of that community that we created when we started meeting about 10 years ago. The park was one of the first conversations we had at our first meeting in July 2016.”
Burke credited neighbors like Andrew Haile, Dustin Gardner, and Debbie Weathers for keeping the idea moving forward over the years.
“We began this long and winding journey toward building a public park on Norwell Street with a stubborn hope: that with persistence, community, and hundreds of emails, we would create a beautiful green space in our neighborhood that would be enjoyed for generations to come,” Haile said.
Haile said the new park could become an important gathering place for families in a neighborhood with many young children.
“We want this place to be a beautiful, accessible, tree-filled sanctuary in the midst of the city to provide a place to play, rest, and chat with a neighbor,” Haile said.
Worrell said the project illustrated the importance of residents taking the lead in shaping neighborhood improvements.
“Every resident deserves to have a park near where they live,” he said in a statement. “We all know the health benefits, but the community and social benefits are important, too.”
“This park will serve as a testament to the power of a community-driven push,” Worrell added. “Our city is strongest when the community leads.”
Burke said the groundbreaking brought the neighborhood’s earliest discussions full circle.
“The meetings became an amazing way to get to know our neighbors,” she said, “and now the park will do that.”
