1:00pm | The State of California announced Round Two winners of their Statewide Parks Program grants, following Round One winners which were announced in November of 2010. The City of Long Beach scored two grants, both totaling $5.3 million for the development of two parks in the First District. These funds will fund the creation of the long awaited Armory Park in the East Village and Phase 1 of the Drake Park Expansion project.
Long Beach’s two projects were amongst the 23 awarded within Los Angeles County alone for this round, almost triple the amount granted to the Bay Area. Between both rounds, 103 new parks will be created and 23 will be renovated or improved. Over 900 applicants en tout requested some $3 billion for park projects; the State has $368 million for the program.
Fellow Post contributor and self-proclaimed “urbanerd” architect Brian Ulaszewski conceived Armory Park several years ago, introducing the concept to Post readers in early 2007. The first and most major point within the creation of the park is the stretch of Martin Luther King Blvd. in between 6th and 7th Streets: the most dangerous intersection that sadly boasts the most injury-inducing traffic accidents out of any crossing in the city. Ulaszewski worked tirelessly, hosting dozens of community meetings and forums to engage the surrounding neighborhoods and businesses about the enormously positive effect such a park would incur. The hard work paid off because the idea’s simplicity — less danger, more greenery — was inarguable.
Thanks to this new grant, Armory Park can now add $2.8 million dollars in combination with the $900,000 that has already been awarded to the project.
The other portion of award money received from the State — $2.5 million — will be used to start Phase 1 ofhte Drake Park expansion project in the western Willmore City neighborhood that aligns the 710. The proposed project — linking Caesar Chavez Park and Drake Park to create a singular 50-acre space — is essential for downtown given the area’s rather minute amount of greenspace. Between the two parks, which allocate some 29 acres, an additional 31 acres of former industrial and abandoned railroad property with wetlands, habitat, interpretative signage, and active and passive recreation, according to the City.