Casa Linda Park. Photo by Renee Umsted.
Major projects at Casa Linda Park tend to incentivize neighbors to want to get involved.
It happened in 2003, when they wanted to repair and improve the basketball court. A committee was formed with residents of Casa Linda and Little Forest Hills, and a master plan for the park was completed in 2005.
Involvement surged again in 2013, when the playground was replaced. The park, established in 1947, recently received a paved walking trail around the perimeter, and the pavilion is getting refurbished.
“Getting the paved walking trail was high on our list, and they kept telling us how expensive it was and it’s never going to happen,” said Susan Remele, who has lived in Little Forest Hills for 33 years. “We just thought it was never going to happen. But it did.”
Remele said she did hear some pushback on the trail, but she points to the benefits. Not long ago, two men helped an older woman with a walker walk on the new, paved path.
“I was about in tears because it was so sweet to see that,” Remele said. “I mean, that’s why we need it.”
There has always been interest in the park, Remele said, but the problem is funding; there have been periods of time when the neighborhood just didn’t have the money required to complete certain projects.
But when bond funding comes through, or when the neighborhood can collaborate with the city to put public and private dollars to use, park improvements can be realized, and neighborhood park advocates can get back to work.
Friends of Casa Linda Park hopes to have a permanent art installation at the park, but the group is still early in discussions and planning. And Remele said she hopes work on the pavilion will be finished in time for the White Rock East Garden Tour; the area around the pavilion is generally where they hold the the plant sale.
“It’s taken 20 years, and most all the original people on the committee have either moved or they’re gone, but I’m still here,” Remele said. “So it just kind of resurrected itself again, and we’re now going to try to form a new committee and try to get even more things accomplished.”
