Driven by two years of public and private partnership, the community-led effort to rebuild Holly Mini Park in the Elmhurst neighborhood of East Oakland is approaching an important milestone. Design plans necessary to kick off construction are 95% complete and hopes are high for a potential spring 2021 groundbreaking.
Initially supported with more than $175,000 in grant funding from the Kaiser Permanente Foundation and the Sunlight Giving Foundation, the project is jointly coordinated by the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation, the City of Oakland and the Alameda County Probation Department. The demolition and rebuild will include pro bono services from local firms McGuire & Hester and Turner Construction.
“It feels great to see a new first-class park coming to a neighborhood that has suffered from a sustained history of disinvestment and institutional racism,” says Ken Lupoff, executive director of the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation. “Community input gathered through a series of surveys and resident meetings has informed the project’s vision and nearly every element of the new park’s design.”
According to a 2019 City of Oakland report, the current Holly Mini Park is more than 50 years old with dilapidated play equipment, worn surfaces and uneven pavement. It’s a space that cries out for investment to benefit the nearly 12,000 people (including 3,400 children) living within half a mile of the park in a predominantly Latino (58%) and African American (28%) community where 62% of households earn less than $50,000 annually.
When completed, the Holly Mini Park refurbishment will deliver a new play structure and safety surface, a basketball hoop and workout zone, the replacement of picnic tables and benches, landscaping and irrigation enhancements, improved lighting, ADA-compliant accessibility features and the addition of community artwork. Construction costs are covered by $400,000 in public Measure KK infrastructure funds.
The Holly Mini Park rebuild takes place amidst significant recent efforts by Oakland Public Works to improve and beautify East Oakland parks including Eula M. Brinson Park, 88th Avenue Mini Park and Gwen Jackson Park. Making the most of limited resources before Measure Q parks maintenance funds come online next year, Oakland Public Works teams have recently replaced slides, rebuilt benches and picnic tables, repaired broken irrigation systems and removed graffiti at these neighborhood parks.
Stay tuned for further updates as the new Holly Mini Park becomes a reality.
I’m a district 7 beat 34 community member striving for neighborhood improvements and correcting abuse of public streets and sidewalk use. My goals are for a healthy and pleasant environment to feel comfortable and have a place to exist in without harm and bring out the all the good folks out
I’ve had some success and some disappointments, doesn’t stop me though.
One more additional activity for Holly Mini Park is a section for off-leash dogs. There are in fact lots of families, kids, friends out walking there dogs, nice well cared for dogs. I Invision neighbors meeting neighbors while sharing a common interest of exercing their beloved pets.
Please keep me informed and kindly confirm Holly Mini Park is definitely going to have work in Spring 2021.
Thank you for your suggestions! We’ll post updates as the project progresses this year!
When’ are the improvements going to happen? As of March 2022…every looks dilapidated and is occupied by homeless encampments.