Pawns for parks

Of the 73 city parks in Manchester , 26 are deemed “passive” on the website of the Manchester Parks, Recreation and Cemetery Department.

Listed among these passive parks is Livingston Park, which boasts not just a nature trail, playground and boat launch, but also a swimming pool, a ball field, tennis courts, a track and, in the winter, outdoor ice skating. In my book, this park is far from passive. I’d even go so far as to describe it as being an "active" park.

There are, of course, a number of truly passive parks in Manchester, like Oak Park and Wagner Memorial Park. Also included in this truly passive category are most of the downtown parks. Save for special events, there’s not much one can do in spaces like Victory Park, Veterans Park or Kalivas Park other than sit.

Indeed, the only hardware boasted by such parks is trash cans and park benches, as seen here in Kalivas Park:

I’m not sure if the relationship is causal, but it’s been my observation that the most passive parks — particularly those downtown — are the ones most frequented by habitual loiterers, homeless and otherwise. On any given day, it’s not unusual to see at least four or five such folks lounging in Veterans Park or Victory Park. Except, that is, when either park plays host to a concert, festival or other organized event. During events like last night's CIGNA/Elliot Corporate Road Race, these individuals are nowhere to be seen.

Likewise, I tend not to see nearly as many — if any — loiterers hanging around Pulaski Park, which contains a popular basketball court, and Bronstein Park, which often plays host to soccer-playing refugees or the practicing Central High School marching band.

Perhaps it is activity, then — any activity — that discourages loiterers from conducting their often anti-social behavior in a park. If this is, in fact, the case, then perhaps what’s needed is more activity in the city’s most passive parks. This is something Brady Sullivan Properties might also keep in mind as it completes the attractively-landscaped mini-park in front of Brady Sullivan Plaza, which I suspect may also attract loiterers:

One relatively inexpensive solution for both the City and Brady Sullivan might be the addition of concrete chess tables, like the kind found in parks and other common spaces from New York City to Durham, N.C. to Austin, Tex. to Los Angeles:

 

The introduction of permanent chess tables to otherwise passive city parks would serve to give downtown in particular a more interesting, and dare I say cosmopolitan, vibe. The tables might attract not just local chess players, but players from across southern New Hampshire, chess players who would spend money in local shops and restaurants.

Given these possible benefits, I might think the installation of such chess tables might appeal to Intown Manchester. I imagine it would also appeal to the New Hampshire Chess Association, which has two chess clubs here in the Queen City, the Manchester Chess Club and the Amoskeag Chess Club.

I asked Parks Operations Manager Tom Mattson if the Parks and Rec. Department might consider chess tables in any of the parks.

“In the past those types of games tables are [sic] great,” he wrote in an email. “Unfortunately the vandals like them as well.”

Truth be told, there’s not much vandals don’t like. I wonder how other communities with public chess tables deal with vandalism. Whatever their strategy, it doesn’t involve removing the tables completely.

Comments

[Lichen]

Love it! Fantastic idea. I would be so happy to see chess tables in Victory Park.

[robert]

You hit the nail on the head about activity being the key to making a park (or any space) appealing. Check out Project for Public Spaces.
http://www.pps.org/parks_plazas_squares/

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