Clean up at Strawberry Park

I am excited about the cleanup at Strawberry Park this week, on Wednesday starting at 3PM. I called one of the organizers, Antonio, who is a street outreach worker, to see how I could get involved. "Show up," he said and chuckled. Antonio is just one of many people who refuse to give up by giving back to the community. (See Amanda's blog post "Volunteers Needed for Park Restoration" to find out how to get involved.)   Strawberry Park is on Strawberry Ave. between Western Ave. and Boston St. near the Stop & Shop.

You may have read about Strawberry Park in the Lynn Item. A while ago, the city decided that taking down the basketball hoops would make the park less of an attraction to gangs. I really don't see how this follows, and it also deprives good kids of a place to hang out and stay active. So a group of citizens is taking the park back by cleaning it up, painting over the grafitti, and painting a mural on the basketball court. It is hoped that once the city sees the lengths to which residents are willing to go, the hoops will be put back up.

It is hard work reclaiming territory ceded to gangs. It's going to take constant, prolonged vigilance. Not that I would know, but Ward 3 Councilor Darren Cyr told me about his neighborhood's long drawn and frustrating but ultimately successful efforts to reclaim a park near the Lynn Swampscott line.