This e-Newsletter includes a park construction update, an invitation to a community garden design kick-off meeting, an overview of a whole line-up of community design events for the summer, and the latest on the Community Air Quality Monitoring project.
WHO WE ARE: Green for the Greater Good is a group of neighbors working to keep the Rodney Reservoir safe, public and green so all residents can enjoy its use. Let’s work together to make sure the Rodney Reservoir becomes a beautiful park!
1. RODNEY RESERVOIR PARK UPDATE
Last year, the City of Wilmington hired Hinge Collective to create a design for the future Rodney Reservoir Park. The City requested funding to build the park from this year’s state Bond Bill so it could make the design a reality. The funding request will be decided by the DE state legislature in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for updates!
2. COMMUNITY GARDEN DESIGN KICK-OFF MEETING AND INFO SESSION
Come out to the information session and community discussion this Thursday, June 13th at 5:30 PM at St. Francis Hospital. Find out the latest updates on the Rodney Reservoir Park project and learn about upcoming design events focused on the community garden space. Enter St. Francis at 701 N. Clayton. We will be meeting in the conference room just behind the security desk in the lobby. Please invite your neighbors and community garden enthusiasts! All are welcome!
3. COMMUNITY DESIGN FOR THE COMMUNITY GARDEN AND FIELD TRIP SERIES
This summer, we are again teaming up with professors and students from the University of Delaware’s Living Lab Research Group to facilitate community-engaged research and design sessions. This time the focus is on the Rodney Reservoir Community Garden space. Events will take place July 2, July 7, July 29, August 6 and August 13. Like last summer, events will include presentations of case studies and inspirational projects, opportunities to interact with site plans and record feedback, and time for discussion.
This opportunity to influence the design of the community garden is also a chance to develop our goals and potential future uses for this amazing greenspace in our community, for example, to demonstrate sustainability and promote stewardship. We will take a field trip to Baltimore on July 7 to see inspirational projects. On July 29, we’ll host special guests to expand our thinking about how the garden can serve as an outdoor learning environment and community resource hub to advance food justice and access to nature in our neighborhood.
If you can’t make it this Thursday, stay tuned for more details!
4. UPDATE ON COMMUNITY AIR QUALITY MONITORING & CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECT
We are excited to report that four community households stepped forward to host monitors so our neighborhood’s air quality is literally “on the map”! Check out the real-time data on the Purple Air Monitoring site, which looks like this:
We are still looking for more volunteers to host monitors, particularly close to 4th Street and I-95, so we can observe how the traffic corridor and highway impact the air. If you want to participate or if you have a background with data collection or science research and might be willing to lend some expertise, please reach out!!
We want to thank our partners at the Clean Air Council for providing and installing the monitors and the Delaware Sea Grant for supporting this community’s effort to get a citizen science project around air quality off the ground!
Photos courtesy of the Delaware Sea Grant
GET MORE INVOLVED
We need to work together to make sure our neighborhood is heard and the city works with us on the future of the Rodney Reservoir! Here are some more ways you can get involved:
Share posts on your own social media.
Visit the website for the latest news.
Join weekly Saturday meetings at 10 AM at the Church of The Holy City at 1118 N. Broom Street. Enter to the right of the main door and enter through the side door.
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