We’ve started a petition to improve Saint Joseph’s riverfront! The petition calls for a skate park, community garden, dog park, play area, and green space. These additions to the riverfront will provide free, family friendly, outdoor entertainment for the citizens of Saint Joseph, while simultaneously improving the downtown economy. Having an attraction that is for free and fun for everyone will bring people to an otherwise abandon portion of the city, which will encourage more shops and restaurants to open in the downtown area. The improvement of downtown has been in the works for years, bringing lots of new living space, improved sidewalks, and bars. Now it’s time to focus on building something beautiful and beneficial for all.

As a young woman born and raised in Saint Joseph, I believe it is vital for the community to move in a progressive direction. Most young people living in Saint Joseph aren’t interested in the future of the city, finding it boring and old fashioned, and prefer to move away to cities that offer a thriving cultural environment.

Improving the riverfront it step one in transforming the downtown area to the cultural hub of the city. If you built they will come type situation.

The next step in the process is to form a committee of supporters to organize the movement. We must create a plan of action, an infrastructure of support for the endeavor, sources of funding, etc. Anyone who has an interest in community gardening, the building of a legitimate skate park, a park for dogs, a park for children, or the improvement of a historical site should stop by art.i.facts and talk to me. 6118 King Hill Avenue, email me at art.i.facts.shop@gmail.com, or call me at 238-1173.

Here is a list of benefits for a skate park and community garden:

BENEFITS OF SKATE PARKS

·         Skate parks offer families in the immediate area a local recreational opportunity for their children. Offering recreational activities to young children helps them develop healthy, active lifestyles, and the growing popularity of skateboarding is encouraging more and more people to get active. Skateboarding and rollerblading are two of the fastest growing activities in the United States with more than 14 million participants.

·         Providing a skate park for youth also helps them feel that the community is addressing their needs. It helps them to feel more connected and encourages good citizenship. In addition, when parks are built right — with local skater input and involvement throughout the process — the kids develop a sense of ownership and pride for the location.

·         Community groups and civic leaders have identified skate parks as an answer to the lack of suitable places to ride. In recent years, hundreds of municipalities have come to embrace the recreational and societal benefits of skate parks, and three new skate parks are built every week in the U.S.  

·         Skate parks, even the more challenging ones, are far safer than kids rolling through busy streets, and there is a lot less damage to picnic tables and other items throughout the community that skateboarders use as obstacles when they ride.

·         Skate parks provide a place for skaters to go and practice the sport they love with friends. It gives them the opportunity to improve, to achieve small victories on a daily basis, to grow more confident in themselves and their own abilities.

• Well built skate parks tend to draw folks from the outlying communities to come bring their kids to the skate park, do some shopping, maybe have lunch, buy some gas, etc. Skate parks attract patrons to local businesses that might not otherwise be in

Benefits of Community Gardens:

• Improves the quality of life for people in the garden
• Provides a catalyst for neighborhood and community development
• Stimulates Social Interaction
• Encourages Self-Reliance
• Beautifies Neighborhoods
• Produces Nutritious Food
• Reduces Family Food Budgets
• Conserves Resources
• Creates opportunity for recreation, exercise, therapy, and education
• Reduces Crime
• Preserves Green Space
• Creates income opportunities and economic development
• Reduces city heat from streets and parking lots
• Provides opportunities for intergenerational and cross-cultural connections