Published in the July 8-21, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
Virtually over night, downtown Morgan Hill’s Third Street corner transformed from a parking lot into a park. And in the past few weeks this “pop-up park” has been a big success in bringing families and others to enjoy the core of our community for fun and socialization.
This whimsical place is a perfect get-away spot for children and their parents, or adults looking for a sunny place to relax on a chair and get some sun as they read a book or newspaper and enjoy their lunch. Bright pastel colors and relaxing chairs — including a gargantuan robin egg blue Adirondack wooden chair — and various art works such as ceramic grapes and a bike-focused mural add to the ambiance. The temporary project was part of the city of Morgan Hill’s place-making goal. Based on how popular the pop-up park has proven, we hope the idea might be brought to another part of the downtown when the Third Street corner, a former liquor store site, is taken over by a developer for a new building.
The pop-up park fills a void for family entertainment. Few of the businesses in the downtown really cater to families. The one exception is BookSmart which draws children in to purchase kids books, toys and art supplies or a ice cream cone treat at the cafe. There are few restaurants where parents can feel comfortable taking their children for a sit-down meal on a family-fun night. And several teenagers in Morgan Hill told us there are no places for young people of middle and high school ages to get together downtown and chat or make new friends.
Downtown Morgan Hill holds several events throughout the year that draw a number of children and parents. Among them is the popular Friday Night Music Series at the Downtown Amphitheater where kids can be seen on the dance area playing with beach balls and dancing to the beat of various performers. Families also come downtown for events such as the July 4th parade, the Holiday of Lights Parade, and Safe Night trick-or-treating on Halloween evening.
A new event for families will take place July 19 with the Staycation event where kids and their parents will have the opportunity to play games and explore the downtown together with the help of local businesses. This could become a fun summertime tradition for families to make new friends and get to know their community better.
The Granada Theater has also provided families with an opportunity to enjoy our downtown. Many Saturday mornings, the movie theater opens its doors to people who want to come inside and enjoy classic cartoons — and children are encouraged to come in their pajamas so they can feel even more comfortable.
The city is working on developing at least two new public parks for the downtown area — and these will be most welcomed for use by families so long as they are safe places to play. That’s the key to bringing more families downtown — make sure parents feel their kids can be safe.
Another key is to make the downtown visually interesting for visitors. This is already in progress with art works that will add a fun and whimsical component to the downtown experience. We can’t wait to see the giant spider made of car headlights that will stride up the wall of the new downtown garage that’s being constructed now.
Downtown Morgan Hill is a work in progress. And it’s good to see that part of the progress is the inclusion of fun things for children and parents to do together in an environment that’s safe and friendly. If you have kids and haven’t yet checked out the pop-up park downtown, we highly recommend you visit this newly added attraction to the core of our community and discover for yourself what opportunities await as the downtown’s transformation takes place.
