Published in the April 27 – May 10, 2016 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Kathy Sullivan
Photo by Marty Cheek
Children play with oversized foam blocks in the city’s new “pop-up park” located on the former parking lot at the corner of Third and Monterey streets in downtown Morgan Hill.
Kathy Sullivan
The city of Morgan Hill hit gold when it came up with the plan to implement a pop-up park at the former downtown liquor store parking lot. The park helped to calm Monterey Street and gave the community something special to enjoy while construction was going on throughout downtown. In collaboration with the Morgan Hill Downtown Association, they used some of the art grant winners to provide an area in the downtown corridor for families to enjoy.
By now everyone is familiar with one of the most popular grant winners — The Big Blue Chair. It is a favorite picture-taking spot and a fun place to climb into for a different perspective on size.
The mural, wine basket, chairs made out of propane tanks, bike map, and bike repair station were also winners from this art grant program. Children love playing on the blue oversized foam blocks and drawing on the chalkboards. The park as well as many of these art projects were intended to be temporary enjoyments. With the selling of the property to build four new restaurants for downtown, the pop-up park’s time was running out.
But just like the city staff, business and community members stepped up to maintain the park, a local business man has come to its rescue. The city reached out to Dan McCranie, the owner of the now demolished South Valley Bicycles shop property on the corner of Monterey Road and Second Street and also the creator of downtown popular Ladera Grill restaurant. The bike store front had been vacant and unsafe, and even with its rich history to this town, it was time for the site to have a new life. McCranie made sure the mural of Morgan Hill’s life and iconic scenery on the side wall was memorialized through high-definition photography so it might be duplicated in the future.
McCrainie is committed to investing a lot of money into the new life of this property and is willing to use his own funds to help keep the pop-up park another year. He has agreed to pave over the demolished building site and provide needed amenities for when the city moves the playground to its new site. His generosity will give local families a chance to enjoy the park a little longer.
Edith Ramirez, principal planner of the city’s Economic Development department, told me she will be looking to the community for ideas on how the new park will be configured. Because of space restrictions, she is not sure the area will be able to keep the bike corral or the Big Blue Chair. One of the challenges will be how to secure the area with fencing or other means for safety. She can be reached at [email protected] if you have innovative ideas of how this space can be re-imagined, while still keeping it fun.
The April 30 Downtown Morgan Hill Wine Stroll will also be relocating this year as we close off Third Street to give us a wider space for check-in, music and outdoor art vendor tents. MHDA has added new attractions for both Wine Week beginning April 25 and Wine Stroll to increase pleasure for our past loyal customers and to entice new customers. We look forward to seeing you there.
Kathy Sullivan is a board member of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association. She wrote this column for Morgan Hill Life.
