New park now includes a piano and giant chess board
Published in the June 22 – July 5, 2016 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Nicholas Preciado
Photo by Marty Cheek
Two girls play on foam construction toys at the June 10 grand opening of the recently moved Pop-Up Park.
When Kelly Byrne brought her son Gabe downtown to participate in the grand opening of the brand new pop-up park Friday June 10, the 5-year-old was confused and a little perturbed when they drove by the old park’s location on the corner of Monterey Road and Third Street.
“He goes ‘It’s gone, they parked cars in my pop-up park!’” Byrne said, describing the little boy’s reaction. “And I told him that it had moved. He just didn’t understand. It was gone and he was mad.”
Luckily for Gabe and other children who loved the first rendition, the family-friendly play area still exists — and it’s even better than before. Because developers will start construction of four new restaurants on the site of the first pop-up park, the popular community gathering area was moved one block up Monterey Road to Second Street where the former South Valley Bike Shop once stood.
Dubbed Pop-Up Park 2.0, the relocated play area has many of the elements of the first park including the “Big Blue Chair” (a larger-than-life version of an Adirondack chair), the popular blue foam construction toys, and the free donated books encouraging children to practice their reading skills. It also has other new elements including a baby grand piano coated with outdoor protective paint and comical cats painted on the sides.
Photo by Marty Cheek
Children enjoy the Adirondack chair in the recently relocated Pop-Up Park at the corner of Monterey Road and Second Street.
The air at the grand opening was full of music as City Community Development Support Services Supervisor Karen Nelson played lively tunes on the piano, which is set under the shade of a young oak tree in a large planter. Children stacked up blue movable blocks into “forts” and two fourth-grade boys from San Martin/Gwinn School were locked in an intense game of rapid-move chess. Lemonade was served in plastic cups to complete the old-fashioned home-town feeling of a community coming together to dedicate the park.
Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate stood on the Big Blue Chair and addressed the families and dignitaries who had gathered under a hot noon-day sun.
“This is really incredible,” he said. “There’s so many people that have been working on it that we need to thank them so much for what they’ve done to create this absolutely phenomenal venue.”
Among the visionaries for the park, he included City Economic Development Manager Edith Ramirez who came up with the idea of a family-friendly playground.
“The pop-up park is an outcome from our place-making strategy that the community came together and established a couple years ago,” Ramirez said.
That strategy focused on ways to activate the city’s public realm, such as temporary art, active spaces, and bike parking, she said. The original pop-up park came together as a result of that opportunity and was dedicated May 22, 2015. It grew fast into a downtown destination for the community to bring their kids or just relax in a chair with a book.
“We’ve got a wonderful little jewel in the downtown,” said City Planning Commissioner and president of the Morgan Hill Downtown Alliance John McKay, who helped develop the new park with the city staff. “This is a really special place for Morgan Hill, as a community gathering place.”
Pop-Up Park 2.0 came about because of a unique opportunity with the redevelopment of the site, Ramirez said. Local businessman Dan McCranie, owner of downtown’s Ladera Grill as well as the property, allowed the city to bring the park to that site for an “interim period,” most likely one year, before he starts construction of a new building, she said.
“It’s multi-story mixed use,” McCranie said about his intentions for the site. “It’s going to be retail and a cafe on the first floor, retail on the second floor, lounge dining on the third floor, and rooftop dining on the fourth floor.”
McCranie plans to share more details about his new project at a downtown business meeting later this month. He’s happy to host the new pop-up park on his property because it ads much to the downtown ambiance and draws families, he said.
“I think it kind of solidifies and shows there’s something special going on as far as the walking community in downtown Morgan Hill,” he said. “The only problem is this is only going to be here for nine months to a year until I get my permits done. We need to find another solution after that.”
The park’s amenities that the community loved (in the first pop-up park), like the fake grass, the movable blocks, the Big Blue Chair, are back Ramirez said. “We added some game tables with chess and checkers. They’re going to be out here for anybody to use anytime.”
Artists from Messenger and Empire Seven Studios painted the whimsical bike-themed murals, which were moved from the first park. The trees were donated by the American Institute of Mathematics, working in cooperation with George Chiala Farms who maintains the trees, Tate said.
McCranie said that the new park will impact the growth of the downtown.
“I think if we keep adding amenities like this, you’re gonna see more than just the restaurant crowd downtown,” McCranie said. “I think the three things we’ve got to do is make sure we stay flexible for downtown housing, it’d be nice if we found a way to have less traffic on Monterey, and we need to expand our retail presence.”
The dedication of Pop-Up Park 2.0 proved such a success that Byrne and other parents hope the city will find a new home for the park when construction eventually starts on the site for McCranie’s new building project.
“Gabe might be really upset if it disappears again,” Byrne said with a laugh.
