I want to be clear about this: I think Klyde Warren Park is going to be wonderful. It already is pretty dang cool. Zac, Mike, and I just returned from eating lunch in the park. I ran into four people I know (kinda): a PR professional, our creative director, my priest (though I didn’t say hello to Fr. Joseph because I know he can the smell guilt that comes from spotty church attendance), and a red-bearded young chap who clearly reads FrontBurner (he asked us what we thought of the park and then demanded an update on the blog). That’s one of the most important things the park can do, create interactions that make you feel connected to the place where you live. It is already succeeding. That said:
1. As Zac put it, the park needs to step up its trashcan game. There are simply too few of them. They should be at every entrance/egress point. When we finished eating and turned to head up Harwood and back to the office, we had to walk 70 steps round-trip out of our way to discard our trash. Yes, yes. A small inconvenience. But one easily remedied.
2. The park needs more food trucks. The burger I ate from the Relish truck was delicious. But I had to wait 20 minutes to order it. They were swamped. I get that Relish has an exclusivity arrangement with the park, but a wait like that is a disincentive to go to the park to eat lunch. Relish will do more business if people think of the park as a prime destination to buy food. More food trucks won’t steal business from Relish; they will contribute to it. That, friends, is what we call synergy. Also, the Relish truck can’t do a veggie option because it only has one griddle. Another reason to bring in at least one more truck — at least while we’re waiting for construction of the restaurant to finish.
3. They were working on the fountains near the performance pavilion today. I’m sure everything will be fine. But today there was a serious drainage issue. As in, the water was spilling over the fountain, across a walkway, and into the street. You know why I think everything will be fine? Because Jody Grant was walking around, taking pictures with an iPad.
