Neighbors Co‑Create the Future of Quarry Park

Join residents, designers, and city stewards as we explore community-driven design processes for Quarry Park redevelopment, turning lived experience into actionable plans. From listening walks and open‑air studios to participatory budgeting and ecological restoration, discover how shared ownership shapes safer paths, beloved gathering places, resilient water systems, and everyday care, and learn exactly how you can participate, comment, and help guide each milestone toward a park that truly reflects everyone’s voice.

Listening Before Drawing

Before lines touch paper, we listen in many languages and many ways. Walking the quarry edges with elders and kids, we hear layered memories, map hazards and treasures, and record seasonal rhythms. These grounded observations shape respectful questions, fair invitations, and first sketches, while opening easy paths for you to share stories, worries, photos, and hopes that sharpen priorities and protect what matters.

Street and Stream Walks

Side‑by‑side with neighbors, we pace cracked sidewalks, test puddle depths, hear frog choruses at dusk, and trace shortcut paths worn by generations. Volunteers carry clipboards, wheel measures, and thermometers, noting glare, shade, and slippery slopes. Join the next walk, add your observations, and help locate tiny improvements that unlock big daily comfort and safety for everyone visiting or simply passing through.

Memory Mapping Sessions

On giant paper maps, families pin first kisses, sledding routes, fishing spots, and the loudest quarry blasts their grandparents remembered. These stories reveal quiet corners worth preserving and overlooked risks needing redesign. We photograph notes, translate captions, and digitize layers so nothing gets lost. Bring a photo, circle a place you love, and share why that spot should guide tomorrow’s decisions.

Data That Feels Human

We blend intercept surveys, SMS polls, and doorstep conversations with open datasets, creating a portrait where bar charts meet heartbeats. Results live on public dashboards, taped to library windows and posted online, with clear next steps. Take the three‑minute survey today, invite a neighbor who is rarely asked, and help ensure decisions reflect lived experience as much as technical standards.

From Ideas to Shared Priorities

Dot‑Voting That Matters

Boards filled with sketches invite bold, color‑coded dots from youth, seniors, and workers on lunch breaks, each color weighted to lift underheard voices. QR codes capture remote input, and tallies feed real choices, not decoration. See timelines linked to each cluster, then add your dots at the Saturday market booth or via phone, shaping which ideas advance into funded, buildable concepts.

Participatory Budget Mockups

Teams get play money, real unit costs, and phased schedules. Do we fund lighting first, or extend accessible trails to the bus stop? Every choice reshapes the board, revealing hidden costs and clever alternatives. By the end, complexity feels navigable together. Register for the next workshop, test scenarios, and co‑write a spending plan people can understand, trust, and proudly defend in meetings.

Turning Conflict into Alignment

We host facilitated circles where a talking piece slows the rush to argue, and paraphrasing proves we truly heard each other. Safety, quiet, celebration, and habitat may jostle, yet shared outcomes appear. We memorialize agreements in plain language, not legalese. Add your respectful disagreement through our form, and help transform friction into clarity that strengthens the final design and ongoing stewardship.

Design Sprints in the Open Air

Pop‑Up Studio Under the Pines

Tables, sandbags, and clipboards turn a clearing into a design room. Drone photos guide scale, while neighbors literally nudge lines to match wheelchair turning radii or favorite sunrise angles. We leave sketches on a clothesline overnight so early walkers comment with sticky notes. Sign up for a volunteer shift, pour coffee, and help translate passing remarks into precise, life‑improving details.

Fast Prototypes, Real Feedback

We tape chalk loops for scooters, stack milk crates for impromptu seating, and cone‑off a pretend plaza to watch how strollers turn. Cardboard signs test wayfinding; string outlines future planting beds. People try, laugh, stumble, and suggest better paths. Feedback stickers go right onto prototypes, then designs adjust instantly. Borrow tools from our lending library and co‑build the next experiment.

Access and Safety Walkthroughs

Alongside wheelchair users, cane travelers, and parents with double strollers, we test slopes, curb cuts, sightlines, and nighttime lighting. We note glare, run light meters, and practice wayfinding between bus stops and entrances. After dark, we invite neighbors and officers for a CPTED‑informed walkthrough. Join the twilight audit, share concerns, and claim the improvements that make evenings welcoming, predictable, and calm.

Revealing the Stone and Soil

We honor the working landscape with safe overlooks, tactile rock displays, and terraces that teach history without romanticizing harm. Excess stone becomes seating and habitat; disturbed soils are rebuilt with compost, mycorrhizae, and patient care. School field trips test interpretation, while geologists review stability. Volunteer your expertise, join a soil‑building day, and help craft textures that invite touch, learning, and lingering.

Water That Works and Delights

Stormwater becomes an educator and performer: swales slow flows, forebays capture grit, and planted basins filter quietly. Children follow shallow rills to learn gradients; adults appreciate maintenance‑friendly access. We size systems to local rainfall and publish performance targets. Adopt a rain garden, log observations after storms, and celebrate functional beauty that keeps downstream creeks clearer, cooler, and alive through demanding summers.

Planting With Neighbors

Native canopy and understory form living rooms of shade, fragrance, and birdsong. Nursery partners grow regionally appropriate stock while volunteers remove invasives and steward new saplings through tough first seasons. Cultural food plants find small demonstration plots. Join seed swaps, track pollinator counts with a simple app, and help shape plant palettes that honor heritage, boost biodiversity, and age with dignity.

Equity, Access, and Belonging

A welcoming park begins with invitations designed for everyone. We budget for translation, childcare, stipends, and transit passes so participation is not a luxury. Designs exceed minimum codes, reflect cultural practices, and include quiet retreats alongside celebration. Tell us what keeps you away, what brings you back, and how we can remove barriers so belonging feels ordinary, unremarkable, and constant.

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Many Languages, One Park

Flyers, surveys, and pop‑up conversations appear in community languages, with interpreters paid and thanked publicly. Pictograms assist low‑literacy users; WhatsApp groups carry meeting notes and reminders. Youth translators co‑author signage with elders, ensuring respect. Microgrants support neighbor‑led outreach tables. Share your preferred language and accessibility needs through our quick form so every update arrives clearly, kindly, and on time.

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Mobility Without Barriers

Gentle slopes, tactile cues, continuous handrails, and high‑contrast wayfinding align with real user testing, not assumptions. Bus stops connect through weather‑proof routes; bikes park securely near visible entrances. Paratransit zones are generous and obvious. Winter plowing plans protect access equity. Join our audit walks, report pinch points on the map tool, and help refine details that transform theoretical accessibility into daily ease.

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Culturally Familiar Gathering Spaces

From chess tables and tea circles to barbecue pads and festival power, spaces acknowledge how different families celebrate, mourn, teach, and rest. Shade structures, resonant materials, and flexible lawns host small ceremonies and big reunions. Quiet alcoves remain available nearby. Co‑write simple, inclusive park etiquettes with us, and propose furnishings or rituals that feel like home while welcoming respectful newcomers.

Stewardship and Ongoing Governance

A Care Calendar That Builds Community

Monthly plantings, litter sweeps, habitat checks, and bench repairs happen with tools from a shared shed, snacks at noon, and childcare stipends when needed. Hours are tracked for recognition and grants. Milestones get celebrated loudly. Propose a workday theme, lead a micro‑training, and adopt a bed or trail segment, turning small, steady actions into lasting pride and visible, year‑round reliability.

Youth Rangers and Skill Pathways

Teens earn stipends while learning trail care, first aid, GIS basics, storytelling, and conflict de‑escalation. Mentors from local trades introduce carpentry, horticulture, and lighting maintenance. Alumni build portfolios and references for future jobs. Parents receive clear schedules and support. Nominate a candidate, volunteer expertise, or donate gear so the next generation anchors stewardship with confidence, creativity, and community trust.

All Rights Reserved.

Neighbors Co‑Create the Future of Quarry Park

Listening Before Drawing

Street and Stream Walks

Memory Mapping Sessions

Data That Feels Human

From Ideas to Shared Priorities

Dot‑Voting That Matters

Participatory Budget Mockups

Turning Conflict into Alignment

Design Sprints in the Open Air

Pop‑Up Studio Under the Pines

Fast Prototypes, Real Feedback

Access and Safety Walkthroughs

Revealing the Stone and Soil

Water That Works and Delights

Planting With Neighbors

Equity, Access, and Belonging

01

Many Languages, One Park

02

Mobility Without Barriers

03

Culturally Familiar Gathering Spaces

Stewardship and Ongoing Governance

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A Care Calendar That Builds Community

Youth Rangers and Skill Pathways