Join us at the corner of Keokuk and Gustine at Amberg Park.   We will have the trash bags, gloves and a few yard tools and brooms.  If you have any tools you think might be useful, please bring them.

The weather forecast predicts it might rain.  We will be there for the clean up as long as it’s not thunderstorming.

Contact: Ryan Dannan, ryan@dutchtownwest.org, 314.600.0321

See you then!

Without the intrusion or distraction of automobile traffic, participants will be able to partake in various recreational activities, visit other neighborhoods, rediscover the City and experience the Great Rivers Greenway’s bike routes.

Fore more information visit: http://stlouis.missouri.org/open-streets/ or contact:

Open Streets 2010 Route Map (Click to Enlarge)

What ideas do you have for the gardens? Design, location, and function ideas are all welcome.
What concerns do you have about the gardens? We want to address these early on.
What are your questions about the garden process?
And importantly – DO YOU WANT TO BE PART OF MAKING THIS HAPPEN?

Are you interested in gardening this year?
Do you want to garden alongside your neighbors?
Do you want advice and support throughout the process?
We are seeking volunteers who want to be involved in our community’s gardens. We need people for a few hours a week starting in late-March and running through early Autumn. Gardening experience is great, but not necessary. Volunteers will have lots of support from HopeBuild throughout the course of the year.

Please contact Marjorie at 314-536-0566, or at marjorie@dutchtownsouth.org with your interest or questions. You may also leave comments to this post!

For More information contact:
Maribeth Boyle
Marketing Director, Carondelet Family YMCA
600 Loughborough Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63111
branch: 314-353-4960
fax: 314-353-3350
www.ymcastlouis.org/carondelet

PDF Versions:
Amber Park Option A
Amberg Park Option B
Amberg Park Option C

Pictures (Click Image to Enlarge):

Take a look at their designs and leave a comment to this post with any ideas, suggestions, questions relating to Amberg Park!

Carondelet Rec Center

The City of St. Louis Department of Parks, Recreation and Forestry and the YMCA of Greater St. Louis are proud to announce the opening of the Carondelet Park Rec Plex in Fall 2009. You are invited to join in our excitement and help the Carondelet community grow as a family health and wellness resource within the City of St. Louis!

Open For Free Tours:
November 8 – 15th
Call (314)353-4960

Grand Opening and Parade:
November 19th, (afternoon) at 600 Loughborough (Carondelet Family YMCA) to the NEW Rec PLex.
Riboon Cutting at 3:30 p.m. and festivities to follow

FREE family friendly activities:
November 20 – 22
Call (314)353-4960

Click images below for membership prices and other information:

The CSB has created a handy guide and picture that helps describe what they do and when to contact them. View the image below or click here to view their handout.

When to call the Citizens' Service Bureau (622-4800)

Picture from October 18, 2008 Amberg Park Clean-Up

AMBERG PARK PROJECT

Neighborhood parks should reflect the recreation interests, needs and health benefits for the community residents in the immediate and the surrounding neighborhoods. The end result should reflect the interests of the community residents, variety of ages, mixed use, and include an organizational plan that will sustain its future maintenance and reflect a model of “green” construction. The project execution should be the vehicle for developing future community engagement projects, multi-generation activities and provide a model to the City demonstrating social, health and environmental return on the investment.

AMBERG (RICHARD H.) PARK
Keokuk and Gustine Avenues
Ordinance Date: 1963
2.76 Acres
Purchased Ordinance 49831-52077 from Board of Education $110,631.50
1 Comfort Station
1 Softball Field
1 Playground
1 Soccer Kick Board
1 Spray Pool

Amberg Park was designed by Landscape Architect, Robert E. Goetz and Associates in 1966 and construction began during January, 1967. The park was named in honor of Richard H. Amberg (1912-1967) for his personal distinction and his contributions to the parks and playgrounds of the city. He also served as publisher of the Globe Democrat.

PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT AND CURRENT CONDITION:
Amberg Park is surrounded by a very diverse community; culturally, economically, generationally, etc. While some of the he amenities currently offered, including the playground and softball field are utilized, they are poorly designed. The Comfort Station, Soccer Kick Board, and Spray Pool are not maintained to the point that they are unrecognizable and not utilized.

Neighborhood residents have expressed concerns over littering, poor maintenance, loitering in and around the playground area, and safety. The neighborhood association, Dutchtown West Neighborhood Association (DWNA), has been organizing neighborhood volunteer days on a regular basis to clean up the park, plant flowers, and ensure its regular maintenance.

Amberg Park is nearly 50 years old, and has undergone very little transformation over that time period. Now is the time to modernize the park to fit the needs of our changing community.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES:
The neighborhood is seeking a collaborative partner with Washington University in St. Louis to undertake a community-based design process, through which diverse perspectives and the needs of all community members are taken into consideration.

Above all else, the design of the park needs to have incorporated into its design elements the following principles:
• Recreation
• Fitness
• Gathering
• Relaxation
• Education

FISCAL TARGETS:
The proposed project would be funded through a public-private partnership with oversight from a community-based board of directors.

Based on preliminary estimates from the City of St. Louis Parks Department, a renovation of the entire park could cost between $300,000 – $500,000 depending upon the scope of work provided through the design process.

TENTATIVE GOALS & ASSOCIATED TIME FRAMES:
• Create Park Stewardship Committee (September 2009)
• Obtain Public Commitment to Park Redevelopment (September 2009)
• Raise Private Capital to Augment Public Commitment to Neighborhood Park (September 2009 – December 2011)
• Partner with Washington University on a Community-based design for Phased Redevelopment Process (September 2009)
• Implement Redevelopment Plan in Phases – based on available capital to complete projects. (Phase 1: Spring 2011, Phase 2: Spring 2012, Phase 3: Spring 2013)

Amberg Park Fountain

The Dutchtown West Neighborhood Association (DWNA) has listed Amberg Park and this rock fountain as a concern for months. Thanks to the hard work of the newly elected Ward 25 Alderman, Shane Cohn, this rock fountain has been restored to its former glory! Alderman Cohn states, “I’m so glad its operational! I’ve been driving by just to check on it, and makes me smile to see the kids enjoying it!”

While formal park development plans are in the works, more temporary trash cans will be placed in the park to help alleviate all of the litter that accumulates in the park.

DWNA’s next monthly park clean-up day is scheduled for Saturday, August 8th at 10:00am. Click here for more information.

See pictures below of what the rock fountain area area used to look like before being repaired:

Rock Fountain Clogged Drain and Litter

Rock Fountain Park Clean-Up

1. Amberg Park:  Litter/debris pick up (weekly), Gardening (quarterly)
2. Mt. Pleasant Park: Litter/debris pick up (weekly), Gardening (quarterly)
3. Meramec Street (between Grand & Minnesota): Litter/debris pick up (weekly), Gardening/weeding (monthly)
4. Cleveland High School: Litter/debris pick up (once)

Operation Brightside

Operation Brightside has responded that they are “not sure we [they] will be able to clean up every week in your designated areas but will definitely get these projects on the calendar.

If you are interested in helping clean-up our neighborhood park, contact Operation Brightside at 772-4646 or join DWNA for one of our monthly park clean-ups held on the 2nd Saturday of each month at 10:00am.

Please join us to clean-up the only park in our neighborhood, Amberg Park, on the 2nd  Saturday of every month at 10:00am.

Amberg Park Clean-Up on April 25, 2009

We will have the trash bags, gloves, and a few rakes and shovels. If you have any tools you think might be useful, please bring them. We will meet at the corner of Keokuk and Gustine.

Contact: Mitch Hurias, mitch@dutchtownwest.org, 482-2688

For more information on Amberg Park visit: http://www.dutchtownwest.org/neighborhood/amberg ]]> http://www.dutchtownwest.org/archives/839/feed 0 http://www.dutchtownwest.org/archives/704 http://www.dutchtownwest.org/archives/704#comments Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:42:00 +0000 admin http://www.dutchtownwest.org/?p=704 Matthew Mourning, author of the blog StlDotage, has written an excellent blog post on Amberg Park on his blog site, http://stldotage.blogspot.com. Click on the link to be taken directly to his post. Amberg Park is the only city park located in our DWNA focus area. See a map of our focus area here. Read more about the history of Amberg Park here.

Amberg Park

Amberg Park, located in the newly minted Dutchtown West neighborhood, is a wonderfully-sized urban park (2.76 acres).

It is large enough to be appreciated as an open, green space. Yet it’s also small enough that one can see to its urban edges at nearly all sides.

Its edges are better than most St. Louis parks, too.

On the northwest and southwest corners of the park, there is retail frontage. While the Express Lane Market on the southwest corner (Gustine and Keokuk) has generated some controversy among neighborhood residents, the presence of these retail spaces could really transform this neighborhood park into a truly urban amenity.

Urbanist author Jane Jacobs once said of neighborhood parks that their life came from their surroundings and the people who use them; parks themselves could not confer vitality. In so many St. Louis neighborhoods, parks were developed solely for the purpose of providing their residents with an “oasis” in the middle of an urban environment. The parks themselves are often flanked only by residential structures. Without active edges along the park (meaning, places where people shop, work, play, and live), they’re rarely used continuously. They can actually then become forbidding, empty places–unfortunate gaps in the urban fabric–despite their inherent beauty.

However, since St. Louis has tumbled in its population, and has planned for decades for the car and not the pedestrian, many neighborhoods are no longer dense enough or walked often enough to truly support these parks. When commercial uses exist adjacent to a park (think, the southwest corner of Gravois Park; the northeast corner of Fountain Park, etc.), they’re usually either abandoned or have been converted to residential use.

I see potential in Amberg Park, however. Its residents are mobilized to clean up the park and make it safer for its users. It’s got a series of somewhat dense apartments lining its edges, especially to the west, where an impressive twin set of multi-family Tudor building provides a pleasing visual symmetry and anchor. It’s also got two commercial spaces that could be used someday to enliven the green space they overlook.I welcome the Dutchtown West neighborhood’s vigilance and dedication to make their neighborhood a better and safer place to live. It’s (by my unempirical observation) one of the densest and most diverse (read: urban) places to live in the city. It’s also just a short walk or bus ride away from the South Grand Business District. I hope that the Dutchtown West neighbors can take this “right-sized” park and show the rest of St. Louis how great small scale urban parks can be. They are truly a rarity in the city.