Earlier this summer, Jane Lederer (pictured) and her labradoodle stepped outside to find that Wooster Square Park had grown into “a field of waving grass.” Neighbors thought the disheveled look was attracting criminals. Parks officials said they were just following instructions: A local group, seeking a “more natural” setting, had asked for “less maintenance” of the park, they said. Up rose a debate — now settled — over how the historic area’s central space should look.
Wooster Square Park, a central grassy space in the historically Italian-American sector of town, is marked by its many dog-walkers and grand, leafy trees. Lederer, who lives nearby, goes there three times a day with her dog. She loves the park — Wooster’s “European gem,” its central meeting spot.
In mid-July this summer, she and others started to notice a change: The grass was longer, and leaves were everywhere. “It looked disheveled,” she said, “and it was more likely to have ticks.”
Other neighbors thought the neglected look was attracting criminals: People had been experiencing an uptick in break-ins and drain pipe thefts. Lederer and others put a call in to the parks department: “We found out a small group of people, representing the neighborhood, had gone to the parks department and said, ‘Please don’t mow.’”
Christy Hass, deputy director of the Department of Parks and Trees, told the Independent the department had “backed down on our management practices” due to “a contingent of people who wanted to go to a more natural environment.”
The alleged anti-mowers said they hadn’t meant the park to grow wild at all. The group, including Cordalie Benoit, a Wooster Square resident and president of the Elm City Parks Conservancy, had approached the parks department last year. They asked for “no unneccessary mowing,” more mulching and better protection of the area’s historic trees, said Benoit. “No one said, ‘Don’t mow.’”
Sara Ohly, who lives nearby, said she had sent a letter to her alderman complaining of “Nascar lawn-mower drivers” in oversized vehicles hitting trees and over-mowing areas even when the grass was short. “Our concern was we’ve planted new trees” in the park, said Ohly, who’s 64 and has lived near the park for 38 years. Neighborhood groups have been planting three trees each year to replace historic cherry trees. “The less vehicles you have running over the roots, bashing into the trees, the better,” she said.
“It wasn’t an ecologically bad thing that they didn’t mow,” said Benoit. “I personally didn’t think it looked so terrible that it was attracting a new criminal element.” But she made clear “no one was arguing that it should be a wild field.”
Neighbors from both sides, and the parks department, sat down together at a management team meeting in July. They improved communication about who wanted what, said Hass. Hass said the department has agreed to be “more cognizant” of dusty areas that may not need mowing, and to try to use large machines only when smaller ones aren’t available.
The department responded to neighborhood input by installing these two pieces of masonry so that dogs who drink from the “doggie dish” part of the water fountain don’t get their paws covered in mud. Hass said the park would now be mowed “to the same level as the rest of the parks in the city.” Most leaves would be vacuumed up, but some would be chopped up into mulch. She came away from the meeting feeling positive: “Now we have much better communication.” “Everyone seems to be pretty settled down.”
Benoit agreed the issue had been resolved to both sides’ content.
“I think the park has looked immaculate ever since and it’s a pleasure to be in it,” said Lederer this week on an afternoon walk with her pooch.
