To establish uses wihtin our neighborhood park, Cabrini, which meet the needs of those living within the neighborhood and therefore create a epicenter of neighborhoood engagement and community building. We strongly urge that NORDC stand behind their Sept 2016 Resolution to establish a 18,816 sq ft off leash area in Cabrini. There is room for this, the greatest need of the neighbors, and for the realistic needs of Plessy School.
We are the task force, CATC "Downtown Parks," created by Mayor Landrieu's 2013 Neighborhood Engagement Program intended to act as a liaison between citizens and NORDC in establishing the nature of the uses within their neighborhood parks. We currently have 49 members: residents, home owners and business owners who greatly value Cabrini as their neighborhood park and the capacity it has served to create a tremendous sense of neighborhood cohesiveness and camaraderie
We strongly request that NORDC continue to support it's September 2016 Resolution of establishing an off leash area of 18,816 sq ft in Cabrini Park. Backed up by 800 petitions and two surveys, one by our CATC and one by Gambit, this is by far the greatest need of the vast majority of the neighbors. This leaves 36,567 sq ft for our new neighbor, Plessy School, to use however they would like allowing for a soccer field in addition to a playground equipment area. This is 3X the space that they have at their current location and in an area of the city with the least available green space, the French Quarter. It is approximately 16,000 sq ft more than the ownership in the park by OPSB (4 of the 14 lots).
Our larger goal is to create a multi use park in Cabrini that serves as many needs as possible as determined by the demographics of the neighborhood which surrounds it e.g. 97.7% of the properties are without children, average age is 51 and 40% do not have access to transportation. Parks whould be used as the majority of neighbors wish and reflect the neighborhood where they are located and reflect the needs of all i.e people of all ages both children and seniors. Off leash dog areas are a common and well-used feature of urban parks around the world that create a sense of community within the neighborhood.
