Comment 65242

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted June 27, 2011 at 23:50:50

"The site will be repaved for continued use as a parking lot before park development".

Legend has it that in the old USSR, as a means of achieving full employment, the state would hire people to dig holes, then others to come along and fill them back in in again. Once again, the west has achieved the same thing, but with more petrochemicals.

If we actually wish to see this space "naturalized" in any way deserving of the word, one thing is needed: time. Even under ideal starting conditions, these kinds of systems can't just be dropped into the ground. It takes time for these things to get established, and for nature to sort out which ones work and which simply aren't suited for the site. If we tore up the asphalt today (something which wouldn't take the lot of us long with pick-axes and rock bars), this process would begin tomorrow. By the time this park would finally be "finished" on the city's timeline, there'd be young trees, large bushes, and a fairly developed series of paths reflecting common travel patterns.

Letting the "weeds" (pioneering succession species) grow is a far better option than paving and parking. Even if large parts of the area are to be paved as paths or grassed, the growth can be mulched and the topsoil spread on the rest. These mounds can then function as natural enclaves in the park, to shade and beautify the rest of it, with a huge head start.

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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