In 1987, the manufactured home community of Boulder Meadows was built and, as part of the development, 8 acres of the adjacent land was deeded to the City of Boulder to become a park. The city is making good on its promise and assembling funding to develop the park. However, access to and from the site is not in scope or budget.  

Currently, those living nearby - many of whom are disproportionately affected by racial inequities, disparities in income, healthcare, and access to nature, which determine physical and mental health outcomes - have very little access to this land. A fence separates the site from those living adjacent, and there are no trails or sidewalks to the site, nor along busy Violet Avenue. The on-street bike lane along Violet Avenue also halts along a narrow bridge, forcing cyclists and pedestrians into the road right where the park land dips into a creek. Navigating through this space and accessing the park with a mobility device like a wheelchair is impossible. 

The future neighborhood park is intended to serve those living within a half mile, primarily residents of the city’s largest mobile home community (Boulder Meadows) and another west of Broadway (Ponderosa). Residents of both communities are predominantly Latiné, with bilingual and monolingual Spanish speakers. Other residents include people from Nepal, as well as people experiencing disabilities. A high school intern living in Ponderosa working on this project over the summer shared how the lack of pedestrian connections impacts his sense of self-worth: “It honestly feels dehumanizing to be a pedestrian walking alongside a street without a sidewalk.”