Let’s take a second to ponder the “pocket park” at 30-35 West Lemon street. 

It has so far cost the city over $750,000, it is smaller than a tennis court, and its installation required the demolition of three different houses. 

In 2014, the city redevelopment authority acquired the homes at 33 and 35 West Lemon street for $200,000.

31 West Lemon street was condemned in 2016 and the Lancaster city redevelopment authority paid its former owners $73,423 in 2017.

It’s Fall 2020. There are no longer houses at 30-35 West Lemon street. But what is there is a diagonal stone walkway which leads between the Press Building, a complex with luxury condominiums and a restaurant, and the North Queen Street Garage, “where the condominium’s tenants park their vehicles,” said Tim Stuhldreher in a 2019 LNP article.

It would seem to an outsider that this publicly-funded “park” serves solely to provide the Press Building residents with a shortcut from their lofts to their cars. It’s not for the community, and even if it were, there’s hardly enough space to fit three socially-distanced community members inside of it.

The park’s size does not justify its cost, nor the lengths to which the city had to go to install it. 

It isn’t designed to accommodate Lancaster. It’s designed to accommodate wealth and the people who have it, all the while disregarding the needs of other city residents. 

Green space in the city is a good thing. But there is no green at the pocket park, and there are many potential park locations in downtown Lancaster which don’t require the demolition of houses and astronomic amounts of money. 

Take Northwest corridor Linear Park, which is less than a block away from the Press Building. It has a 0.7 mile biking path, a playground, a basketball court, and many places for shaded relaxation. This is the kind of park that the city needs, and the perfect place for residents of the Press Building to take a stroll and appreciate nature. If that’s what they really want. 

What about the families displaced from their homes when the city decided to build this “oh-so-necessary” park (walkway)? Is it not the city’s job to provide its residents with a place to live? 

When finished, the pocket park at 30 West Lemon street will serve as a depressing reminder of the city’s inability to invest money in the places where it is most needed.