Peoplestown community revitalizes Four Corners Park

People's Town community is celebrating the transformation of Four Corners Park with a 9.4 million Bezos Earth Fund grant supporting its redesign and construction. Our Maria Guzman joins us live from this event where Mayor Andre Dickens is set to attend as well. Maria, we hear the noise behind you. We hear the celebration. Tell us what's happening. There you go. Hey, Jasmine, good morning. Yes, it's very lively here at Four Corners Park. We're at the heart of People's Town, and you know what's in the name. People here is the center behind this. I'm going to go ahead and introduce you guys to Michael, who is just playing a key role here in the redesign and construction part of it. So, Michael, first question, just talk to me about the vision of the Four Corners Park. What can people here expect? So the vision for this park has really came together with communities getting together around a large table to look at the vision and aspirations for the community. This is a very active park and the community youth center has been an active place where a lot of important activity happens during the pandemic. It was a lifeline. They've done training for youth and a number of different nonprofits work out of it. One of the things that we're looking at is a great, fabulous playground that serves the neighborhood. That's an exciting place that brings all the different elements from multiple different ages, making it so that the park is accessible, looking at seniors that come to the park, as well as parents with strollers and things along those lines. There's a place with community gardening and composting that will be coming together. There's a skate feature. the basketball court is going to get revitalized and made a much more active, exciting place for youth to come and hang out and to play sports. So a lot of different things. I think when you think about the community showing up, it's not just one thing they're showing up for, it's looking at a dozen different activities all happening at the same time because this park has it all. And talk to me about the timeline. How long may this project take? This project will be completed in about three years, which sounds like a long time. But in the park world, our park visioning plan sometimes can take 10 years or more. And thanks to the fact that we've gotten this robust funding from the Bezos Earth Fund, this project will be done in 30 months. So it's really special, as you mentioned, that local neighbors will get to see the construction and also enjoy the park. That's right. There are community advocates that have been fighting for resources for this community for decades and when they sat down to develop the vision some of them thought they might be able to see some of the initial improvements but might not see the full the full vision come to life and it's kind of the idea that oftentimes people plant trees and don't get to benefit from the shade that it's for the next generation and that was the kind of service and selfless service that people did to come up with this vision and now thanks to the Bezos Earth fund. They'll be able to enjoy it within the next three years. Amazing. Thank you so much. So this all is happening right here at Four Corners Park at the heart of People's Town. Again, people here being the center of today's event.