Welcome to Regatta Park
Regatta Park is officially open. This morning, Saturday, there was a large party to welcome the new park to our waterfront.
There was free yoga, free games, food and drinks.
People are already fitting in.
At left are two Grove artists, Lisa Remeny and Eileen Seitz. At right is Kevin Kerwin, City Parks Director, who emceed the welcome ceremony. Kevin told me that there will not be a dog park section in Regatta Park but dogs are welcome in the park.
As these people were entering the park at South Bayshore and Pan American Drive, I overheard the lady say, "Oh, how beautiful!" And that seems to be the sentiment of the neighbors who were out for the opening day events.
Free yoga classes started the day at 9 am.
The view from the Dock Master's office, in the park.
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6 Comments:
Looks great! Already been up to the harbor masters building, one of the best views in the Grove!
Thanks for sharing. We'll go there later in the day when it cools off
Turned into a nice open park, much, much better than that "Expo-Center" ugly thing and the former parking lot. Wide open large green area, about the size of Peacock park, and an interesting little bouncing-ground area for kids' acrobatics, promenades near the water..
Nothing fancy though, they were obviously on a stupid budget..(unlike 27th AV or Commodore where all our taxes must have gone the past decade). No Coral Gables Circle with Marble structures, gym, water bridge or fountains.. The idea to recycle all of the Concrete for the Expo-Center was good, except they used it to build those despicable Concrete benches that don't belong in any park.
Imagine the new park with beautiful, simple WOOD benches, like those behind the Charthouse, or even those on any regular park.
Great improvement overall, though.
My son and I rode our bikes around the park, yesterday afternoon. My impression was that the choice of building materials was wise, as it will save on long-term maintenance costs. The big likely maintenance headache will be maintaining the artificial turf coverings on the climbing area. I just hope that the taggers don't start messing things up, too soon.
The new dock house at the DKM is very nicely done, too.
I finally had some free time on Sunday afternoon so I decided to cycle to the park with my 17 month old son in order for him to run around and enjoy himself. My first impression of the park was favorable. I don't mind the concrete benches and the wide open lawn looks like a good place for events to be held. And with time the trees will grow and create a nice canopy.
What I did find to be less than flattering was the "play" area for children. With so many families with young children living in the area I don't understand why so little effort was placed on this aspect of the park. Maybe it was a budget thing but it would have gone a long way towards bringing more families to this new outdoor area.
Anyway what is done is done and it is a much better use of space than what was there before. Once the weather cools down a bit more I will definitely be stopping by more often.
It is inconceivable to me that so much money was spent on this park yet there are NO PUBLIC BATHROOMS!
There are showers at the dockmasters building but they are not accessable to the public.
Dogs are free to use the park but there are no stations with poop bags so I guess we will just step in it.
Would have liked less palm trees and more shade trees. Bet they start charging for parking as soon as the commercial phase is built.
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