Riverside Park Pavilion Location Interview with Sue Reid
This morning the Parks Commission voted to recommend a location for the new pavilion in Riverside Park. I suggested a couple of locations – neither of which were chosen – and Sue Reid of the Chagrin Valley Times reached out for comment.
On Apr 5, 2023, at 8:54 am, Sue Reid wrote:
Hi Brian: Can you explain exactly where you are suggesting the Skating Shelter be?
Thank you,
Sue Reid
CVT
Sue,
The Parks Commission was tasked with selecting a location for a new pavilion to be built this summer in Riverside Park. The former skating rink has been gone for many years, and the shelter that served it has reached the end of its useful life, so my approach was to choose a location that best served the most visitors to the park and not let nostalgia color my thinking.
My primary concern was ease of access for as many users as possible. In its current situation, reaching the pavilion means leaving the path and crossing the field. For many weeks during the summer – the prime time to use it – this area is fenced off for turf restoration after Blossom and Art By The Falls, and many weeks during the rest of the year it is flooded, muddy, and/or littered with goose droppings. When the commission was asked to walk the park to choose a location, chairwoman Anne deConingh invited us walk down her driveway “so that you don’t have to negotiate the land mine goose dung in the park!” This is exactly the situation that user will have to contend with to reach the pavilion, but they won’t have the option to use Anne’s driveway. Even on the best days, being situated so far from the path limits access to the pavilion for some who rely on assisted mobility devices or have difficulty walking on uneven ground.
I also wanted to take into consideration the needs of Blossom and Art By The Falls events. Without that constraint my preferred location would probably be somewhere closer to the center of the park, just east of the steps to the river or just north of the trees by the playground. But moving the pavilion to any of those currently wide-open spaces would be majorly disruptive to those uses.
With all of the above in mind, I proposed two locations near the eastern end of the brick path. Both offer easy access from the path and great views of the river.
In the end the commission voted to recommend a location similar to that of the old skating shelter, but oriented parallel to the park borders and moved north and east so as to be behind the line formed by the three evergreens and a small tree to the east. I’m not surprised at the outcome, but disappointed as I think it will negatively impact the usefulness of the pavilion. So it goes…
