When I moved into Alamo Heights over 20 years ago, one of the perks was a park six blocks away. Actually, it was the across-the-street playground for the children of Cambridge Elementary, but parents and grandparents and children of all ages enjoyed going there after school hours, playing basketball for older kids and swings and climbing for little kids.
A couple of years ago, word got around that they were demolishing the playground for parking. Some even said it was going to be a parking garage.
We've been holding our collective breaths since then, knowing that a place all of us and our grandchildren love was going away.
For the months of summer, the chain link fence around it was covered, so we couldn't tell what was going on, or up.
But now we have the reveal! And thanks to the artistry of the planners, we now have a parking lot covering a portion of it, but an improved playground to boot--and it's beautiful.
Now, in fact, there are two playgrounds--one in the yard of the school, including a track for running and space for playing ball, and a smaller but very nice playground in the original location next to a simple parking lot, no garage.
The original school itself is nearly a hundred years old and used to include all grades, elementary to high school. Now it only has elementary students and they've had to add more buildings to accommodate them.
But whoever planned this did a brilliant job of solving the problem of insufficient faculty and parent parking and retaining the playground.
The community can now use both playgrounds, and as I passed there this morning on my way back from Dollar Tree, I was happy to see that both are being enjoyed just as before the construction. And without the screening, we can see the sky and trees again, too.
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