Moms want to transform tiny Des Moines park into community garden

MacKenzie Elmer
The Des Moines Register

A pair of young Des Moines moms want to turn a tiny, neglected park in the River Bend neighborhood into a community garden.

The city's website describes Royal Park as a "quaint little park … nestled right into the neighborhood."

But, in reality, the tiny plot at 1809 Eighth St. is overgrown with weeds. It's more apt to attract feral cats and teenage mischief makers than children looking for a place to play, according to Monika Owczarski. 

Monika Owczarski, left, and Keri Thien, right, pose for a portrait with Henry Owczarski, 16 months and Fiona Thien, 5, in Royal Park on Wednesday, July 5, 2017 in Des Moines. The two mothers have spearheaded an effort to get the city to lease them the park in order to take it over and turn it into a community garden.

She and Keri Thien are working to lease the land from the city. They envision a community garden where neighbors can grow food for themselves and sell excess produce at the weekly 6th Avenue Corridor Multicultural Market. 

"We live in a food desert," Thien said. "It'd be nice to provide access to fresh produce." 

The plan has the blessing of the city's Park and Recreation Department and it received an OK from the City Council on Monday. The city officially granted Owczarski a temporary three to five-year lease for the property.

Royal Park neighbors are trying to get the city to lease them the park they say is a magnet for bad behavior in the neighborhood on Wednesday, July 5, 2017 in Des Moines.

'Pocket park' falls on hard times

Des Moines paid $3,200 for the parcel in 1970 and turned it into a "pocket park" for the surrounding neighborhood. 

The city has several pocket parks. Many are no bigger than an average residential lot and most lack major amenities other than a couple pieces of playground equipment. Royal Park is less than a quarter acre.

It was named for Lewis and LaVere Royal, a pair of community activists who helped found the River Bend Neighborhood Association.

Royal Park once had a basketball court, but it's now gone. The swing set and slide that still appear on the city's website were removed when they became unsafe.  

A sign, a couple benches and an overgrown sand pit are the only hints that the site is a park at all. 

“The slide ended up going when some kids beat it to death with a golf club,” Thien said.

Jon Royal bought his parents' home on Eighth Street just a few blocks from the park in 1991. His family built the house in 1887. 

He has watched the park gradually go down hill.  

"(My parents) wouldn't want to have something honored in their name that wasn't supportive of the community," he said. 

Owczarski and Thien both said they noticed a big change when Moulton Elementary School, about a block north of the park, dropped its year-round calendar.

During the summer, neighborhood kids have a lot of unstructured time and are often left to wander unsupervised, Owczarski said.

“It’s an empty lot in the middle of a place where kids are looking for places to hang out," Thien said. "They end up migrating here and there’s nothing to do, so they end up finding things to do. We’ve had everything from knife fights to kids setting fires to kids throwing things at our house.”

Police were called to the park 28 times in 2015 and 46 times in 2016. There have only been two calls this year; the last one, on June 5, was for drug activity.

Royal supports the community garden idea, but the neighborhood still needs a place for children to play, he said. 

"There's a fair amount of low-income people with small children here, and they're not going to let their kids go up to Bates Park (eight blocks away) or the school, necessarily, so it was nice to have it there," he said. 

He'd like to see the city build a playground at Brian Melton Field, just three blocks away near the John R. Grubb YMCA. 

"Maybe they can name it Royal playground," he said. 

Saving Royal Park

Owczarski and Thien said they initially wanted to raise money for new park equipment, but they were told by the the city that the space is not large enough to support a modern playground.

So they and other neighbors approached the River Bend Neighborhood Association for help.

“It’s not going anywhere. It’s right next to us. And it’s a negative attraction,” Owczarski said. “Lots of kids in the neighborhood don’t value it, because why would you?”

The neighborhood association developed six options that were presented to the city. Ideas ranged from selling the land for private development to buying neighboring properties to expand the park. 

Ben Page, park and recreation director, said the community garden is a good option until the city can complete its parks master plan. 

"It never really functioned in our opinion as a great parks space because of the setting," Page said. "Usually we want a little space between (parks) and our neighbors because it attracts activity, noise and people out having fun." 

In June, the city approved $249,638 to create a parks master plan. It’s been 22 years since the city surveyed its parks.

"The city has changed drastically over the last 20 years and it will again in the next 20," said Jen Fletcher, a spokeswoman for the park department. "This plan is going to shape what our parks system looks like for the future."

The process is expected to take 18 months to complete. That's likely when Royal Park’s long-term fate will be decided.