PINGREE PARK

Pingree Park is a great neighborhood asset and has seen considerable investment of time, talent, and resources by MACC Development and the City of Detroit to make improvements to the park in recent years, including new basketball courts, sports fields, playground, and walking paths. The next step will be to integrate more community-driven programming to better activate the park throughout the year. Community feedback showed strong support for outdoor movies and a market for local residents to sell their goods or start a business. Furthermore, an ice rink was supported as a way to bring people to the park in the winter. (Elders in the community fondly remembered an ice rink there in their youth.) Finally, the redevelopment of the vacant Hillger School holds great promise to support the park if done in a way that is responsive to the needs and interests of the community. Efforts should be made to work with developers to ensure that the voice of the community is heard during the redevelopment process.

Action Plan

1. Dedicate existing staff or create a new dedicated staff position to develop park programming. Develop summer movie, performance, and outdoor market schedule. Expand MACC Sports to include adult leagues.

2. Meet with owners of Hillger School to discuss sale of building and development proposal. Offer to provide assistance with City approvals as part of community-driven design and development process.

3. Meet with City of Detroit General Services Department to discuss next phase of park amenities, including an ice/roller skating rink. Develop fundraising strategy including public, private, and philanthropic grants to fund new amenities.

Set-up small-scale stage to facilitate neighborhood-appropriate concerts and performances.

Create and maintain fenced, offleash dog park as amenity for neighborhood residents.

Expand current MACC Sports offerings to include additional leagues, including adult sports leagues.

Program park food events including picnics, barbecues, tastings, food trucks, or farmers markets to expand food amenities in neighborhood.

Create seasonal ice rink (winter) and roller skating rink (summer) to expand all-seasons activities in the park.

Identify and recruit high-quality developer and represent the needs of neighborhood residents to ensure that redevelopment supports the community.