Capital improvements project moving forward at Cianfrani Park
For about four years now, Friends of Cianfrani Park has been working with Parks and Recreation and Councilman Squilla to move forward with improvements for Cianfrani Park at 8th and Fitzwater.
After years of talk, the project will finally be coming to fruition, bringing new sculptures and other upgrades to the park, beginning in October.
A more than 100 year old statue of the City Seal of Philadelphia was donated to the park after Fante-Leone public pool was demolished. The statue is just one of the new additions and improvements coming to the park.
Mimosas, the trees that are currently planted in the park, have about a 10 to 20 year lifespan. These trees were planted all the way back in 1968, so with the opinions of numerous arborists, some of the large trees will be removed and replaced with large caliper trees that will better suite the space. Since the removal of those trees means a lot less shade, there will be a new shade-structure being built to give park-goers relief from the sun.
In addition to those improvements, there will also be other upgrades, including lighting and electrical improvements, newly paved walkways and new benches for the space.
The reason the project is moving forward now is because of a funding opportunity that would expire at the end of this fiscal year. So to take advantage of it, the improvements will be beginning in October.
Want to know more about these improvements? You can join the Friends of Cianfrani Park for their monthly meeting on Tuesday, August 4 at 7 p.m. at Palumbo Playground.
These improvements sound great, but I wish something could be done about half the park being completely overrun as an unofficial dog park. Most dog-walkers are nice, but there is so much off-leash dog walking (against city ordinance), poop left in the grass and on sidewalks, dead grass from pee and constant foot traffic, and overflowing trash cans with bags of poop. Some dog walkers are my friends and I don’t want to kick them out (many have, rather rudely at times, countered that they pay taxes too, true), so how about make an official dog enclosure on the NW corner like Mario Lanza Park!
Why wasn’t that addressed in the re-design of the park?
I love dogs as much as most people, but letting them destroy grass, plants, and poop up the sidewalks is not cool. Paying taxes does not grant you permission to foul up the neighborhood. That would be like me saying that I’m allowed to steal flowers from the park because I pay taxes. At the end of the day, not curbing your dog and letting them off leash are against the law – no matter how special your dog is.
If people are wanting a dog park, they should go to another park that has a dog run. Seger has one and is 4.5 blocks away. I’m sure there are others.