Johanna Kelly-Activity #10

Johanna Kelly
Activity #10

The trip to Freshkills Park was a lot of fun because we visited a park that was actually in the process of being made. I learned on this trip that Freshkills Park was once a land of garbage. All the garbage that was from the different boroughs in New York City was being dumped into that area of Staten Island. The wastes were actually being dispensed right next to residential homes; it was very unpleasant for residents to have to live near this. I was very surprised when we arrived to Freshkills Park because I was expecting to see mounds of garbage piled everywhere. However, when we got to the park, I felt as if I was in a beautiful and refreshing meadow. The entire land was green with trees and flowers. I found out that the landscape architect, James Corner, of Freshkills Park was also the designer of the High Line project in New York. Even though it seemed to me that the park looked complete, the tour guide told us that Freshkills Park would be opened in about thirty years from now. “It’s all part of a radical plan to turn Fresh Kills landfill into Fresh Kills Park, with mountain bikers and kayakers and ballplayers sharing 2,315 acres of open space with restored maritime forests, with chestnut trees dotting dry prairies, with new or revived sweet-gum swamps, maybe a fox scooting through persimmon copses or a deer through a new birch thicket” (Sullivan, 1). Therefore, a lot of interesting things will be incorporated to the park before it actually opens. There are bright prospects ahead with the environment we are living in.

I was really surprised and engaged how I was at a new landfill area that will probably look very different in the next thirty years when it is actually a park. “This idea of a park—a green, pastoral place to sport and play—hasn’t evolved much since Central Park was finished.” It will be so interesting one day when the park is finally open and I go visit it only to find it looking completely different than the way I saw it on this trip. I learned on this trip how urban areas could always be renewed and changed for the better. What was once a landfill of garbage is now becoming a beauty and natural landfill mark.