Kirkwood Park is the crown Jewel of the Kirkwood park system. With tennis courts, baseball fields, playgrounds, forests, pools, an ice rink, a lake and even an outdoor amphitheater it is bears a striking resemblance to a scaled down version of our very own Forest Park in our backyard. While the majority of the park was much improved during the 2013-2014 building campaign that saw the rehabilitation of Walker Lake, the reconstruction of the tennis and handball courts and the building of a new concession stand/pavilion amongst other things, the Western, southwestern and Southern portion of the park was largely excluded from these improvements.

This article will be organized around the two subject matters who’s union defines a park: That of ecology and nature and that of the man made.

Man

Accessibility

Kirkwood Park is largely isolated, an island cutoff from where people live and from ways to get from those places to the park that don’t involve driving. To look for evidence of this problem, one need look no further than the elderly man who was struck and killed while using the crosswalk to cross Geyer from his apartment complex into the park last August. If parks are hubs for the physically active then they should accommodate the physically active both in how they get there and how they use the park once they arrive.

The neighborhoods surrounding Kirkwood Park to the North and East are especially dense and thus will bear the brunt of our examination of pedestrian and bike infrastructure.

Adams:

While the stretch of West Adams that runs along the park is quiet to traffic and therefore not a severe hinderance to accessing the park from the neighborhoods that lie beyond it, it is also falls severely short of its full potential.  Essentially the entire northern half of the street lacks a sidewalk, the one mid-block cross walk leads neither from nor to a sidewalk and currently the entire Western half of the park is accessible only by car.  The biggest opportunity that exists however is for the inclusion of bike lanes into and out of Sugar Creek Valley, a piece of terrain that not only offers coveted elevation changes but also a scenic and shady ride. As for now however, the roads winding through Sugar Creek are about as close as we come to Kirkwood’s very own autobahn.

Specifics-— While the current crosswalk is useless, I’m also not sure a future crosswalk in the same location that was attached to some sidewalks would be all that helpful. Rather I would suggest one at the intersection of Adams and Sugar Creek Rd., a quiet access road for people coming from the densely populated streets immediately north and adjacent to the tennis courts. Regarding  While this second crosswalk would be relatively close to the one at the intersection of Geyer and Adams, the idea here is to create a buffer zone around Kirkwood Park of permanently slower traffic, not just to slow down traffic at a couple intersections and then let it speed up again. Also, you’d be surprised how many tennis balls make it over a twelve foot fence and wind up on the opposite side of Adams.

Geyer

Geyer is narrower than Adams and therefore could probably only accommodate a single bike lane for most of its distance along the park but it also provides an opportunity to further increase pedestrian access. Access roads on either side of the community center/ice rink currently lack sidewalks mirroring the problem we witnessed on Adams. As such the pedestrians are forced to enter the park (rather than walking along the sidewalk at the outside of it) either by walking in one of the roads, entering on the South side of the park at Monroe or three blocks further down at the path that leads into the park across from Jefferson. The addition a walkway across from Argonne and along the the recently improved and naturalized artificial creek that feeds into Walker Lake would be a welcome addition. With regards to Geyer’s lane configuration, two unique circumstances exist: The Geyer Inn utilizes on street parking in the far right hand lane heading northbound between Monroe and and Madison and between Adams and Madison an additional lane is added briefly in the southbound direction. This second circumstance allows briefly for a bike lane in each direction. I’m not sure that the on-street parking adjacent to the Geyer Inn would facilitate a bike lane in either direction but you could probably squeeze one in.

 Geyer & Adams

I also propose, and I’m proud of this one, Kirkwood’s very own Columbus Circle! At the Geyer-Adams corner of our own version of Central Park is an opportunity to improve safety and traffic flow simultaneously.  I was unsure how traffic circles did those things even after having heard multiple times that they did but this article did a pretty job of spelling it all out. The proposed circle would also provide a more substantial —and perhaps even monumental depending on its design— entrance to the park.

Southwest

While we’re still on “unnatural” aspects of the park I think we should give its wooded southwestern section some attention. This section’s most prominent feature is likely the road, Rifle Range Drive, that runs through it. Rifle Range Drive serves as a shortcut for those trying to go from Adams to Geyer and as a result attracts traffic that has no interest in the park. Just as New York will do later this month, I think its time we too ban cars in our signature park.

I of course am not advocating for the complete elimination of parking spaces and drop off points in the park but rather the elimination of any through streets so as to give priority to people rather than car. As it currently exists there are two routes by which to connect  to West Monroe, one via the aforementioned Rifle Range Drive and the other via Amphitheater Drive. If we cut off these streets at the destinations they’re named after we get all of the access with none of the traffic.

While we could then remove the streets and re-naturalize the area, the more cost efficient solution would be to install bollards that would allow bikers, skaters, etc. to still use the paved road but preventing cars from coming through. (These would be able to be removed for special events such as Greentree, 4th of July etc.).

Gun Range

I am also of the opinion that something should be done about the gun range.  It’s not that I don’t think there should be a rifle range. Rather it is that any amenity in a public park should be open to the public. The gun range is currently open to the Kirkwood Police and two private gun clubs, Lafayette Gun Club and Winchester Rifle and Pistol Club. Now I don’t know much about gun clubs but I’m going to go out on a limb and say those aren’t likely to be two of the most diverse groups in the city. I understand the explanation that has been given, that opening the range to the public would cost too much in insurance, but somehow every single commercial gun range in the country that exists today has found a way to “scrape by”. Charge a price that lets you break even and you will, in the same turn, offer an amenity to residents, offer an educational component through classes and possibly even add a couple of jobs. To bemoan the existence of the gun range would be to forget that just ten years ago Kirkwood Police were forced to stop a mass shooting at City Hall likely thanks in no small part to the training they received there. But we can also question. Question how the range can best serve community, who in the community it can serve (hopefully everyone that kind of likes to shoot guns, not just a bunch of old white dudes) and finally where it can best do so. If our answers to those questions point towards the status quo so be it, but I have a hunch that the won’t.

For more on the private nature of the range as well as efforts to strip its name from the street it is located on, click here.

Parking Lot

While any proposal for the current theatre/ice rink/pool/community center parking lot could be rendered obsolete with the reconfiguration of the facilities it services and the theatre’s departure to downtown Kirkwood, the principles that govern how the parking lot should be designed —namely for cars AND people (we are in a park after all)—remain. It will likely take years before a new facility gets built and while we wait small steps should be taken to improve the experience for all the parks users.

Trees should be planted to absorb pollution from the of cars that is a parking lot as well as provide shade for the inferno they become during summer months and sidewalks should be built to connect the pool to the park proper and from the ice rink and gym to the pool. People get priority in parks and they should be able to travel from place to place within them without having to walk amongst the traffic.

Vs. Wild

Ok so here’s the part I’m really excited about. I probably damned the idea by staking it to the bottom of an incredibly tedious work after five months of no activity but here we are. The thesis of this section is that Kirkwood Park would greatly benefit from biodiversity. To address the “how” of that thesis we have to look at what Kirkwood Park currently is: a large expanse of mowed grass and curated trees, a forested section, and finally Walker Lake and the habitat along the lake and natural and man made streams scattered through the park. The mowed grass and curated trees is the section of the park we’re trying to limit here since it consists of the not very biodiverse total number of species of uhh, like two? Maybe throw some ants in there to stretch it to three? So anyways, what is the easiest way to make grass more diverse? Easy, let the grass grow long baby.

Historical Prairies and Savannas

Tall grass prairies and savannas (prairies with a few trees scattered throughout) have historically comprised a large portion of the St. Louis region but the few that remain are almost exclusively those that have been re-cultivated in parks nature reserves and on private property rather than original lands that have been preserved. This gives us both proof that reconstruction of these lands is possible but also a blueprint for how to do it. Perhaps the most visible of these rehabbed prairies and savannas are those of Forest Park including Deer Lake Savanna, Savanna in Kennedy Forest and the Prairie Complex Near Steinberg Skating Rink.

The presence of these prairie and savanna rehabilitation projects locally is also significant because native grass seeds must be sourced from existing habitats ultra-locally as these species, from the same couple dozen mile radius are best adapted for the areas unique features: its soil, humidity, temperature, pollinator species etc.

Application to Kirkwood Park

So where in Kirkwood Park would make for the best prairie/savanna? A place not being used? A place with few trees? Easy, look at Walker Lake right? now just look a little further South.

Its perfect! A few trees for some birds of prey which are probably the coolest thing we can convince to move into the park, unused land and a community garden that would greatly benefit from the pollinators that prairie habitat attracts and even proximity to fresh water which we’ll get to in a little bit.

The larger the continuous tract of land that could be dedicated to savanna, the more effective it becomes as a habitat as different animals have different territorial needs and the more animals that find this habitat viable, the more biodiversity we will achieve.. It is for this reason that I propose extending the grasslands to the West where the tree coverage gradually ramps up in density until it becomes full out forest, a very natural transition. It is also for this reason that I propose the removal of the access road that currently bisects the proposed habitat.

The area immediately south of Walker Lake was, according to a plaque that overlooks the field,  home to the Sanders Homestead from 1914-1991. The remainder of the plaque reads, “Mary Sanders Benton / Willerme Sanders King / Daughter”. I know nothing more to that story… but I’d like to. While there is history here, this property is currently, very occasionally (read “Greentree Fest”) used for overflow parking and little else. I don’t think a change from a parking lot to prairie does anything to diminish that history and I’d like to think that with a conversion to a more natural habitat there are ways of even improving the way this small story is told.

The inclusion of new habitat, at the very least, would make for more interesting walks through the park, the simplest of pleasures. To the left a lake with lily pads, fish and frogs and to the right swaying grasses and wildflowers, birds, bees and butterflies. If nothing else, let me when you over with its simple beauty.

For more information on native grasslands, here is a link to Missouri Department of Conservation’s web page.

One Last Thing… Water Features!

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I know I said I was excited about the whole “Vs. Wild” part of this Man Vs. Wild analysis but if you were to ask me which part of that part I’m most excited about its the creek. I love water features and as such I prefer to not see people drive through them with their greasy, dirty cars. But that is the only option you get traveling West on Monroe along our beloved new savanna: to cross a low water bridge and destroy the Earth. What if we built a bridge-bridge? We could even make it cute if you wanted. Make it out of stone ‘n’ shit, make it archy, I don’t really care. But I’m sure the frogs and the birds and the crawdads will. I’m sure they’ll be happy.

P.S.   Who knows, maybe while we’re at it we could do a little creek bank restoration like we did for the storm drains that feed into Walker Lake, a nice rehab job deserves a little better than this:

The End!