Robert Stephens Jr. didn’t coin the term “Garfield Super Block,” but he’s become the project’s de facto grandfather. The 78-year-old has spent the last several years gathering a group of Central District residents to bring to fruition a plan to renovate Garfield Park and create a permanent public art installation memorializing the seven core cultural groups that called the area home over 175 years of Seattle’s history.
It’s a long overdue project that’s been two decades in the making after promised park improvements were apparently forgotten once the community ceded a portion of the park for parking spots. Construction is slated to begin early next year. “If I’m the last Black person in this community, I want my footprint to be there,” Stephens said of his drive to see the park turned into a place of beauty and learning.
The Garfield Super Block Coalition , founded by Stephens in 2019, has raised $10 million but needs roughly $2.2 million more for the full scope of the community’s vision for the park to be realized. That vision includes establishing the city’s first parkour park (for the sport that involves acrobatically leaping off obstacles), building new restrooms and concession facilities, replacing play structures, turning existing tennis courts into dual-use tennis and basketball courts, and adding a picnic shelter, barbecue area, water feature, hillside slide, as well as gathering spots for teens, bleachers and other seating.
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