Meet Henrietta Cloyd. Ms. Cloyd has lived at 3937 N. 29th St., a block north of Melvina Park, since 1970. “I love it because of my neighbors, basically,” she says.

Although the neighborhood has changed since she moved here, Ms. Cloyd believes things are on an upswing. “It’s going to get better. It’s getting better…. I think it’s going to be a brighter future with the park down on the corner, and the neighbors and everything contributing their expertise [for the park].”

Ms. Cloyd also has a bold idea she would like city leaders to consider: plant trees on the city’s vacant lots. “I think one way to conserve water is the empty lots in our area, in the surrounding areas, if they would just plant trees and grass that would absorb the water, the overflow,” she says. “And it would beautify the area.”

She wants young people to know that Melvina Park took work to create and that the park is for young people—but that it is also for the middle-aged and the old—and the community as a whole. “Everybody’s going to come together as one, I think.”