The City of East Lansing

Parks, Recreation & Arts Action Plan

April 13, 2006 Community Visioning Workshop
Summary—April 24, 2006

Twenty-three seventh and eighth grade students from Macdonald Middle School in East
Lansing participated in the visioning process on Thursday, April 13th, 2006. The session
lasted nearly an hour and consisted of a series of brainstorming exercises in which small
groups of participants worked together to formulate ideas about East Lansing’s parks,
recreation, and arts programs and facilities.

The workshop was lively and the students were well focused on the task of identifying
what they liked and what they wanted to see improved in the parks, recreation & arts
facilities and programs. They recorded their ideas and established priorities by voting for
those most important to them. Finally, they shared their results with the entire audience.

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April 24, 2006
Presented here, organized around the brainstorming exercises, are the results.

Exercise One: Facilities

MAP
The students were asked what they liked and what they avoided in the Parks,
Recreation & Arts system. First, they placed dots on a map of places they preferred to
be and then places they avoided hanging out. Then they each placed a large dot on the
one place they liked the most. The numbers below indicate the number of dots they
placed on the maps in their respective categories.

Park or Community Center Like Avoid Like Most

Abbott Road Park 3 4

Bailey Park / Community Center 3
Burcham Road Park
Clifton Blvd Park
Ehinger Park 1 1
Family Aquatic Center 7 4
Forest Park

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April 24, 2006
 Glencairn Park 1 4
Glen Haven Park
Harrison Meadows Park
Henry Fine Park 1
J.D. Emerson Park 5
John W. Patriarche Park 14 10
Shaw Park 1
Shaw Watertower Park 3 1 1
Soccer Complex 6 4 2
Softball Complex 2 4 1
Stoddard Park 6
Tamarisk Park
Valley Court Park / Comm. 7 2
Cntr.
Welcome Park 11
White Memorial Park 1
Wolf Court Park 6
Hannah Community Center 2 1 1
Northern Tier Trail 3

DISCUSSION ON PREFERENCES
The students put a line down the middle of a piece of paper and listed their likes and
dislikes in terms of park facilities.

Likes:
(Comments with an ¾ in front received the most votes.)
¾ Variety of things to do at Patriarche Park
¾ Nice slides and clean pool at Aquatic Center
¾ Soccer fields are clean and well maintained and spacious
• Junior Dance (Cotillion) at Hannah Center
• Tennis Courts in parks
• Shaw Watertower Park has fun things to do
• Concessions at Soccer Complex
• BBQ at Patriarche Park
• Good auditorium in Hannah Center
• Wooden “castle” at Patriarche Park
• Tasty Twist
• Bailey Park
• Movies in the park at Valley Court

Dislikes:
(Comments with an ¾ in front received the most votes.)
• Shaw Watertower needs monkey bars
• Full size soccer field at Hannah
• Rename “Welcome” Park to something else
• Bailey needs more family activities
• Parks use too many pea stones and woodchips rather than cushioned mats
• Bees can be a problem in some parks
• Soccer Complex nets need to be maintained

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April 24, 2006
• Many tennis courts need to be maintained – cracked courts; loose nets (Glencairn,
Patriarche, and Valley Court)
• Lines too long at Aquatic Center
• Need more soccer fields at Soccer Complex
• Horses should be allowed on Northern Tier Trail
• Need more parks
• Ehinger Park needs to be expanded with more sports area and more equipment
• Laps at Aquatic Center
• Maintenance at parks overall needs improvement
• More trials (and also make them horse friendly)
• Need more and better maintained basketball courts
• More slides at Aquatic Center
• Hannah Center needs clocks and fans in the gymnasiums
• Cool down the pool
• Poor equipment at Stoddard Park
• More class variety at Hannah
ƒ Dance
ƒ More open swim
• Pave dirt road at Soccer Complex
• Aquatic Center too crowded
• Poor baseball fields
• Welcome Park

Exercise Two: Programming and Future Trends

Small group discussion: Participants are asked to brainstorm about the quality and
value of Parks, Recreation & Arts programs and to then note anything that they’ve seen
elsewhere (TV, travels, or anything they’ve thought of that would be interesting in their
park system).
They then, within each group, voted on their preferences, noted with numbers in
parentheses.

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April 24, 2006
Ideas & Trends
• Badminton (5)
• Ultimate Frisbee (5)
• A theme park
• Cricket league (3)
• Spider ropes (1)
• More pools (Patriarche)
• More basketball, tennis courts, soccer fields, football fields (2)
• More open fields (make Ehinger bigger)
• New play equipment (monkey bars) (1)
• Skate parks; Paintball (1)
• More bike trails
• More gardens
• More trails (horse friendly) (1)
• Workout facilities
• More places to sled in winter (1)
• Theme park
• Bandshell – small bands and singers in summer (3)
• Basketball Complex – “Aim High” (2)
• Indoor water park (1)
• Amusement Park with carnival games (2)
• Interactive fountains (to run through) (3)
• Stage with seating (1)
• Puppet show stage
• Bee control squad (3)
• Soccer – paint lines and fix nets
• More tennis courts (1)
• More baseball and kickball fields
• Clocks in the Hannah Center Gyms (1)
• New nets on outdoor basketball courts (1)
• Newer/nicer sporting equipment
• Water fountains – more, and ones that actually work (1)
• Another water park to lessen the crowds at the Aquatic Center (3)
• Cool pool temperature at Hannah

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• Putt –Putt golf (3)
• Amusement Park (2)
• Food: hot dog / cotton candy / Tasty Twists stands in parks (6)
• Lazer tag (1)

Participants:

Name Grade
Ana Rittenhouse 8
Noah Weiland 8
Ingrid Bauk 8
Jessica Moscati 8
Max Mittleman 8
Ben Heavenrich 8
Gus Navarro 8
Landon Turner 7
Alan Pham 8
Robert Turnbull 7
Malika Glover 8
Jessica Peatress 8
Kaitlin Lapka 7
Aleksandra Petrovic 8
Mike Hagan 8
Caroline Stowe 7
Rollin Baker 7
Catie Bargerstock 7
Megan Heeder 7
Amina Chatti 7
Lilly Keyes 8
Obi Onyeczili 8
Richard Nzokov 8

Linda McDonald Macdonald Middle School

Kathleen Miller Parks & Recreation Department

Rob Pulcipher Beckett & Raeder

Connie Pulcipher Beckett & Raeder

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April 24, 2006