Saint John's Rainbow Park being significantly reduced to build new school
New school in south end will mean a smaller park after construction is finished
Large sections of Rainbow Park — an area built to provide recreation space and a playground for people living in Saint John's south end, an area with high levels of poverty — will be removed to build a new school.
When the new school is built, there will still be a park space, but it will be smaller and with restrictions on local use.
The new school, which will educate about 450 students, is being built to replace the Prince Charles and St. John the Baptist/King Edward schools.
St. John the Baptist/King Edward School is on St. James Street in the lower south end and Prince Charles School is on Union Street, next to Prince Edward Square.
After construction, community members who aren't students will only be able to use the park outside of school hours, according to Saint John's Shape Your City website.
The new school will be bordered by St. James Street, Sydney Street and Charlotte Street, according to Marc Dionne, director of parks and public works.
Dionne said that all existing trees will be cut down. New trees, however, will be planted.
"The Rainbow Park playground is going to be removed as part of the new school footprint," Dionne said in a recent interview.
The existing Jumpstart playground will remain, as will the splash pad.
"When we revitalize this area, we're also going to include a new tiny tots playground [and] some green space for the public to sit," Dionne told Information Morning Saint John.
Several key elements of the park will also be reinstated, he said, including the community gardens, dog park and the Turner Brewer Memorial.
The Turner Brewer Memorial is a memorial garden in honour of John Turner and Jacqueline Brewer, who died separately in the mid-1990s as a result of parental abuse. The memorial was put up in 2017, about 20 years after their deaths.
The park used to have a plaque in their memory, which mysteriously disappeared years ago.
The city has long a development plan for the area, but work has only recently begun.
Dionne said the plan's first stage will be removing trees to make room. Next, the city will revitalize the corner between Broad Street, Charlotte Street and Sydney Street.
The group that runs the south end community centre PULSE (People United in the Lower South End) is keeping an eye on the changes at Rainbow Park.
In a statement, centre chair Heather Chase expressed pleasure for the "ongoing investments" and "the development of the new school," but said the community must be kept aware of all changes to the neighbourhood and be "actively involved" in the process.
"We are particularly looking forward to continued dialogue on several key issues, including the community garden, the Brewer-Turner Memorial, replacement of affordable housing units, and the impact of the new school on recreational assets and playground equipment," the statement said.
Chase said the group understands restricted access to playground equipment for safety reasons, but also hopes the city continues to work with them to maximize benefits.
Details of the plans are available on the Shape Your City site.
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