On Wednesday, July 30th we held a meeting regarding Ghent’s green spaces. City officials were invited and we had a great showing. This was an initial meeting to get a dialog started between the GNL and the city regarding what many see as Ghent’s neglected public spaces. It is true that this is a citywide problem, but as the GNL our focus is naturally our neighborhood.

The meeting was very informative and our hope is that this will jump start a more careful approach to caring for Ghent’s public areas, and an understanding from the city that this care is not a luxury but a necessity for our community and any Norfolk community.

While we have a lot of work to do, we are hopeful our concerns will be addressed and in a timely fashion. The next meeting will be Wednesday October 22nd at 6PM at Fred Heutte Garden. This meeting will hone in on specific issues and how to solve them, including hydration for plantings, a regular weed and mulch schedule and creating plans for our spaces. Again, as our team travels we are always surprised at how other cities take care of their green spaces and seem to understand how important something that might seem trivial truly is. Creating social capital through amenity filled parks is not new, but our country is taking this lesson to heart. It’s time Norfolk did too.

Below is the Slideshow shared at the meeting. We invite you to email us with any questions (admin@ghentneighborhoodleague.org)

Below is a sampling of complaints Board members of the GNL have received. These complaints arrive via email, social media and through conversation.

The Trust for Public Land is a trusted resource for information about US public green spaces. The City of Norfolk hired the Trust for Public Land to examine our park system and suggest improvements in 2004. That study is quoted later in this presentation. None of the advisement was adopted, and Norfolk’s green spaces are in much worse shape than they were 20 years ago.

The graph below is current.

Norfolk is in the bottom 10% of per capita funding for public green spaces nationwide. This is an allocation issue primarily, despite protestations from a city elected official to the contrary. Having an inept system in place for hiring and the spending of funding does not mean more funding isn’t needed. It means an overhaul in hiring and oversight is needed and our city should at the very least work to find parity with our neighbors. Virginia Beach and Chesapeake spend twice as much per capita as Norfolk on public green spaces and it shows. Surrounding communities do not appear to have difficulty finding landscape maintenance workers and specialists.

Meanwhile, Norfolk announces very expensive community centers that fall under the Parks and Rec umbrella. If there is money to fund 65 million dollar rec centers with lazy rivers and state of the art libraries, where is the funding for watering trucks (Norfolk used to have five in operation-now it has none), new plantings in public spaces (haven’t seen those in years as blank spots grow and tree canopy disappears), and regular mulching and weeding. Where is the proper, thoughtful, well trained green space maintenance? The cost of these expected and needed efforts pales in comparison to the large building projects, and proper implementation of these efforts would positively affect all of Norfolk, for residents and visitors alike.

Because Parks and Rec wears so many hats (Cultural facilities, Libraries, Nauticus and the zoo, etc.) It seems that basic maintenance has been forgotten. In particular since Covid. This interdepartmental competition between projects seems to mean the less glamorous efforts are almost completely overlooked. Unfortunately, this situation has created a Norfolk that looks embarrassingly unkempt and unmaintained. First impressions are important. Norfolk seems to have forgotten that lesson.

This brochure was found at the Architectural Review Board Office. A major refreshing of Colley Avenue was planned for the early 2000s, including placing overhead wires underground, new, historically accurate signage, landscaping, large planters, new streetlights, and more. A brochure was printed, major players were named, a groundbreaking event was planned and then nothing happened………

It’s no secret that Norfolk’s population has been dropping yearly for decades. While it would be simple to suggest that the way Norfolk looks, the aesthetics of its public face, are the reason, it is part of a larger issue, for sure. Nonetheless, the way a community looks is very important to its overall impression. Every day thousands of people come to work at our largest employers, Sentara Norfolk General, and the Department of Defense, and every day those employees leave to go home to Virginia Beach or Chesapeake. When people look around and see weedy, unkempt chaos it’s only natural for them to wonder ‘If this city doesn't care about something so simple to fix, what do they care about?’

In this quote from the 2004 Trust for Public Land Report for Norfolk, the goal is a better park and public space system that supports its citizens, creates safe third spaces and reflects the potential Norfolk has to be a green space leader. None of the suggestions in the report were adopted by the city.

A small collage of the constant daily reminders that Ghent is being overlooked by the city. Broken, damaged bollards an eyesore on Llewellyn and Olney, trash in the Hague constantly, weeds in every planted bed, plants missing and not replaced.

Olney Rd. used to be one of the loveliest Boulevards in Norfolk, connecting the Chrysler Museum and Norfolk General (both visited by thousands weekly). Now it is bare, unmulched, the trees are in terrible condition, no new plants have been filled in in years. Stone Garden Park, one of the sections of Stockley Gardens, used to be beautifully planted and maintained by the city. Now it is a weed and litter patch. The expense to replant and maintain these important areas in Ghent, which are highly visible to our city visitors, would be minimal. But nope, they continue to look blighted and ignored.

Blair Middle School appears to have a homeless encampment. The city has been made aware of this and done nothing.

Our project mascot, the seven foot weed on Olney Rd. The sorry condition of Stone Garden Park. Again, little investment, huge payoff to bring these spaces back to their former standards of care.

A community member has taken it upon himself to drill into ancient live oaks to create an unsafe playground for children. The city has been notified but it’s still there. While we applaud his ingenuity, no individual citizen has the right to materially change public property. Period.

Of course this isn’t just happening in Ghent. Our prime time thoroughfare from the highway through downtown down Waterside Drive is a messy weed patch. No mulch, diseased plants, impressive weeds.

Community volunteers at Stone Garden Park. We have been trying to get the city to turn on the water there for two years. New plants will not survive without hydration during our hot seasons, especially with wind blowing off the water. All we hear is silence regarding this. We have a professional plan and a grant proposal in place, but we can’t move without water. We’re literally doing the city’s job and still no forward motion. And a postcard of what Stockley Gardens used to look like. Healthy, beautiful, well planted, attractive walkways.

Parks without amenities are just walk through spaces. A place to rest, a place to get a drink of water, a picnic table to eat outdoors, hydration for plants and pups and other things are what make parks sing. To create community you must have a reason to linger in a park, be it playground equipment, athletic space or leisure space. Ghent has very little reason to linger in its green spaces. Opportunity lost.

The city of Norfolk used to have five operating watering trucks. It has had zero for years. The funding to repair or replace the trucks has actually been in the budget and gone unused. You cannot plant new plants in most city real estate without access to water, which isn’t available in most verges, any boulevard centers and many pocket parks. This is why we have seen zero replanting of diseased or dead plants. We have seen zero trees being replaced. At our meeting this issue was treated very cavalierly. City of Norfolk, MOST CITIES OF ANY SIZE HAVE WATERING TRUCKS. It’s not some weird luxury request. And it’s definitely a chicken egg thing. You must have hydration before you plant. The GNL received a $7500 grant to plant Mowbray Arch. 90% of the plants died due to drought thanks to no access to water. Do better Norfolk!

Additional information concerning the need for water trucks.

We will be speaking out at City Council meetings moving forward. We were cautioned to not specifically mention Ghent, as City Council Members are understandably territorial and may deny Ghent needed funding. While we understand the sentiment, below is the most current online list of the city’s parks and rec projects. Almost every ward but Ghent is represented with a major project. There is nothing listed for Ghent, including the repairs to the Hague Seawall. And excepting the seawall, which is dangerous and drastically damaged, we have no requests for major projects. We just want our already existing green spaces, with their great bones and potential, rehabbed and better maintained. Playing whack-a-mole with chaos is no way to spend taxpayers money. We request sustained, thoughtful maintenance and amenity filled parks. We request that for all of Norfolk. This is not a major project issue, it is a maintenance issue. There seems to be a very scattershot maintenance program and

We have a corps group of willing volunteers who are eager to make Ghent Beautiful. Through our monthly cleanups, the Van Wyck Project, the Blueberry Lab and plans for Stockley Gardens and Stone Garden Park we have indicated extreme willingness to jump in and volunteer. But we can’t do it alone. We have waited years for access to water, we have followed the city’s directives on professional designs, fundraising and volunteer procuring. We are not being met halfway.