I’ve had a soft spot for Redwood City’s Jardin de Ninõs park (located at the corner of Middlefield Road and Chestnut Street) even before, back in 2015, it was rebuilt with a focus on young children. Not too long after the park experienced its makeover, the city purchased a narrow next-door parcel (with a house) along Middlefield Road, with the intention of tearing down the house and using the resulting lot to expand the park.

The city did indeed tear down the house almost immediately upon completing the purchase, after which the lot sat idle for several years. The long, narrow lot proved useful when the city’s project to rework Middlefield Road between Main Street and Woodside Road got underway: it was an ideal location to stage materials and equipment. But once that project was completed, the lot again sat, untouched. Until a couple of weeks ago, at least.

This new expansion to the park has been designed with a different audience in mind: neighborhood teens and seniors. It will consist of a large metal-framed bandstand (which I gather isn’t intended for music, but rather as a place for educational activities), four benches in an “L” configuration, plus a walkway and plantings. The plan also shows six “cafe tables” — small square tables (with power outlets!) equipped with two chairs on opposite sides — along the sidewalk/bike path separating the park from Middlefield Road.

Recently, the metal framework (which will be clad by an artist and will “continue the artful elements in the park”) was installed:

I was pleased to note that a sinuous, accessible pathway will run the length of this new space, and will connect a new park entrance on Cedar Street (just off the right edge of the above picture) to a gate that will mark the division between this new section of the park and the more kid-friendly portion. That gate will be squeezed into the narrow space between the corner of the neighboring property (the house you can see in the above image) and the fanciful tile-encrusted bench/fountain that occupies one corner of the existing park. The following picture shows where that gate will go; it be located right where the yellow compact track loader is parked:

I’m really pleased for the residents of the Stambaugh-Heller neighborhood, in which this park is located. And I admit to a bit of selfish pleasure: I walk by the park periodically and can imagine that the benches in the new section will be an ideal resting spot when I am out and about on foot. Finally, I have to hand it to the city: a portion of the funds for this project came from the voter-approved Proposition 68, the $4 billion statewide Parks, Environment, and Water Bond Act of 2018.

As many of you know, the odd “Lawrie Duncan Park” (or “Lawrie Duncan Parkway,” as it was known for a time) along Brewster Avenue at Nevada Street, which is divided in two by Southgate Street, is no longer divided, at least for now: the city has blocked off the bit of Southgate Street that forms the division, and has added a bit of fake grass, a couple of picnic benches, and, for whimsy, three greatly outsized Adirondack chairs:

This inexpensive pilot project aims to both address some of the traffic safety issues that have arisen at this rather odd intersection over the years, as well as to experiment with better uses for this large parklet. The web page for the project includes a survey to get feedback from those folks who do, or who conceivably would, use the park, but that survey closes quite soon: on April 30. Thus, if you have any interest at all and have not yet filled out a survey, by all means click this link and do so without delay.

Sticking with the subject of parks just a bit longer, although I have yet to talk to anyone to get an updated estimate on when the project might be completed (I’ve been out of town for the past three weeks), I did walk by and around the Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center project and was pleased to note that the building itself looks almost completely done from the outside, with just a few points of touch-up still to go. Landscaping work is underway in earnest:

Work is also underway to finish up the pergola that will connect this new city building with the future YMCA building. That new building will of course replace the old Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center, visible to the right in the above photograph.

On the ELCO Yards front, there, too, all four of the new buildings look almost completely done, with much work now being done on the sidewalks and streets around the buildings. In particular, the new, wider sidewalk and the fully protected bike lane along El Camino Real have been constructed — although just in the one-block section between Cedar and Beech streets, at least for now (I expect both to be extended one additional block to the north, to Maple Street, as the residential building in that block is constructed):

And if you’ve driven along El Camino Real in front of this project recently, you’ve noticed that the islands in the middle of El Camino in front of this project have been extended and reworked somewhat:

Prior to this project, Beech Street (on the east side of El Camino) and Lincoln Avenue (on the west side of El Camino) didn’t quite align. The ELCO Yards project (through which Beech Street runs) has altered Beech Street so that it now angles a bit to the south and directly lines up with Lincoln Avenue. However, the city has opted not to allow traffic to cut directly across El Camino between the two: to do so safely would require a traffic signal, and with signals already located quite nearby just to the north and to the south (note the one at the top of the above picture; that is Maple street, whereas Beech now comes out at El Camino just this side of the brick-and-glass building), adding yet another signal at Beech/Lincoln would likely cause additional slowdowns along El Camino. Thus, the new island, which is designed to prevent cars from cutting straight across between Beech and Lincoln while still allowing northbound El Camino traffic to make the left turn onto Lincoln Avenue.

Elsewhere within the ELCO Yards project, the restaurant building that will one day operate at the corner of Main and Chestnut streets continues to make great progress:

This new building, of course, will not be orange; that is just the insulating material that will like beneath the final exterior surface. Instead, this building is intended to pay homage to the old corrugated-metal warehouse building that used to stand on the spot:

Accordingly, I believe that the new building will be clad in corrugated metal of some sort. Presumably, like the stuff that has already been added just beneath the eave and down the right corner in the following:

I note that the bit of corrugated metal that has been added to the restaurant building matches the corrugated metal that clads large parts of the multi-story office building directly behind it, except for the color.

In other project news, I was greatly saddened to see that the 136-unit fully affordable housing project planned for the American Legion Post 105 site at 651 El Camino Real has been withdrawn. This project, which would have replaced the existing American Legion hall with a six-story mixed-use building (four stories of apartments atop two stories of American Legion hall and an internal parking garage) would have placed a good number of affordable housing units in an attractive building along El Camino just a short walk from Redwood City’s downtown and its Transit Center. However, I’ve been told that the developer, Republic Urban, had “financing issues” that caused them to withdraw the project. Here’s hoping that the economy will one day improve to the point where this project is again feasible.

I’ve only been back a couple of days in Redwood City and already I’ve found myself having to detour around the Marshall Street road closure between Jefferson Avenue and Main Street multiple times. I’ll be glad to see that street fully open again, along with the Marshall Street Parking Garage (I use both quite a bit). So far, the crew has dug a deep hole on Marshall where it intersects with Jefferson:

As a reminder, this project is to further extend Redwood City’s system of recycled water pipelines into other parts of downtown Redwood City. It will last about a month, meaning through the end of April at least.