Vanessa Macias remembers the first time she visited South Omaha’s Brown Park in the summer of 2015.
“Man, this park better be worth it,” the Gomez Heritage Elementary School teacher thought as she and her summer school students trudged past the baseball field and up a steep, grassy hill on the east side of the park. But when they reached the top, they found rusted swings, crumbling picnic table seats and a playground in disrepair.
“I didn’t feel comfortable letting (the students) on the slide,” Macias said.
The abandonment of Brown Park, located at 5708 S. 15th St., frustrated Macias more once she moved into the neighborhood, and she wasn’t alone.
Even the City of Omaha knew updates to the park were overdue. The 90-year-old park, known for its pavilion and a historic baseball field that’s home to Omaha South High School’s team, ranked near the top of the list of Omaha Parks and Recreation Department facilities needing improvement. But it wasn’t until residents came together with local organizers and began to raise their voices that the city got to work.
Now, about five years since neighbors first met up to discuss the park’s future, a new and improved Brown Park is open to the public. Families can enjoy a safer playground, more
parking, exercise equipment for adults, new picnic tables and a sidewalk along 15th Street thanks, in large part, to their neighbors who advocated for the changes.
Neighbors Lead the Fight for Brown Park’s Change
While canvassing South Omaha for elections in 2017, organizers with the Heartland Workers Center asked residents what they’d want improved in their community. Many residents told Jackie Prados, who worked at the time as a community organizer, that they had wanted to see Brown Park thrive for many years.
“We began to energize the community” around the idea of coming together to shape changes to the park, Prados said. Neighbors held meetings at the park and clean ups. Soon, the Heartland Workers Center connected with the nonprofit Spark CDI, which helped raise funds and manage the project. Then the groups connected with the Omaha Community Foundation and the Omaha Parks and Recreation Department.
The invested neighbors also made sure community members who would benefit most from a new park were informed about the process. Leaders of the efforts took a group of parents from Gomez Heritage on a tour of parks around Omaha to see the different types of improvements available.
“The kids got out and played at a new park in North O. They got out and played at a park in Council Bluffs,” Macias said. “They got to Brown Park, and they didn’t want to get out of the bus.”
Building a New Park Together
Neighborhood involvement was higher than usual for a project of this size, said Katie Swanson, the landscape architect and planner with the Parks and Recreation Department. Swanson met with people of the Brown Park neighborhood to create a master plan for the renovations.
“We ended up adding a lot more to Brown Park than we usually would for a park,” Swanson said.
The first phase of renovations, which includes the new playground, a picnic area with grills, more parking and the sidewalk, cost more than $500,000. The majority of funding came from the City of Omaha with the rest from donors and neighbors, according to Swanson.
When neighbors noticed delays in the project in the summer of 2021, they continued to rally together. The Brown Park Neighborhood Facebook page asked residents to call the mayor’s hotline and Omaha Parks and Recreation for updates. Construction soon continued and eventually was completed earlier this spring.
While most of the renovations are complete on the east side of Brown Park, long-term plans include sidewalks to connect the historic baseball field to the playground, as well as an amphitheater that will repurpose limestone preserved from the renovated Gene Leahy Mall for seating. Swanson said Omaha Parks and Recreation is still reviewing how much the remaining projects will cost.
For now, Brown Park’s improvements can serve as a blueprint for others in East Omaha who want to see change but don’t know where to start, Prados said.
“Don’t give up,” Prados said, as she sat in the new picnic area and looked at the brand new playground. “Now I believe in the power we have as a collective.”
Contact the writer at bridget@el-perico.com