The U.S. Department of the Interior has agreed to a $375,000 grant to build a new Johnson Oak Park adjacent to Jettie Tisdale Elementary School in Bridgeport.
The funding is reportedly one of only eight such grants nationally.
Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch recently joined elected officials, community leaders, students and others in making the announcement.
The plan is for the city, acting with public and private partners, to rehabilitate a 4-acre project area comprising Johnson Oak Park and the grounds of the Jettie S. Tisdale School in the East End neighborhood of the city.
“This is great news for Bridgeport, the East End and the kids at Jettie Tisdale School,” Finch said. “In Bridgeport, we”™re focused on making our city a place where companies want to invest and hire people and a place where even more people choose to live, work and raise their families. Parks play a key role in doing just that.”
The city last year reopened the refurbished Pleasure Beach and 25,000 people used it. The mayor also cited a new Knowlton Park and enhancements to Seaside Park as positive parkland developments.
In October 2014, the city reported, a Fairfield University study found residential properties within one-tenth of a mile of a park in Bridgeport had, on average, an 8 percent higher property value than residential properties within the next tenth-mile from a park. Commercial properties showed an even greater gain in property value within the first tenth of a mile from a park, showing an 11 percent increase compared to properties in the second tenth of a mile from a park.
Other projects in this round of funds included an athletic complex in Detroit and a new skate park in Madison, Wis.
