Berkeley Partners for Parks/Halcyon

Halcyon Commons is a community-designed and initiated park dedicated in the summer of 1996 in a South Berkeley neighborhood to the southwest of the Ashby-Telegraph intersection, with Berkeley Partners for Parks as its fiscal agent. Once a twenty-eight space parking lot, the site of Halcyon Commons was transformed into a public greenspace following a four-year process of community involvement led by Halcyon Neighborhood Association. Community members participated in hands-on design workshops to select the chief features for the park, and secured the support of the Parks and Recreation Commission and City Council for the project. The park was funded through a partnership approach that augmented city funding with sweat equity and contributions from local businesses. Volunteers helped remove asphalt as ground was broken in 1995, and then worked side-by-side with city gardeners to plant trees and flowering shrubs and to lay sod in mid-1996. The park includes a tire swing, a community bulletin board, a community herb and flower garden, a wisteria-covered arbor, a grass field, and many trees and flowering bushes. Neighbors remain involved in the ongoing maintenance of the park through the Friends of Halcyon Commons.