Bella Vista Park

For more than six years, TPL worked in collaboration with the city of Oakland and the Friends of Bella Vista Park to transform this bleak asphalt playground into a beautiful green park. The 1.6-acre park now boasts a lawn, trees, new play structures, a stage, and upgraded sports facilities. Students participated in art programs to help design the park and events like a chalk-drawing festival in which they depicted their dreams for the park on the much-loathed asphalt.

Bella Vista Park is located in Oakland's San Antonio district, which is densely populated and has less than one-fifth of Oakland's standard of four acres of park space per 1,000 residents. As the sole playground for the severely overcrowded Bella Vista Elementary School, the renovation of Bella Vista Park improves recreational opportunities for more than 900 school children and nearly 75,000 San Antonio residents.