A new park may not completely end the troubles of Westport, but with the help of the U.S. Navy, a cleaner playground could go a long way to restoring pride in the neighborhood.
“This place was just a big mess,” 17-year-old Kenneth Miller said of the playground at Annapolis Road and Indiana Street.
“But if people see this park as being clean, the neighborhood might keep it that way.”
More than 30 sailors from the USS Sterett joined Boy Scouts, community members and local businesses in pulling up damp soil and dead shrubbery from what residents say is Westport’s primary, but unkempt, playground.
The Sterett, the Navy’s newest 500-foot destroyer, is moored in Baltimore and will be commissioned Saturday. Sailors typically do community work in their cities of port, Navy officials said.
“It’s nice to give back to the community, especially since Baltimore is doing so much for us while we’re docked here,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Torell Beulah, a Sterett sailor from Caroline County, the lone Maryland representative at the event.
The sailors and community members dug up the soil around the swing set to expose the gravel drainage layer. Westport children said water would pool several inches high around the swings and make it impossible to play, even days after a rainfall. New sod will eventually be placed.
The sailors also helped pull dead trees, shrubs, trash and poison ivy — described by some as a “mini-jungle” — bordering the east side of the park.
Even the kids were involved, as boys as young as 6 grabbed shovels in the August heat and heaved dirt alongside veteran sailors.
The effort comes to a community troubled by low employment, crime and lack of attention from city officials, residents said. Meanwhile, 50 acres of the community will be developed into a $1.4 billion mixed-use project with residential, office and commercial properties.
“I think people are sitting up and taking notice,” said Bonnie Crockett, director of the Westport Community Partnership.
City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake came to the park to thank the sailors for their work. The city provided a Dumpster and workers to assist in the cleanup effort.
“There was a time when sailors came to town women would get excited for a different reason,” Rawlings-Blake said. “Now we have a good reason to get excited, in that they are helping our communities.”
