Cesar Chavez Park:
At 38^th Ave and E.18^th, we came to Cesar Chavez Park, a small green space nestled in among a few old houses and city project housing units. What gives the park a special charm is Peralta Creek, which runs through the southwestern edge of the area. In 2003, Urban Creeks Council and the Unity Council worked collaboratively to implement a major creek restoration project: “The intent of the design was not only to improve the function of the creek but to create a more community-oriented space for the schoolchildren and residents that pass through the park every day." The result is a quiet respite from the harshness of urban concrete. We rode over a small bridge; the creek still looks pretty clean and the banks include native plants and trees such as buckeyes, oaks, and alders along with a diversity of native groundcover plants and shrubs such as monkey flower, blue elderberry, California lilac, and coyote bush. The Urban Creeks Council worked closely with the community on the restoration process to alleviate the drug and crime activities that went on in the creek’s culvert.