On July 19, young men from the 5/8 Club and STRIVE met with members of the Fifeville Neighborhood Association about restoring a trail that used to connect Greenstone on 5th to Tonsler Park and Cherry Avenue. The trail was heavily traveled decades ago but is overgrown and unusable today. We discussed issues like how we could make the trail safer and better known to the people in our community.
Trail considerations
On the safety of the trail, we tackled questions like, “Is it safe to go on with a bike?” “Is it safe to walk at night?” “Do we need to add lights?” Next, we talked about, “How do we make it known?” We came up with ideas like handing out flyers, putting up signs, or simply telling all our friends with the hope that they might tell other people.
Lastly, we brainstormed possible names for the path. Some we came up with included Greenstone Greenway, the Nature Cut, Keith’s Cut, the Prospect Path, Woodard’s Way, and more. The official name has yet to be decided.
The trail is close to Abundant Life but is not actually on our property; it belongs to Keith Woodard. He has the final say on whether to put the trail in or not. It would only take 3-5 minutes to get from Greenstone to Tonsler Park on it, which is quite a bit more convenient than the current 8-10 minutes. Plus many of us don’t feel safe biking on the very hilly 7 1/2 Street SW.
Next steps and how you can be involved
I hope you now have a little more knowledge and understanding about the trail. If you would like more information, representatives from the Fifeville Neighborhood Association will be at our Neighborhood Cookout this Saturday, August 24 to answer questions and gather thoughts from the community. FNA will also share about a paid opportunity to be involved in trail construction this fall if the project moves forward. The cookout is from 4-7pm at the White House, 782 Prospect Avenue. The young people involved in this project will be making a presentation about it at 5pm. We hope you can join us!
Cristian Torres Guzman is a sophomore at Charlottesville High School and long time Abundant Life participant, including a current member of the STRIVE mentoring program.
