Heard of ‘Tacoma’s skinniest park’? It brought this neighborhood together
An unexpected sight is nestled behind a Fred Meyer in Tacoma’s South End.
In between the grocery store and a row of homes, passersby will see color. And lots of it.
The intersection of South 72nd and South D streets has for the last two years been home to about 700 feet of murals, community art space and gardening plots – affectionately referred to as “Tacoma’s skinniest park.” Part of the South End Neighborhood Council’s effort to beautify the once-blighted area that began two years ago, some say the community space has had an outsized impact.
“The kids in the neighborhood can play in their yards. That’s huge,” South End Neighborhood Council vice chair Rachel Kunze told The News Tribune. “That was not possible three years ago, and that is amazing.”
Before the beautification effort kicked off, Kunze said, the area was known for drug activity, overdoses and crime occurring out in the open, which kept parents from letting their kids spend time outdoors. Some were considering moving out, not to mention the rumors that the neighboring Fred Meyer, one of few grocery stores in the area, was on the brink of closing because of the crime.
After the neighborhood council put about $140,000 and hours of volunteer labor into the beautification effort, it’s now a thriving highlight of the community. You can even find the occasional monkeyshine in the area, South End Neighborhood Council chair Andrea Haug said.
“The first day that we had a community planting party to come in and plant the trees, we just put out a general call to see who showed up,” Kunze said. “We had some sign ups. It was starting to hit 30. But on the day, 80 people parked in our parking lot and walked around the corner, and we all planted trees that day.”
The beautification effort has helped the neighboring Fred Meyer stick around. It donated $2,500 for a community block party in the space in 2023, The News Tribune reported that year.
“People could go to the store because they could walk down the street to get there, and they hadn’t been able to in a long time,” Kunze said.
Jamese Williams, co-founder of Together Tacoma, which provides mentorship to local youth, most recently brought a group of high-risk kids from the Salishan area to paint their own murals in the space.
She didn’t give them a specific assignment, and the kids painted whatever they wanted – including Williams, sporting her red hair.
“I don’t put the kids in a box,” she said. “I want to be able to be free in who they are.”
Especially with the recent surge in homicides that have often involved youth in Tacoma, she wanted them to feel like they could contribute to their neighborhood and literally be a part of it.
“They weren’t anywhere else but there – they were present,” Williams told The News Tribune. “Some of these kids, they’re around a lot. They’re seeing too much. Their regular environments are toxic.”
The green space isn’t technically a park, but its impact has registered on the community regardless. Kunze said the tenor of the 311 calls that come from the surrounding neighborhood changed drastically once the park was established. Instead of neighbors calling authorities to have homeless people arrested, she said, they’re calling to see if they can help connect them to resources that will get them shelter indoors.
The park did see an influx of homeless people around the time that the city of Lakewood implemented its overnight camping ban, which meant the skinny park was briefly home to another encampment for a little over a month in 2023. With the help of nearby residents and the neighborhood council, the encampment has slowly faded and its residents have been directed to resources to get them into permanent housing, Kunze said.
“Neighbors who know neighbors know who’s struggling, and they can kind of pitch in to help each other,” she said. “Neighbors who are completely disconnected from each other fall through the cracks, and that’s where evictions start to happen.”
“It’s born out of love,” Haug told The News Tribune.
This story was originally published May 9, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
