[1] At the time city planners envisioned University Avenue to become a sweeping boulevard similar to Champs-Élysées.

The use of the space as a playground gained little support with only one group including play areas for the around 600 students who attend one of the several charter schools or are involved in the YMCA.

Most plans focused on unifying the fragmented park with either turf or native planting underneath the 100-year-old[1] oak trees.

[4] [7] [8][9] Jay Benanav, the then local city council member admitted that he had not heard of the park when he was elected.

[5] The landscape architecture firm Coen and Partners and photographer Wing Yung Huie were hired in 2005 to design the park.

[11][12] Part of the impetus for the redevelopment of the park is the planned METRO Green Line light rail that would run down University Avenue.