Monterey Public Garden–Is it Truly a Public Garden?

Monterey Public Garden is a very aesthetically pleasing public garden filled with hedges in the middle of the garden and trees and lamp posts on inner border of the garden. The garden has 7 benches and 3 trash receptacles within the garden. The garden is well kept and not a single speck of trash can be seen on the ground. This might be due to the accessibility of the trash receptacle within the garden itself and where the garden is situated.

The garden is in between two apartment buildings, and on the same block as the 96th Street – Lexington Avenue 6 train station and a Starbucks store. It is in front of P.S. 77 and Samuel Seabury Playground. Directly in front of the garden, there is a fruit stand who was present on both days when I observed the gardens.

 

The first day I went to Monterey Public Garden was on a Monday afternoon at 6 pm. The weather is day was fairly warm and the sun was still out, so it was optimal for people to come sit in the garden. When I got to the garden, on the front bench on the left side of the garden, there was a young Hispanic lady sitting there. She was the only person at the park at the time. After X minutes, she left the garden. For approximately 10 minutes, I was sitting in this garden by myself. Then came an elderly lady and sat on the bench next to me. She had not entered the garden from the sidewalk. but from the passageway from the apartment complex located on the right of the garden. She left the garden after X minutes. However, while she was in the garden, a middle-aged couple came into the garden and sat on the circular benches located on the right side of the garden. After my 40 minute session, the couple was still situated on that bench.

I was deeply perplexed after I left the garden. How come only a total of 4 people visited the garden during a day that was almost 60 degrees and the time of day was optimal to take a small break in a public garden. In addition, this garden is very visible and open. For example, on the sidewalk, it is very easy to see and find a way into the garden. The way the entrances of the garden are (wide, very visible to pedestrians) seem to encourage people to come in. I hoped that in the next time I would go to the garden, then there might be more foot traffic.

The second visit I paid to Monterey Public Garden was on a Sunday at 4pm. Again, I stayed at the garden for 40 minutes to observe. I get to the garden and there was no one there. Only until, I reached the 20 minute mark of being there, then entered an elderly lady who sat on the bench across from me. She remained there for the rest of the 20 minutes that I was there. I was left even more perplexed than I was after my first visit.

Why was Monterey Public Garden not attracting as much foot traffic as one might except from looking at a public garden that is well kept and has a good layout design? One of the guesses I had was maybe was due to its connection to The Monterey luxury apartment complex right next to it. Even though there is a plaque on the side of the apartment complex that faces the garden, which say that the garden is a space open to the public, it might be so clear to the people who pass by the garden. People who pass by might get a sense that the garden is exclusive and not so open to everyone. For example, if I pass by a plaza which is open to the public but is situated next to a corporate building, and has corporate workers in it, I might be intimidated or reluctant to go sit in the plaza. I feel like this is what is happening to the public garden, preventing it from having a significant amount of foot traffic.

Another guess I had was surrounding the concept of public gardens itself. It might just be me, or people in my age group, but public gardens are not really a place that first comes into a person’s head as a place to relax or enjoy the scenery. People seem to prefer to go out to larger parks to take a scroll or cafes to enjoy their free time.  Maybe public gardens as a place of relaxation and congregation has come to it end, or it might be that we are in the middle of winter.

This situation is quite hard to solve, and I personally do not have enough information about the people who live around the Monterey Public Garden to see how to particularly solve this issue. For example, how can I reverse the usage of public gardens as a convenient, popular place to go relax? I feel like I need to analyze a few more blocks around the garden to see what other external factors might be affecting the foot traffic of the garden. Maybe it is Lexington Avenue. There are many shops and cafes close by where people seem to prefer to spend their free time at. Or it might be that it is the winter. The winter is not particularly the best time to go to a public garden to hang out.