Midtown coffee shop Shine Coffee surpassed its Kickstarter goal of $22,000 Saturday morning, a day before its deadline, officially green-lighting its plans for the construction of a pocket park on Vernon Avenue.
Now that the fundraising is finished and plans have been solidified, construction is set to begin within the next month. The park is set to open around Thanksgiving and a grand-opening party will be held before the end of the year, Shine Coffee co-owner Laryn Callaway-Blok said.
The pocket park is funded by 312 backers who have pledged $23,160 as of late Sunday. The park will be designed by Kirby Hoyt of EDGE Industries.
Callaway-Blok is ecstatic that the Kickstarter was a success and the project will officially be happening.
“We’re thrilled. We think the vision for this project is not just our own, it’s a collective vision that we’re thrilled to be made a reality,” Callaway-Blok said.
The Kickstarter gained the support of various organizations and individuals around Phoenix, including Keep Phoenix Beautiful, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and writer Joey Robert Parks.
Keep Phoenix Beautiful executive director Tom Waldeck said he plans on assisting with the project by helping coordinate volunteers and consulting with the project leaders on technical aspects of the project, such as permitting.
Stanton has also endorsed the project, even appearing in the Kickstarter video to promote the construction of the pocket park.
In an official emailed statement, Colin Tetreault, senior policy advisor for sustainability to the mayor’s office, wrote, “The work of Shine Coffee is a great example of persons committed to positively impacting our urban form. The Vernon Pocket Park — inspired in part by PHXRenew — will help add vibrancy and beauty to the surrounding community. We wish them well in their endeavor.”
Parks said he wanted to support the effort because it was a project that would be beneficial for the entire community and would transform vacant dirt lots into usable green areas.
“I was thrilled to see a dirt lot aggressively be replaced with something green,” Parks said.
Parks not only supported the project by pledging money, but by offering his ghostwriting services in exchange for more pledges. Parks agreed to match any pledge of $200 or more with two or more hours of his consulting or writing services.
“The biggest reason is that I saw that they did really well in the beginning,” Parks said, “and then it stayed level for a while and I was concerned that they wouldn’t make it and I thought, ‘What could I do to help?’”
Parks’ offer was what eventually helped the Kickstarter meet and surpass its goal, with one backer increasing their pledge from $100 to $500 and another backer pledging over $1000, which turned out to be the last $1,000 necessary to meet the Kickstarter goal.
Callaway-Blok said she hopes the pocket park will serve the community by being a place for people to relax in the shade, hold casual meetings like Tai Chi sessions or parents’ stroller get-togethers and enjoy nature.
“You can put up all of the shade structures you want, but there’s nothing like trees. They not only offer shade but they cool down the ambient temperatures. We want lot of green space, non-concrete, non-asphalt areas,” Callaway-Blok said.
The park will have a French-inspired design with a desert influence, including trees and shrubs native to Arizona, according to Hoyt, who hopes this pocket park project will be a catalyst for others around Phoenix.
“The amount of vacant land we have in the city, I think there’s an opportunity to at least temporarily transform these vacant lots into something useful,” he said. “Hopefully this project will be the catalyst for others.”
Contact the reporter at pkunthar@asu.edu.
