November 9, 2022
The spaces with fading white lines sat behind Sweet Ginger restaurant on 184 Cambridge street. While the asphalt was fine for what it was, it could be more. After all, with only a few spatterings of grass between the parking lots and businesses, there just wasn’t enough green. And no places for well…people. A spot outdoors made for people to talk over a cold beer with the sun shining. Maybe sit during a lunch break with take out from the local, independent restaurants nearby. Whether it’s for residents or a place for coworkers to spend time after work, having an area to gather was so important.
The Town of Burlington has parks, but creating more space directly in the town center was a must and the City of Burlington saw that. The economic development department began working with the businesses in the area to create the Town Center pocket park which sits between Sweet Ginger & Coldwell Banker Realty. The design was to create more space for people to walk through the town center, visit and support independent businesses of the area—many of which are immigrant owned and capture the entrepreneur spirit of the city.
Originally created to kick off the opening of the pocket park, Burlington has continued with an annual beer garden event held each Thursday in September to showcase local breweries and the businesses of Burlington that make it great. About 300 people attended each event and got to experience some of the rotating businesses that came to visit.
Each event had different vendors at each event making it an exciting Thursday night for many people who attended multiple times especially people who love trying the local brews.
The breweries who visited the pocket park were:
- Framingham’s Exhibit A Brewing Company
- Hudson’s Medusa Brewing Company
- Waltham’s Mighty Squirrel Brewing Company
- Woburn’s Lord Hobo Brewing Company
Each event had food served by local Burlington businesses:
A portion of beer sales went to People Helping People, Burlington’s Food Pantry. Music from DJ Jourdan Marion & Jon Sachs.
Participating Businesses who had a booth during one or all four of the events:
- Bay State Physical Therapy
- Coldwell Banker Realty
- Fitness Together
- Masterpiece Dentistry of Burlington
- Pizza Works
- Roots Yoga
- Schoolhouse Ice Cream & Yogurt
- Stride Fitness
- True North Coffee Café
Best of all, the town had a “Name the Park” contest and with over 115 entrants, our community member Mary Leach won! Her winning suggestion was to call the pocket park the “Community Corner”!
Interested in reserving the “Community Corner” for a popup or planned event? Please email ED@burlington.org for more information!