NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — After two years and more than $1 million budgeted to improve the grounds, Metro Parks will officially open Brookmeade one week from Tuesday.
Members of Reclaim Brookmeade Park told News 2 they aren’t convinced the park is ready to reopen as they have concerns about the return of a homeless encampment that had occupied the area.
“We’re very concerned [about] it turning back into what we were able to get out by working so hard for two years,” Tim Tomes with Reclaim Brookmeade Park said.
Dede Byrd has lived less than a mile from the park for the past 30 years. Byrd said she wanted to help form Reclaim Brookmeade after witnessing several drug overdoses in and around the area. She told News 2 she has used naloxone, an opioid-overdose treatment medication, on several people near the park.
“People were overdosing on the sidewalk and that’s what got my attention as a retired nurse,” Byrd said. “I thought, ‘What is happening here where people are dying now?’ This is the first time we’ve seen people die on sidewalks, not just inside the encampment.”
Tents and trash were cleared from the park, but Tomes has wondered if it’s enough to bring residents back to the area.
“There’s a lot of people hanging around there waiting on it to reopen — people who used to live there who were in housing,” Tomes said. “We’re not asking for a swimming pool or anything like that. We’re asking for very simple things: a pavilion, picnic tables, things like that — aybe a little dog park [or] something that would be worth going to the park for.”
Picnic tables were visible when News 2 visited the park; there was a $1.2 million budget to restore the park. In 2023, the city paid a design firm to create a master plan for the park’s reopening. However, Byrd said the park is far from its original luster.
“That park is so rich in history on every level and the fact that they couldn’t maintain it,” Byrd said. “We have severe doubts that they’re going to be able to maintain it now because there’s no plan.’
Reclaim Brookmeade members believe around-the-clock security is needed, at least at first, before the park fully reopens. News 2 reached out to Metro Parks for comment, but as of publication, there has been no response.
