Welcome to the Joaquin Journal

(Knight-Mangum Home on Center Street)

Welcome to the Joaquin Neighborhood Journal! Its our latest tool to help neighbors keep track of what's happening, issues they should be concerned about, and the positive things that are happening in our neighborhood. My name is Kurt Peterson, one of the two co-chairs of the Joaquin Neighborhood.

Our neighborhood is one of Provo's Pioneer Neighborhoods. It comprises half of the Provo Historic District, and sits just NE of our city's downtown. Our boundaries run from Center Street on the South to 800 North on the North, University Avenue is our Western edge, and 900 East is our Eastern edge. Nearly 15,000 people live in our 72 block neighborhood, which is located just South of Brigham Young University. The area we call North Joaquin is mostly populated by BYU students living in different apartment complexes and older homes. South of 500 North is "South" Joaquin, which has a mix of historic homes as well as apartments. Nearly 90% of all owner occupied homes in the neighborhood are in South Joaquin.

Our neighborhood elementary school is Farrer, which serves both our neighborhood and Maeser, which is just South of Center Street. It's boundaries also extend to 200 West in the Commercial Business District, and a piece of the Foothills neighborhood (to the East). The school, built in the 1930's as a WPA project, as been updated and changed many times. The land to the north and south of the School serves as a recreation zone for the neighborhood. 3 playgrounds, two outdoor pavillions, tennis courts, and a basketball area are located on them. It served as one of Provo's Middle Schools until 2005. The middle school which serves our area is Centennial, and our High School is Timpview. Both of these schools are in NE Provo.

Our neighborhood has 2 parks, though one is being developed as I write this. Memorial Park is located in the SE corner of our neighborhood, straddling both sides of 800 East. It is an old park, with large mature trees, and nice walking paths. Many of the evergreen trees planted in the park were put in after WWI, and were planted as a memorial to the soldiers from Provo who gave their lives in that war. A new playground is being put together in this park, tucked between several of these trees. The playground is meant to serve Toddlers and younger children. The other park, known to us currently as Joaquin Park, is being built at the SE corner of the intersection of 400 North, and 400 East. The city has purchased 3 homes for it, and is trying to buy the 4th. The first two that were bought have been torn down, and the land has been cleared and graded. Completion date is unknown at this point.

Provo City has a City Council in which there are 5 districts, and 2 City-wide seats. The district which covers Provo's Pioneer Neighborhoods is represented by Cindy Richards. George Stewart, a former Mayor, and Steve Turley are the City-Wide representatives. Our representative on the Provo School Board is Mary Ann Christiansen, one of our own! Put them to work for you!

If you have ideas, or concerns that you want addressed on this blog, you can email me at kurt_peterson@comcast.net. I encourage you to let me know about important events and issues that you would like on here. I look forward to your participation.