Grape Day Park: Guiding Principles

Our Guiding Principles

The residents of Escondido enjoy the use and beauty of several parks, each unique in their location, size and nature, and are an integral part of our quality of life. Grape Day Park is distinct in its downtown location, place in Escondido’s history and urban setting.

As we embark on the effort to study and re-activate the park, the following Guiding Principles have been developed to identify general outcomes, and to direct an ordered process. The principals are purposefully general so conclusions will be the result of process and not of preconceived ideas.

Sense of Place. Enhance Grape Day Park’s unique social and cultural role in the city.
Creativity. Develop the park’s potential as a creative space for arts, culture and recreation.
Ownership. Foster the understanding that all Escondido citizens have ownership of, and access to, Grape Day Park.
Interaction. Re-establish Grape Day Park as a public gathering place where people of all ages, backgrounds and ethnicities come together for the exchange of beliefs and ideas and year round outdoor recreation.
Build Community. Creative a Grape Day Park that increases civic participation.
Security. Ensure that Grape Day Park is clean and safe.
Destination. Grape Day Park shall be recognized as a local and regional destination.
Intentional. All change to Grape Day Park will be thoughtfully planned and designed to strengthen its identity, foster pride in community, and to ensure that it will be Escondido’s primary public place.
Stewardship. Establish a sustainable citizen advocacy to preserve, protect and promote the park.