When Saúl Narro was a little boy, he used to ride his bike through a gas station owned by a friend’s relative. Decades later, the gas station is gone, replaced by a playground. But the lifelong Highland Park resident won’t go anywhere near York Park, and Narro said his neighbors avoid it, too.
Longtime residents worry about possible contamination and point to how the now-park had a history of gasoline leaks that were reported to have contaminated the groundwater and soil in the 1980s and 1990s.
Narro, a neighborhood historian who self-identifies as being “born, baptized, and raised” in Highland Park, said, “you don't hang out in that area, especially at the park.”
York Park is a small park with a fanciful playground, a slide coming out of an enormous fake tree trunk, and a jungle gym decorated to look like a snake. Families frequent the park, and many folks come for the birria truck parked right out front that stays open late into the night.
There’s no trace of the park’s former life as a gas station. Newcomers to Highland Park wouldn’t necessarily know that hundreds of gallons of fuel once leaked into the ground beneath the elaborate playground. The floor of the playground area is covered in rubber surfacing, but the edges of the park are landscaped with plants and wood mulch. The soil is potentially just inches away from a curious crawling child who might unwittingly put the dirt into their mouth.