By Adam Swift
Chris Alba was a champion for the city’s most vulnerable and in-need populations.
Alba was a beloved community outreach worker who died almost one year ago.
Now, the city council is supporting a request that the garden area where memorial bricks will be installed at Leach Park will be named the Chris Alba Remembrance Garden.
“I think Chris made a huge impact on this area,” said Councillor-at-Large Marc Silvestri, who worked closely with Alba when he headed the city’s veterans department. “That park itself, he’s been called there 100 times to help homeless residents living in the park and staying in the park. It has been a huge loss with the loss of Chris, and I think this is a memorial remembrance garden, a small area of the park, that could be dedicated to him to remember the work he has put in.”
Ward 1 Councillor Joanne McKenna, who co-sponsored the motion along with Silvestri, said whenever she got a call from a resident about a homeless person camping at Leach Park, she would get in touch with Alba.
“I would always get a call from Chris telling me about the person,” said McKenna. “Sometimes we don’t look at homeless people as people, but they all have stories and he would always tell me the story of the homeless person and what happened to them.”
McKenna also noted that the remembrance garden will be on the left hand side of Leach Park.
In other park-related news at last week’s council meeting, Councillor-at-Large Robert Hass, III requested that the mayor ask the planning and community development department to assess an ideal location for a skate park.
“Chelsea put one in last year where they were able to partner with Adidas and the New England Revolution for equipment for their skate park,” said Haas.
Haas noted that Revere did have a mini-skate park at the old Hill Park site in the 1990s that was popular with kids.
“A skate park provides an inexpensive outlet, it provides outdoor exercise, and a sense of community,” he said. “A skate park in Revere would also keep us in step with our neighboring communities like Malden … Winthrop, East Boston, and now, our neighbor in Chelsea.”
