Miranda Hine has made it her life’s work to change the reputation of Thornden Park.

“I’m always absolutely horrified with what students are told about the park,” Hine said.

Stories straight out of Alice Sebold’s “The Lovely Bones,” loosely based on her 1981 rape in Thornden Park, circulate around campus. Freshmen hear stories from peers and older students, and the rumors grow.

Although he often films in Thornden, junior film major Justin Ramer still has concerns with the park’s safety.

“You know about the rape, about ‘The Lovely Bones,’” Ramer said. “That gives me a perception of what it used to be.”

There are facts to back up some of these concerns: in July last year, three people were shot in the park and one died. Car break-ins and robberies do happen, but overall, she said, these stories are exaggerated and don’t justify complete fear of the park.

As co-president of the Thornden Park Association, it’s Hine’s mission to turn those negative stereotypes around.

 

Hine and her husband Ken moved to Syracuse in the early ‘80s. They’d previously lived in London and in New York City and were thinking of trading the big city life for something a bit quieter.

When Ken Hine got a job as a Syracuse University professor, he would walk past Thornden Park on his way to work. The neighborhood surrounding it seemed like the perfect place for the Hines to raise their young children, Miranda Hines said, and they found a home on Clarendon Street where they still reside.

The Hines loved the neighborhood, and they especially loved that Thornden Park was right below their house. But their neighbors weren’t so encouraging, telling Hine never to walk in the park alone. Instead, she would walk with her newborn through Thornden nearly every day. Hine said she’s never once felt unsafe inside the park.

“Our neighbors warned us that it was a dangerous place, but we thought it was the most beautiful place in the world,” Miranda Hine said.

Back in the ‘80s, Thornden Park looked very different than it does today. The carriage house was in severe disrepair, the paths were overgrown and the lily pond gardens were nonexistent, Miranda Hine said.

Perhaps by changing the way the park looked, Hine could change the way people saw it. So in 1983, she founded the Thornden Park Association and began recruiting neighbors to join.

One of those first members was Tim Rice, who lived near Thornden since the ‘60s and raised his children there, along with his wife. Over the years, he’s seen Thornden turn from an unkempt park to a place his family used as an extension of their backyard, and he attributed much of that to Hine.

“Though it’s a community activity, all through it Miranda has been the person who has really carried the ball on most of these things,” Rice said.

Hine organized gardening and other maintenance projects, borrowing successful ideas and thinking up her own ways to better the park. She reached out to SU and other groups to help them learn about historical, environmental and recreational aspects of the park. And when the deteriorating carriage house was slated to be torn down, Hine fought for its restoration.

Saving the carriage house was one of Hine’s biggest accomplishments, Rice said.

“It’s nice to have a person that is really devoted to this,” Rice said.

Hine was raising a family and teaching elementary school, but she found time to save the carriage house. Her effort paid off as the carriage house is now used for meetings and exercise classes and adds historical value to Thornden Park, as it’s the only remaining piece of the estate that once resided there.

Those living around Thornden Park now aren’t warning new neighbors to stay out of it; they’re convincing them to join the association.

Hine has also seen safety improvements firsthand. She once drove through the park at night and was quickly pulled over by police to see what she was doing.

And Hine isn’t alone. Junior film major Aryaman Khanna was once filming a scene involving a girl lying in the grass. The police stopped to question what they were doing and then checked the area to ensure it was safe to continue filming.

Despite the efforts of the association, Hine said Thornden Park needs attention from the city of Syracuse. Before the ‘70s, children didn’t need to be accompanied by parents to use the park. It was an unquestionably safe place for them to play every day.

“I wish those days would come back,” Hine said.

And she won’t stop working to make that wish come true.

Published on January 18, 2016 at 11:10 pm

Contact Kathryn: [email protected] | @kathrynkrawczyk