After two years, Brookmeade Park reopens with new security measures

The 14 acres of tree-lined trails that make up Brookmeade Park create a green enclave in West Nashville. It’s tucked between big box stores and a strip mall, and just behind a Bojangles drive-thru.

And, on Thursday, city leaders and a smattering of community members gathered for its reopening. For the past two years, the park has been closed to the public for renovations after a contentious community battle that led to the eviction of dozens of people who had long lived in an encampment there.

The reopening included the introduction of several new security measures: a chain-link fence surrounds the entryway and includes an electric gate that will close at dusk. Surveillance cameras look over the parking lot. And police will be on site during the day, as well as a few hours past close. Aerial surveillance will be used and Metro say trespassing laws will be strictly enforced.

Cynthia Abrams WPLN News

Following two years of closure and renovations, Brookmeade Park reopened with new security measures — which included a chain-link fence and electric gate.

These are measures to prevent people from returning to live here. Clearing the encampment was a major part of the renovation.

Rebecca Lowe, who lives nearby, says the new measures are a “real comfort.”

“A lot of people had expressed a little bit of apprehension about coming back to the park,” Lowe said. “Since it is 14 acres, that’s a lot of ground. And we live in a world where we just have to be careful. This provides us a lot more comfort and security to come in here and leave safely.”

Lowe was an original member of “Reclaim Brookmeade” — the group that advocated for the removal of the encampment — and a proponent of state legislation that increased criminal penalties for people who camp outside.

The security measures aren’t the only changes. Others include sealing the asphalt, replacing an overlook and a boardwalk, removing graffiti from a bridge and adding a swing.

At the reopening, attendees walked the trail to the revamped lookout and listened to a history presentation about the park’s Civil War and Indigenous histories.

Absent from the park’s reopening: Anyone who used to live there.