The Little Econlockhatchee: Union Park’s River
The Little Econ is the smaller sibling of the Econlockhatchee, a St. Johns tributary that bends through Union Park's parkland — the natural fact that organises the whole community.
1 minute read
Union Park’s name promises a junction; its river delivers one. The Little Econlockhatchee River — universally shortened to the Little Econ — flows through the community’s northern ground, bending through Jay Blanchard Park on its way to join the Econlockhatchee proper, itself a tributary of the St. Johns River. This hub’s photograph shows it as it is: a wide, calm, tree-walled Florida river, more lake-like in its park reach than stream.
A river as infrastructure
Most suburbs treat their water as scenery or drainage. Union Park’s river is load-bearing: the greenway follows it, the park is built on it, the canoe launches and fishing banks assume it. The Econ Soccer Complex takes its name from it. Even the community’s mental map runs on it — north of the corridor is river country, and the canopy along the banks is the greenest ground in the neighbourhood.
The wild edge of the east side
Stand on a greenway bridge in Union Park at dawn and the east side’s reputation inverts: herons working the shallows, otters on the lucky mornings, the river going about the business it has done since long before SR-50. The magazine’s other east-side hubs lead with a university or a town center. Union Park leads with a river, and this hub is content to let it.
Photo: The Little Econlockhatchee River. Photo: Mdnghtshdw, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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