The recent destruction of the historic Mufti Hassan Khaled Garden in Beirut’s Tallet el-Khayat neighborhood points to a harrowing future for the city’s environmental spaces. The park will be replaced with a parking lot, to host some 2,000 cars, as part of a citywide effort to provide alternative parking systems. The project has enraged civil society activists, who view this as further encroachment on the city's dwindling public spaces. Another park will be rebuilt atop the parking lot.

Demolition began the second week of August, but after a few weeks of work, the Directorate General of Antiquities (DGA) sent a team to the site and work suddenly stopped. A source inside the DGA said that though nothing of archaeological value was yet found, work stopped because protocol had not been followed.

The DGA hopes that work will continue under the guidance of archaeological teams experienced in working with delicate excavation sites. “They cannot make any excavation work without permission from the DGA," the source said. "Perhaps we will find archaeology in this area.”

The gardens, one of a few dozen still remaining in Beirut, have long served communities living in the area. There is a growing concern that children, who often spend their evenings playing in similar neighborhood parks, will soon have nowhere to go. According to local resident and civil rights campaigner, Raafat Majzoub, “This garden hosts a very local and consistent group of people. Elderly, children playing in the evening, coffee sellers.”