Do you have a favourite city park?

June 12, 2001 9:53 AM

Do you have a favourite city park? Nominate it for the Great Parks/Great Cities Awards, to be presented this July in New York. And read about Dufferin Grove Park in Toronto; neighbors came together to help the city manage the park when they found out that the Parks Department had allotted no money for its upkeep.
posted by tranquileye (19 comments total)

Two favourites: Stanley Park in Vancouver and Mount Royal Park in Montreal. Mount Royal was planned by Frederick Law Olmsted who also did New York's Central Park.
posted by riley370 at 10:24 AM on June 12, 2001

forest park in portand baby!

the only city park i've ever gotten lost in.

funny. i think portland has both the biggest and the smallest city parks in america.
posted by jcterminal at 10:46 AM on June 12, 2001

Bidwell Park in Chico, CA, and Lithia Park in Ashland, OR.

From the Bidwell Park page:

Today, the total Park size is 3,670 acres (nearly 11 miles in length), making it the third largest municipal park in the United States. South Mountain Park in Phoenix, Arizona is the largest municipal park at 16,500 acres and Griffith Park in Los Angeles is the second largest at 4,107 acres.

Sorry, Portland.
posted by OneBallJay at 10:56 AM on June 12, 2001

My vote is for two great parks -- the third largest park on the eastern seaboard (since size apparently counts) Schenley Park, and Frick Park in Pittsburgh, PA.
posted by Dreama at 11:09 AM on June 12, 2001

Central Park is always great. This new site might be better to look at, though.
posted by Cavatica at 11:10 AM on June 12, 2001

San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, especially the Japanese Tea Garden.
posted by jameschandler at 11:36 AM on June 12, 2001

Piedmont Park has my vote, but mainly since I can walk there. I'd better go get it on the list.
posted by trox at 12:20 PM on June 12, 2001

Atlanta's Piedmont Park is a very nice place. Or anyway I remember it that way; I moved away before anyone could pave over Oak Hill with ampitheatre seating the way they were threatening to do a while back.

DC's Rock Creek Park is amazing. It seems to have wandered down out of the mountains an hour west and planted itself in the middle of the city, resident deer population and all.

And it was a wonderful surprise to go to San Francisco for Web99 and discover this wonderful little park behind the Moscone Convention Center---it's called Yerba Buena Gardens, and it's got the most amazing grass on the planet. I bought sandals while on my trip just so I could squirm my toes around in that springy green heaven. A snapshot here if you can stand the self-link. I'm sure SF has lots of pretty places where you can go sit on the grass in the sun, but whoever thought to tuck such an appealing one right by the convention center knew something about snaring the hearts of hapless tourists.
posted by Sapphireblue at 2:15 PM on June 12, 2001

jcterminal - not sure about Portland having the largest city park in North America. The locals here in Vancouver would insist that honour goes to Stanley Park. Which is pretty damn huge.
posted by pascal at 3:07 PM on June 12, 2001

London hasn't had a mention so far. There are several large parks, which make it one of the greener cities on the planet. Richmond Park in particular is of a similar scale to Stanley Park (couldn't say which is bigger.)
But my favorite London park is probably Waterlow Park, in Highgate, next to the cemetary which is famous for being Karl Marx' final resting place. I spent many a weekend afternoon chilling out there when I lived in nearby Crouch End.
posted by pascal at 3:14 PM on June 12, 2001

A map of Stanley Park.
posted by Cavatica at 3:39 PM on June 12, 2001

Ault Park in Cincy. The car show and flower show are great but a wedding there would be grand.

Also French Park and Krohn Conservatory
posted by Mick at 3:49 PM on June 12, 2001

Forest Park in Portland is the largest wilderness area in the world which is entirely within city limits.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:48 PM on June 12, 2001

Also, Mt. Tabor Park in Portland is the only park in North America of which I'm aware (and I think in the world) which contains a dormant volcano -- within city limits.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:51 PM on June 12, 2001

Gotta be Prospect Park in Providence, Rhode Island. Roger Williams doing the funky chicken inspired me while at school at RISD.


posted by machaus at 8:39 PM on June 12, 2001

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (aka Golden Gate Park) is the largest urban national park in the world. The total park area is 74,000 acres of land and water. Approximately 28 miles of coastline lie within its boundaries. It is nearly two and one-half times the size of San Francisco.
posted by brian at 10:40 PM on June 12, 2001

OK, I was wrong. According to the City of Vancouver site, Stanley Park is the 3rd largest urban park in North America at 1000 acres. Which is considerably smaller than some of the numbers bandied about here.
I suspect that there's some vagueness in the definition of "urban park". If you're just talking about "within municipal boundaries", there's always the 12,800 acre Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve. Forget deer - it has bears and cougars in it. And some quality blading :-)
posted by pascal at 11:11 PM on June 12, 2001

Did anyone else have a problem reading this web site (CSS used 8 pt. type)?? I sent them an email, along with a sample of their style sheet.

I'm getting tired of this.
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 6:50 AM on June 13, 2001

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is not the same thing as Golden Gate Park. In fact, I'm not even sure that Golden Gate Park is part of the GGNRA.

Most of the GGNRA is outside city limits, so I don't think it's fair to call it an "urban park" (despite what the website says).
posted by mcguirk at 3:25 PM on June 13, 2001