bg: I'm amazed that you mention surfing in the English Garden. Are you thinking of that strange place where the river emerges from under the road and plunges down a kind of embankment, creating a wave that people actually surf? When I was there I came to think of it as the "permanent wave," since it's always there (more so when it's rained a lot and the river is running high. That's a strange and very interesting feature...almost as strange (and much more pleasant) than all the naked middle-aged German businessmen in the park, lolling on the grass, riding bikes (yuck)...

Anyway, I actually like the fact that Fairmount Pk. is not right in town, but lament along with Dave the fact that it's hard to access without transit. Dammit, we should have all kinds of special transit lines connecting to all the various attractions in the park! Trolleys to Memorial Hall, buses to Belmont Plateau, trains to the Wissahickon...I know, some of that exists already (you can take the 38 from Market St. to Belmont Plateau, for example), but only accidentally and none of these have been conceived as ways to get people specifically to the park. They just happen to go near/through it.