I'm running a poll about city parks. Which park do you think is the best city park in the US. Personally, I like Fairmount Park, and the reason is because it's very scenic, you can drive around Kelly Drive and see everything from the Art Museum, boat crews, joggers, people, and the Schuykill River, and there seems to be a lot of life in that park, too, especially in the summer. Just give me your opinions.

My vote would be for either Griffith Park in LA, or the Emerald Necklace in Boston.

http://www.ci.la.ca.us/RAP/grifmet/griffith.htm

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Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian. - Robert Orben

My neighborhood park in Denver - and one of the lovliest anywhere

Washington Park

Location:
A true haven for fitness enthusiasts. Located at S. Downing St. & E. Louisiana Ave., this park features a recreation center with indoor pool, bicycle/pedestrian pathway, boating, a crushed granite jogging path, fitness course, fishing, horseshoe pit, indoor pool, lawn bowling/croquet, soccer field, tennis courts, lighted tennis courts, two playgrounds, four picnic sites, boathouse pavilion, two lakes, 1/2 basketball court, two major flower gardens, and a youth fishing pond.
National Historic Landmark:
City Ditch, a National Historic Landmark, flows across the park and provides water for irrigation. One notable statue is Wynken, Blynken and Nod, a memorial to Denver poet Eugene Field who wrote "Dutch Lullaby" depicting three children who "one night sailed off in a wooden shoe of crystal light." Not too far from the statue is a small white-frame cottage which was the home of Field during his residence in Denver, 1881-1883. The house was purchased for the city by Mrs. J.J. Brown and moved to Washington Park. It is now the home of The Parks People, a non-profit organization.

Flower Gardens:
Washington Park is considered to be one of Denver's most beautiful parks, 165 acres in size, acquired during the years 1899 to 1908. In this park is the city's largest flower garden. Washington Park garden contains 54 large flower beds in an informal arrangement with paths which lead the visitor through it. Flower color there begins with iris and peonies, and other spring-blooming perennials. About Decoration Day, approximately 25,000 annual plants are planted here. These are only some of the nearly 170,000 flowers raised in the City Park greenhouses which supply flowers for the entire park system. During the summer there is a vast and brilliant display of color, lasting until heavy frosts come, bringing many residents and visitors into the garden to enjoy it. The flowers are planted according to a carefully planned arrangement to present a balanced composition of colors and shapes. The arrangement is completely redesigned every year.

Near the large garden is an exact replica of the Martha Washington garden at Mt. Vernon, Virginia, constructed here in 1926. It is set in the park so that even the wall of the greenhouses in the original garden is represented by a stone retaining wall from which the visitor steps down into the garden. The arrangement of box hedges, including the little informally shaped areas, originally designed by George Washington himself, are successfully duplicated by the use of lodense privet, since box is not hardy in Denver. Early blooming perennials and summer annuals give this garden color over a long season.

Near the Mt. Vernon garden stands a scion of the old Washington Elm under which Washington took command of the Continental Army in 1775 in Cambridge, Mass. This scion is surrounded by an ornamental fence and is described on a bronze plaque.

But, all in all, I love Central Park. Played softball there every Sat. afternoon. Walked the paths other days. Took the dog up to romp through the woods. And best of all, wandered over to the Great Lawn or Sheep Meadow on Sunday with the Times.

It's big, diverse and central.

Fairmount is big, diverse and not central.

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“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” - Jane Jacobs

We should be proud of Fairmount Park. Though not funded well enough, it is truly a jewel. It is the largest municipal park in the world (though those wacky Germans like to claim the English Gardens in Munich are). That's impressive.

I don't disagree with that. It's especially great if you live nearby.

Central Park is nearby to so many Manhattan residents and workers. It's truly a unique jewel.

LM: A question. How much did you use it when you lived in Old City.

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“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” - Jane Jacobs

What he said. For about the last dozen years Central Park has been my favorite place to be in the summertime and most years I've gone up to NYC almost every summer weekend, spending much of my time there in Central Park. Always enjoyed the jazz band that plays on Sundays just over the hill from the Sheep Meadow by Strawberry Fields.

The weekend after 9/11 I went up there, as I had the weekend before, not to see the destruction at WTC (in fact it was a year later before I ventured near ground zero), but just because it was my habit. The contrast was surreal - the smoke still rising from ground zero, visible from the train after we passed Newark, the overwhelming sense of sadness in midtown, with missing posters plastered everywhere and impromptu shrines on the traffic islands in Times Square. Central Park itself, though, seemed a refuge from the whole affair, save for shrines at the Columbus Circle entrance and at Strawberry Fields - people smiling, laughing and playing as though nothing had changed.

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Cheers,
Jayfar
--
“I am indeed well aware of the history of Conventional (sic) Hall, both globally and locally, and can assure you that we are carefully exploring avenues for its future.” -- Penn President Amy Gutmann 5 days before demolition began.

Wonderful memories of Central Park and some sad ones.

Softball, every Saturday on the Great Lawn. We shared time with Broadway Video (they had the for the two hours before we did so we played them for four hours every Sat. Like Ernie Banks said, let's play two. We never who would show up for them. Even though SNL was in reruns during the summer, any of the cast members might show up if they were in NYC, along with guest stars who lived on the West Side. Then back to Melons or a little bar across from Needle Park for more beers than we should have consumed. Luckily, I just had a quick walk to 72nd to be home.

Concerts - pop concerts like Elton John or Simon & Garfunkle. Even better, the annual Metropolitan Opera concert along with three Philharmonic concerts - free. Thousands upon thousands of people, all trying to outdo the others in the pre-concert spread they would serve. Some brought silver candalabras and linen damask.

Nuclear Freeze march - the largest demonstation in NY history (maybe even in anti-war history).

Tears in the dusk - standing with candles singing Imagine in the memorial service for John Lennon - on the site that is now Strawberry Fields.

Or simpler - walking my big goofy golden retriever and doing the Times crossword. Tennis further uptown.

The wonderul thing about Central Park is that the Conservancy really has claimed ownership for it - and since Thomas Hoving ran the park, through Elizabeth Gotbaum up to today, the stakeholders have mainly felt a huge responsibility for the park. Unfortunately, we have nothing like that in Philadelephia to love and care for Fairmount.

Fairmount Park is wonderful. But it needs a whole lot of love that it just isn't getting. And if they could somehow move it to CC.

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“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” - Jane Jacobs

Ah, Central Park in 1968. What a trip! Music, drugs, sunshine, and happy people everywhere. Is it still like that?

I do love Fairmount Park. It gives me the feel of the Appalachian Trail right here in Philly. Course I never been on the Appalachian Trail but that's what I imagine.

Gotta love 'em both!

Yunk - I'm throwin aside madgirl and fallin for you again. That's probably a song title.

Camping on Yasgur's farm . . . hanging on P Street Beech (in DC).

BUT - never been on the Appalachian Trail - I would have never thought that. Friends and I walked half - two friends walked it all and then headed west for the Pacific version.

New York in the 80s, had a house up in the top of NJ - on a lake. I could walk up the "mountain" in the backyard and be on the trail. Would walk for a few miles in either direction, then head back home.

We're probably boring the kiddies. :clapping:

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“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” - Jane Jacobs

You can surf in the English Gardens.
Has anyone nominated the Rock Creek Park?

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Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian. - Robert Orben