The Best New Urban Parks in the U.S.

[thelakelander]

Indianapolis has a GREAT park with museums and monuments and greenspace and great landscaping and sculptures, etc without having tons of people living around it.  It would equate to what the Klutho parks could be.  I think if the city focuses on just Laura Street all the way up to the park and touches up Union/State and redoes those parks, that would create all the publicly instigated connectivity necessary for the private sector to do the rest.

Here are portions of this space in Indianapolis.










Looking from Canal Walk's peoplemover station

[St. Auggie]

Jacksonville really needs to emulate Indy.  They have nothing over Jax, except for city leaders that "get it". That place was an armpit a decade ago, and now it is hosting Super Bowls, Big Ten Championships etc.  They are doing a great job.

[thelakelander]

The streets of downtown Indy are busy today....







Notice that the street looks like crap.  No trees, no cobblestons, plain sidewalks, yet still busy and full of pedestrians and street level businesses.  Indy works because most of their recent downtown development has been compact and pedestrian friendly.  Ours doesn't because our similar investments have been spread two spread out to stimulate the snowball down hill synergy effect.

[stjr]

Great article.  It hits home with posts I have made promoting salvaging much of the Shipyards and JEA sites as public spaces for our (hopefully) very long future.  Note that Brooklyn has had to wait over 140 years for an opportunity to build something like Brooklyn Bridge Park.  This is a result of a lack of vision decades ago.  Will Jax make the same mistake?

We don't need to spend tens of millions now.  Just dedicate the land, make a grass field of it, plant a few trees and wait for better times.  Then, phase in the improvements as funds and the public will come around.  This approach is noted in the article.  We can do the same.  So what if it takes a few years or decades to reach full fruition?  Again, you see parks in other cities getting upgrades over time.  They didn't all start out as urban park masterpieces.

This is a good and simple start for now:


As to a plan, what's wrong with just looking at what works in other cities and copying the best and most appropriate features and development protocols (including creative and public/private funding ideas)?

Future generations for hundreds of years will thank us for our foresight in "planting the seeds for the trees of tomorrow".

[simms3]

Lakelander, I was also thinking of that 3 block stretch north of Monument Circle where the Ulysses S. Grant Monument and war monument are.  Do you have any pictures of that area?  I think I saw some pics on here when we did an Indy "learning from" but it may have been on another site.

[krazeeboi]

I agree with others that a park doesn't have to be huge and expensive to be successful, nor does it necessarily have to be surrounded by residential uses. Although it's a totally different type of downtown, Charleston started building the 12-acre, $13 million Waterfront Park in 1989 which is now a great success:

[thelakelander]

Lakelander, I was also thinking of that 3 block stretch north of Monument Circle where the Ulysses S. Grant Monument and war monument are.  Do you have any pictures of that area?  I think I saw some pics on here when we did an Indy "learning from" but it may have been on another site.

I did not spend too much time in that space during my trips to Indy.  Here are a few images I took driving through that area:

[stjr]

Krazeeboi, I have been to that park.  I think our city leaders should go to Charleston for one of their Chamber trips and learn something about how to turn historic preservation and a walkable downtown into economic development.  A beautiful city with easily a week's worth of things to do and visit.  Just park your car and walk it.

[simms3]

Lakelander, thanks for the extra pics.  I guess they were taken during a super cold day because the pics I have seen of that area were taken in Spring or Summer and the park was FULL of people.  Regardless, it is absolutely beautiful and very well planned with the landscaping, design, layout, monuments, museum, and location right next to downtown.  I see the same potential in our Klutho Parks, though I don't see the initiative coming from the city to push for that.

[thelakelander]

^ It may have been at SSC or SSP.  The majority of my pictures of that space were taken during a Winter trip where the high was 27 degrees.

[fieldafm]

Good call on Waterfront Park Krazeeboi!

Also, good call on preservation STJR.  Doesn't Springfield remind you EXACTLY of Radcliffeborough?  A neighborhood of homes originally built by middle class citizens, just on the outside of the urban core, over the last 10-15 years that have seen a resurgence of beautiful restorations, and anchored by a very large medical complex?  The resemblane is striking.. and yet Springfield still has demolitions up the ying yang.  Why is that?

[DaytonOhio]

The is a great park in Dayton, Ohio called RiverScape

[finehoe]

http://www.yardspark.org/

[arb]

Speaking of parks, if the Friendship Fountain park comes out boring and uninspired looking, I am going to be very disappointed. Jacksonville needs to get the suburban look out of DT and start incorparating a more urban, pedestrian, and overal modern design into there establishments!

[simms3]

Greenville, SC has that great new urban park, too.

http://www.fallspark.com/